Southwest Center for Occupational and Environmental Health

Contingent Workers Targeted Research Training Program

The UTHealth Contingent Workers Targeted Research Training Program provides financial support for UTHealth Houston SPH predoctoral fellows who have completed their coursework and are entering the dissertation stage. The program operates from a social determinants of health paradigm, with the goals of training the next generation of scholars to develop independent careers focused on contingent work and workers, and ensuring that research is accessible for communities by training students on community-based participatory research (CBPR) practices.

Contingent work, such as unregulated work hours and dangerous working conditions, have short- and long-term mental and physical health consequences, including depression, posttraumatic stress disorder, cancer, metabolic syndrome, injury, and death. Contingent work also contributes to poor social and behavioral health, including worsened family dynamics, low community involvement, and substance misuse. Perhaps most alarming is the cumulative and long-term effects associated with a lack of healthcare benefits, healthcare access, and ability to take sick leave, which results in generational consequences on income and health disparities. Moreover, a SDOH paradigm can explain how structural factors, like contingent work, are interconnected and influence individual decision-making processes. As a SDOH, work is considered a multifaceted construct that operates through sources of income and health insurance, working conditions and exposures, and occupational status, prestige, and power.

Application coming soon.