Social Sciences

The visitor in Barry Willer's office at the University at Buffalo was frustrated and deeply depressed. The man's wife had sustained a relatively mild traumatic brain injury, and he was doing all he could to support her. But despite his best efforts, the man's wife described him to friends as being "indifferent." He was at his wits end.

University at Buffalo researcher John Violanti, Ph.D., a specialist in suicide among police officers, is preparing to conduct a study on suicide risk among returning veterans. The U.S. Army yesterday reported a "stunning spike" in the number of soldiers taking their own lives.

A family sociologist at the University at Buffalo says this month's murder-suicides involving a family of four in Ohio and a family of five in California may be "just the tip of the iceberg."

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) has been identified as the "signature injury" of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. To meet the needs of veterans with TBI, the VA's Health Services Research & Development Unit is funding a $1.4 million, four-year prospective cohort study of Iraq and Afghanistan-era veterans, headed by University at Buffalo researchers at the Buffalo VA Medical Center. The results will be used nationwide.

People who lose a job or who are in the midst a financial crisis often are reluctant to talk about their struggles and may isolate themselves from friends and family. A faculty member in the UB School of Social Work offers advice and how to reach out to those hit by financial crunch.

Infants exposed prenatally to cocaine react more emotionally to stress and appear to have fewer stress-reducing coping strategies than infants with no cocaine exposure, researchers at the University at Buffalo's Research Institute on Addictions (RIA) have shown.

Local governments are reeling from the current recession, but not far off is another fiscal crisis of potentially catastrophic proportions. Over the next 30 years, nine of the region's largest local governments will have to come up with nearly $4 billion to cover their retirees' non-pension benefits, according to the latest UB Regional Institute policy brief, "The End of Local Government as We Know It?"

The University at Buffalo pumped $1.7 billion into the New York State and Western New York economies in fiscal year 2006-07, a figure that is expected to more than double to $3.6 billion by 2023-24, according to a new economic impact study prepared by the UB Regional Institute.

The voices of women whose stories are rarely told have been gathered by two scholars at the University at Buffalo to offer Michelle Obama messages of love, hope, admiration and support as she becomes the United States' first African American First Lady.

Using the bells and whistles of a state-of-the-art entertainment arcade, a University at Buffalo Graduate School of Education project aims to improve the driving habits of teenagers at the very top of the risk pool, and at the same time bring child and parent together for a happier, better functioning family.