Harnessing Knowledge from the Social and Behavioral Sciences to Develop Sociobehavioral Interventions that Address Children's Oral Health Disparities

/Abstract The proposed R13 grant seeks support for a conference entitled Harnessing Knowledge from the Social and Behavioral Sciences to Develop Sociobehavioral Interventions to Reduce Children’s Oral Health Inequities to be held at the University of Washington School of Dentistry in Seattle, WA in Spring 2026. The objective of the proposed 3-day conference is to gather a community of scholars, connecting social and behavioral scientists with applied dental researchers. We will convene 24 researchers (1 applied dental researcher paired with either a social or behavioral scientist from outside of dentistry). Each pair will engage in preparatory work on their topic before the conference, with the goals of (a) presenting a critical paper on the current state of science on their topic and proposed immediate next steps relevant to sociobehavioral interventions needed to move the field forward and (b) integrating relevant findings from the conference into a final paper. The papers presented during the conference will be part of a special issue on sociobehavioral interventions, co-edited by the MPIs (Dr. Donald Chi and Dr. Cameron Randall) and published in the International Journal of Paediatric Dentistry. Using a model that drives interdisciplinary collaborations at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences (CASBS) at Stanford University, the R13 grant will bring together social and behavioral scientists and applied researchers in dentistry to advance promising interventions that address the key social and behavioral causes of children’s oral health inequities, reduce unnecessary pain and suffering, and improve the oral health and quality of life of socioeconomically vulnerable children. Children’s oral health inequities will be used as a case study to generate a more broadly generalizable model on how to systematically harness knowledge from the social and behavioral sciences to address health inequities through sociobehavioral interventions. Project Number: 1R13DE035803-01 | Fiscal Year: 2026 | NIH Institute/Center: National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research (NIDCR) | Principal Investigator: Cameron Randall (+1 co-PI) | Institution: UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON, SEATTLE, WA | Award Amount: $18,000 | Activity Code: R13 | Study Section: Special Emphasis Panel[ZRG1 SCIL-S (80)] View on NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/11320686