Trio has promoted prevention of at-risk behaviors through healthy relationships
Three Seventh-day Adventist health experts were awarded the denomination’s Health Ministries Medal of Distinction for their ongoing research and promotion of healthy relationships to prevent at-risk behaviors.
Andrews University professors Dr. Gary Hopkins and Duane McBride were presented the award yesterday during a meeting of the Institute of Prevention of Addictions board at the denomination’s world headquarters. Child psychologist Kiti Freier Randall was unable to attend and will receive her award later this year.
Adventist Health Ministries Director Dr. Peter Landless said the trio’s research over the past decade has made a “tremendous contribution” to the Church and society. Through papers and scholarly journal articles, all three have promoted the importance of healthy relationships for reducing at-risk behaviors in young people as well as a stabilizing influence for older people.
“They have been giants in leading in this field,” said Dr. Peter Landless, Health Ministries director of the Adventist world church. “They bring meaningful and added credibility to the methods of ministry and prevention.”
Upon receiving the award, Duane McBride, executive director of the Institute for the Prevention of Addictions and chair of the Behavioral Sciences Department at Andrews University, said he was grateful for the impact his work has made.
“I feel very honored to have the work I’ve been doing my whole life recognized,” McBride said.
McBride said some of his most prominent research focused on the importance of family meals, saying they provide important bonding between kids and their parents. Kids who ate more meals with their families were likely to have lower rates of drug, alcohol and tobacco use.
Dr. Gary Hopkins, associate director for the Institute for the Prevention of Addictions, research professor of behavioral sciences at Andrews and adjunct assistant professor of public health at Loma Linda University, said he appreciated the award and was also surprised to receive it.
Hopkins was likely the first to study the correlation between community service and drug use. Research found that youth who engaged in community service were less likely to abuse drugs or become pregnant as a teenager. “There’s something about when kids focus less on themselves and more on helping others,” he said. His research has been published in numerous journals, including the American Journal of Public Health and the Journal of Preventive Medicine.
Kiti Freier Randall, a private-practice clinician and professor in the departments of Pediatrics and Public Health at Loma Linda University, said she felt honored to receive the award. “I am so privileged to be provided the opportunity to share the ‘Relationships and Well-being’ message with my global church family,” she said.
Her primary area of research and clinical work is with children who have experienced trauma due to drug-endangered environments. Her research has demonstrated that regardless of the pathway to risk, healthy relationships are the answer to boosting resiliency and well-being.
“We were created to have a relationship with God,” Randall said. “It has been rewarding to see the field of social sciences and medicine further validate this.”
