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    Health advisory on social media use in adolescence

    May 2023

    Senior Research Scientist Linda Charmaraman, Ph.D., co-authored a health advisory on social media use in adolescence released by the American Psychological Association.

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  • Homepage - Podcast Episode 4
    PODCAST

    Journeys in Youth Development Podcast, Episode 4

    APRIL 2023

    NIOST director Georgia Hall, Ph.D., talks to Terrance Cauley, Senior Director in the Department of Youth, Family & Clinical Services at Better Family Life, Inc. in St. Louis, Missouri. Terrance highlights the importance of offering historically marginalized Black youth opportunities for self-definition, and discusses how he does this through his work in out-of-school time programming.

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  • Homepage - Liberia conservation project
    NEWS

    WCW Collaborates on $5 Million Project to Promote Sustainability in Liberia

    February 2023

    WCW will lead the design of a social inclusion strategy to empower women and young people in the Liberian forestry sector.

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  • Homepage - having the talk with teens
    VIDEO

    Having 'The Talk' with Teens

    February 2023

    Jennifer Grossman, Ph.D., shares findings from interviews with fathers about how they try to make conversations with their teens about sex and dating less awkward.

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  • Homepage - wage gap
    NEWS

    The Wage Gap: The Motherhood Penalty and the Fatherhood Premium

    December 2022

    Sari Pekkala Kerr, Ph.D., discusses how the pay gap changes for parents throughout their careers.

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The

Wellesley Centers for Women 

is a research and action institute at Wellesley College that is focused on women and gender and driven by social change.
Our mission is to advance gender equality, social justice, and human wellbeing through high-quality research, theory, and action programs.

PROJECTS

by Erika Kates, Ph.D.
The Boston Globe
April 10, 2012

Yvonne Abraham's column provides a succinct summary of the key arguments for reducing our prison population: saving money, reducing recidivism, and diverting people to appropriate mental health and substance abuse treatment programs (“Correcting corrections,’’ Metro, April 5).

These arguments are especially compelling when it comes to incarcerated women. Almost two-thirds of the women sentenced to our state prison are diagnosed with mental illness (compared to a just over a quarter of male inmates) and many also have substance abuse diagnoses. The data show 85 percent of women’s offenses are non-violent and are predominantly related to their mental illnesses and addictions.


by Erika Kates, Ph.D.Erika Kates
The Boston Globe
April 10, 2012

This letter to the editor by Erika Kates, Ph.D., senior research scientist at the Wellesley Centers for Women, was published in The Boston Globe on April 10, 2012. Read the letter to the editor at The Boston Globe here.

Yvonne Abraham's column provides a succinct summary of the key arguments for reducing our prison population: saving money, reducing recidivism, and diverting people to appropriate mental health and substance abuse treatment programs (“Correcting corrections,’’ Metro, April 5).

These arguments are especially compelling when it comes to incarcerated women. Almost two-thirds of the women sentenced to our state prison are diagnosed with mental illness (compared to a just over a quarter of male inmates) and many also have substance abuse diagnoses. The data show 85 percent of women’s offenses are non-violent and are predominantly related to their mental illnesses and addictions.

Community-based programs and alternatives to incarceration throughout the state are providing treatment and support to women and their children. These are far more effective than incarceration, and show considerable savings in economic and social costs.

In addition, each day almost 200 women from throughout the state are held in the overcrowded awaiting trial unit in the state prison. Half are held there because they could not come up with bail.

We do not need to plan for hundreds more bed spaces for women by 2020, as the state’s master plan predicts. Instead, we need to develop more effective alternatives to incarceration.

 
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