CPRC

Past Research: Professor Rickert has been involved in three funded research projects on reproductive health and violence among adolescents and young adult women. First, with funding through a cooperative agreement from the Centers for Disease Control, Rickert and colleagues assessed unintended pregnancy, continuation and satisfaction associated with immediate administration of depot medroxyprogesterone acetate (DMPA) versus immediate use of short-term hormonal methods that served as a “bridge method” until later DMPA initiation. Second, through a similar mechanism, Rickert and colleagues were funded to examine common adolescent contraceptive use outcomes (e.g., continuation, satisfaction, and side effects) in a cohort of adolescent females enrolled in school-based health centers using three different hormonal methods. The third funded project was to develop youth-specific approaches to the identification, management and referral for relationship violence or intimate partner violence (IPV) within health care settings. Rickert and colleagues conducted an investigation of screening attitudes and expectations of young women concerning physical, verbal and sexual intimate partner violence, as well as attitudes toward health care provider screening and intervention. The second phase of this project involved a randomized trial of three IPV screening protocols among young women seeking care at an urban reproductive health care setting.

Present Research: As a result of the publication of their research on immediate injection of DMPA, Rickert and colleagues were funded by Family Health International to complete a similar project in Africa, examining the consequences of immediate injection of DMPA among African women. Also, with funding from the CDC-funded Violence Prevention Center at the Mailman School of Public Health, Rickert and colleagues are establishing baseline data on the occurrence and nature of dating violence in schools in Washington Heights-Inwood; this project explores the meaning of reports by young men and women of their own participation in dating violence, including the context in which violence occurs, the sequence of events leading to violent behavior, the nature of the participation of both partners in the violence, and the relative severity of outcomes.

Future Research: Dr Rickert plans to collaborate with Anne Davis of Columbia’s Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology to examine the nocebo phenomenon (reporting of nonspecific or vague side effects ascribed to medication) and the reporting of contraceptive side effects among a group of sexually-active adolescent and adult women attending a family planning clinic. This research is aimed at determining the validity of an alternative model for assessing side effects, namely that the psychological characteristics of users, rather than pharmacological properties of medications, better predict the nature and occurrence of non-specific negative side effects which contribute to medication non-adherence. This model has been demonstrated in other areas of clinical medicine, but has not been explored in contraceptive research where the personal and social costs of birth control discontinuation are high. We plan to use this framework to examine the contribution of three psychological characteristics (somatization, hypochondriasis, and depression) to the reporting of past and currently experienced contraceptive side effects as well as whether these characteristics are associated with contraceptive discontinuation. Rickert and colleague will continue their work on relationship violence among adolescent and young adult women and have several papers in progress, including gender symmetry among urban male and female adolescents, the role of violence and condom use at last sex, and the relationship between controlling behaviors and physical and sexual violence.

Professor Rickert's Departmental Biography Page