Congratulations to Michael Bazaco on defending his dissertation!

Michael Bazaco, a student of Dr. Fabio and longtime CIRCA collaborator successfully defended his dissertation. Dr. Bazaco examined perceived neighborhood contentedness and its impact on physical and sedentary activity in adolescents. He developed a measure of perceived neighborhood contentedness utilizing aspects of perceived neighborhood safety, familiarity and comfort. This was then measured in a large, nationally representative population of adolescents and evaluated for its appropriateness. Perceived neighborhood contentedness had a significant association with an increased level of physical activity in the population. This relationship was consistent across both genders and study waves. It had a smaller but still significant relationship with sedentary activity, as measured by screen time duration. This works demonstrates the importance of community factors on the behavior of adolescents.

Congratulations Dr. Bazaco!