Grant Funding 

Dr. Turiano is currently funded through the National Institutes on Aging (NIA) R03 grant "Personality and Mortality Risk in Adulthood: Behavioral and Physiological Mechanisms". 

The goal of the project is to conduct a coordinated analysis across 12 longitudinal international studies to examine the mechanism connecting personality traits to mortality risk. The project seeks to understand how personality impacts the behaviors and physiological processes that can over time impact health and longevity. More specific aims involve testing whether naturalistic changes in personality over time lead to engagement in more health-promoting behaviors and avoidance of health-damaging behaviors, as well as improvements in physiological processes. We will test if these improvements then lead to lower hazards of dying over time. Understanding how these processes unfold in such a large sample using diverse measures of personality and behavior will provide the statistical evidence needed to support the development of interventions aimed at improving aging outcomes.

Dr. Turiano is currently funded through the CDC center grant for the West Virginia Prevention Research Center. The goal of the PRC is to conduct applied research, evaluation of existing prevneton efforts, and to partner with the community to foster healthy lifestyles and resilience. The current core project of the PRC is based on the Icelandic Model of substance use prevention via the strengthening of communities. 

Dr. Turiano's role in the center is to conduct research that examines how early life adversity impacts development. He also assists other PRC members with statitical anlyses and engages PRC affiliates to increase research productivity that aligns with the goals of the WV PRC.

Dr. Turiano was previously funded by the West Virginia Clinical and Translational Science Institute (CTSI) with a pilot grant to study factors that impacted substance use during the transition to college. The College Student Transition Study (CST) was started in 2016-17 when the first cohort of incoming freshman were recruited for the study. They were assessed electronically prior to their arrival on campus, and 4 times over their freshman year. A second cohort was collected during the 2019-20 years (start of COVID). The main objective of this study was to generate pilot data for more substantial NIH funding to study the socioecological predictors of not only substance use, but also mental health, academic success, and career advancement. 

Dr. Turiano was previously funded through the NIH R21DA051628-02  project (Dr. Melissa Blank, PI). This project involved the secondary data anlysis of the Population Assessment of Tobacco and Health (PATH) study. The goals of the project were to understand the socioecological predictors of tobacco use patterns across the life span. Dr. Turiano's roles were to assist with developing research questions, processing data, and conducting longitudinal analyses. 

Dr. Turiano was previously funded (2013-15) through the National Institute on Aging (NIA) Loan Repayment Program (LRP). During his postdoctoral fellowship at The University of Rochester Medical Center, Dr. Turiano was qualified for the LRP for his research on the mechansims connecting personality to health and death. The LRP provided payments towards Dr. Turiano's federal student loan balances from both his undergraduate and graduate degrees. Check out the NIH LRP website to see if you are elgible to have your student loans repayed or contact a LRP loan ambassador to chat more about the program.