This is the first blog post in a series written by the 2024 recipients of the Duke University Libraries Summer Research Fellowship for LIFE Students. Umang Dhingra is a junior double-majoring in Psychology and Sociology with a certificate in Child Policy Research.
Over the past few years, I have been reflecting on my long-term goals, exploring my interests, and considering the issues I wish to address. A turning point for me was the Child Policy Research class with Dr. Megan Golonka. Through the classwork and numerous discussions with Dr. Golonka and my classmates, I discovered a thread connecting my academic interests—behavior, gender, development, economics, and quantitative methodologies—all leading me to the study of families. I became fascinated by how families interact internally and how they function as units. What intrigued me most, however, were families living on the edge—those pushed to their breaking points, whose very existence as a cohesive unit is under threat. In my classwork, I focused on families affected by parental incarceration, exploring its profound long- and short-term impacts.
While working on my incarcerated parenting project, Netflix released a documentary called The Program, which explored the lives, experiences, and legacies of the Troubled Teen Industry (TTI). The TTI is a network of schools and institutions, primarily in the United States, that offers alternative educational pathways for so-called “troublesome” children. These programs, branded as helping kids find the “right” path and instilling discipline, go by many names—Therapeutic Boarding Schools, Tough Love Academies, and Behavioral Modification Programs, among others. The challenge is that these institutions are heavily unmonitored, often slipping through regulatory cracks, and have become breeding grounds for abuse, violence, coercion, and child maltreatment. Because they often lack government funding, these programs are difficult for researchers to study and collect data on.
As someone deeply interested in families and parenting cultures, my lack of knowledge about TTI was unsettling. While I had explored family-institution interactions in my coursework and through lab and field research, witnessing children traumatized and families torn apart by TTI, without adequate institutional protection, was disconcerting. I wanted to use the skills I’d acquired at Duke to delve into this issue and to think creatively about addressing existing research gaps. For example, most research on TTI has been qualitative, drawing on oral histories and ethnographic work. I aimed to bring a new perspective that could make a meaningful contribution to academic discourse.
Thanks to the LIFE grant, I received valuable support from the Duke libraries and developed two research projects—one focusing on information sciences, guided by Haley Walton, Duke’s Librarian for Education and Open Sciences, and the other involving multi-phase data collection from government documents and the 2020 Census. Having completed the methodological aspects, including data collection and an initial scoping search, I plan to continue this work into the next semester as an independent research study. Under the mentorship of Dr. Golonka and the Duke Center for Child and Family Policy, I will write academic papers for both projects with the goal of publishing my findings.
A significant portion of my summer was spent interning in Washington, D.C., at a reproductive freedom policy firm. There, I attended various lectures, convenings, and hearings that broadened my understanding of the foundations and operations of TTI. I learned about family decision-making and autonomy, examined the government’s role in education, and considered how best to protect young people. My policy experience greatly complemented my theoretical background and introduced me to an important aspect of research: effectively communicating findings to non-academic audiences.
For anyone considering a social sciences-driven research project through the LIFE grant, my biggest piece of advice is this: building a strong network of mentors and advisors is crucial! As a newcomer to education research, I felt incredibly supported throughout my projects, and this research would not have been possible without the guidance of Dr. Golonka, Haley Walton, and the Duke LIFE grant. While the hallmark of an undergraduate liberal arts education is exposure to a broad range of topics, this summer allowed me to dive deeply into a highly specialized area of interest. My experience analyzing the troubled teen industry encouraged interdisciplinary thinking and consideration of diverse methodologies, expertise, and approaches to tackle complex questions.
Long-term, I aspire to attend graduate school and pursue a PhD in psychology and policy. My Duke LIFE project has provided me with a clearer understanding of independent research and has strengthened my ability to engage in novel academic thinking. By combining research with policy experience, I feel better prepared for a career in applied academia and as an effective “translator” of science for non-expert audiences. I am excited to continue developing my research from this summer and to use my findings to make a meaningful impact in protecting children from maltreatment and abuse. This experience has also given me greater confidence as I prepare to apply to graduate school.