Open Grants

Determined to Succeed? Maturation, Motivation and Gender Gaps in Educational Achievement
Funding period: 2018-2022
Subaward PI: Dr. Atika Khurana (PI: Liza Reisel, Institute of Social Research, Oslo, Norway)
Funded by: Institute for Social Research
This project aims to investigate the “maturity hypothesis”, i.e., that the gender achievement gap in education is fully or partly caused by differences in the timing of maturity between boys and girls. Girls typically enter puberty earlier than boys and by the age 15-16, the gender difference in physical, cognitive, and social maturity reaches a peak (Mustanski et al., 2004). Using longitudinal data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health), this study will examine the extent to which the gender achievement gap in education can be explained by gender differences in maturity. 

Closed Grants

Behavioral Effects of Teen Exposure to Multiple Risk Behaviors in Media
Funding period: 2014–2017
PI: Dr. Atika Khurana
Funded by: National Institute of Child Health and Human Development
Grant number: R21 HD079615
This project is examining the influence of exposure to multiple risk portrayals in popular movies and TV shows on adolescent health risk behaviors.   

Early Onset vs. Pre-Existing Vulnerabilities in Adolescent Drug Use
Funding period: 2012–2016
PI: Dr. Atika Khurana, (PI: Dr. Daniel Romer, University of Pennsylvania)
Funded by: National Institute on Drug Abuse
Grant number: R01 DA033996
The central goal of this project is to identify the neurocognitive precursors underlying dysfunctional forms of drug use and symptoms of substance use disorders during the late-adolescence years.