Transdisciplinary Collaboration as a Basis for Enhancing the Science and Prevention of Substance Use and “Abuse”

Abstract

Transdisciplinary scientific collaborations (TDSCs) have the potential to strengthen substance use and misuse research and prevention. Despite its growing prominence as a mode for scientific research, research on TDSC remains in a nascent form and its value to the field of substance use and misuse merits further exploration. The overarching purpose of this article is to examine the potential contributions of transdisciplinary science to research and prevention using conceptualizations, methods, and evidence from a case study of two university-based research centers. The article provides (a) a discussion of the societal context and historical developments that have prompted increasing interest in TDSC; (b) a definition and conceptualization of TDSC; (c) a methodological approach for studying TDSC; (d) initial findings from the case study that reflect instances of transdisciplinary intellectual integration and it examines implications of these methods and findings for future research and policy development relevant to substance use and misuse.

• Transdisciplinary research
• Scientific collaboration
• Nicotine dependence
• Collaboration constraints and facilitators

Notes

¹Tobacco use and nicotine dependence.

²Adapted from Stokols, Fuqua, Gress, et al. (2003).

³Adapted from Fuqua (2002).

⁴Social capital has been defined as a form of capital that develops through changes in the relations among persons to enhance mutual trust and facilitate coordinated action and has been associated with reduced high school drop out and decreased mortality. See Coleman, 1988 and Kawachi et al., 1997.

⁵References supporting investigators’ accounts of scientific discoveries will become available as publications are completed by investigators. For further information about the results and content of the scientific progress made at each center, investigator contact information is available at each centers: www.tturc.uci.edu and www.tturc.hsc.usc.edu.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Juliana Fuqua

Juliana Fuqua, Ph.D., is National Institutes of Health Post-Doctoral Fellow at the Institute for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention at the University of Southern California, working in preventive medicine and psychology. One of her research interests is conceptualizing and evaluating transdisciplinary scientific collaboration. She completed her doctorate in the School of Social Ecology at the University of California, Irvine in 2002.

Daniel Stokols

Daniel Stokols, Ph.D., is Professor of Planning, Policy, and Design and Dean Emeritus of the School of Social Ecology at the University of California, Irvine (UCI). His research has examined the design and evaluation of community and worksite health promotion programs, factors that influence the success of transdisciplinary research and training programs, and the health and behavioral impacts of environmental stressors such as traffic congestion and overcrowding. He currently serves as Director of the Transdisciplinary Core Research Project within the UCI Transdisciplinary Tobacco Use Research Center and of the UCI Health Promotion Center. He received his doctorate degree in social psychology with minors in sociology and city and regional planning from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1973.

Jennifer Gress

Jennifer Gress is a Ph.D. Candidate in the School of Social Ecology at the University of California, Irvine. In addition to studying transdisciplinary collaboration, her research interests concern social capital and interorganizational relationships in the field of housing and community development.

Kimari Phillips

Kimari Phillips, M.A., C.H.E.S., is a Project Manager at the University of California, Irvine (UCI) Health Promo-tion Center, in the School of Social Ecology. Her research interests include tobacco prevention, physical activity, and nutrition, using a multidisciplinary approach to better understand mechanisms of health behavior change and maintenance. Following her undergraduate education at UCI, she completed her master's degree in health psychology education at Stanford University in 1996.

Richard Harvey

Richard Harvey, is a Ph.D. Candidate in the Department of Psychology and Social Behavior at the University of California, Irvine. His research interests include stress reactivity and psychophysiology, psychological hardiness and stress management, and modeling transdisciplinary scientific collaboration of substance use research teams.