Hogg Foundation for Mental Health

Three UT Students Receive Hogg Foundation Awards for Dissertation Research

April 26, 2010

AUSTIN, Texas – Three doctoral students at The University of Texas at Austin have received an award from the Hogg Foundation for Mental Health to assist in their academic research.

Monica Faulkner of Pflugerville and Adryon Burton Denmark and Johnathan Fowler of Austin each received the $1,500 Francis Fowler Wallace Memorial Dissertation Award, which is given to students conducting research related to mental health. Only doctoral students attending the university may apply, according to the benefactor's directive.

Denmark is in the College of Education and is studying suicide among college students to determine why such high percentages of suicidal students avoid seeking help. In an attempt to increase the effectiveness of campus suicide prevention, Denmark will seek to understand factors that affect the likelihood of concealing suicidal thoughts. She will analyze data from a 2006 national survey of more than 26,000 students at 70 U.S. colleges and universities.

Faulkner is in the School of Social Work and is focusing on the outcome of pregnancy among youth in the foster care system. More than half of all females in U.S. foster care systems will be pregnant by the time they are 19, according to Faulkner. She will examine risk factors including mental health related to pregnancy for foster youth.

Fowler is in the College of Educational Psychology and is researching the effectiveness of collaboration between school psychological professionals and parents whose children are undergoing school-based assessments. Collaborative assessment methods may help prevent future challenges related to a student's mental and physical health. Fowler will study different methods of collaboration to identify their effectiveness in improving parents' understanding of their children's abilities and challenges.

The Hogg Foundation was founded in 1940 by the children of former Texas Governor James Hogg to promote improved mental health for the people of Texas. The foundation's grants and programs support mental health services, research, policy analysis and public education projects in Texas. The foundation is part of the Division of Diversity and Community Engagement at The University of Texas at Austin.