Yasamin Kusunoki, PhD, MPH

Dr. Kusunoki is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Systems, Populations and Leadership at the University of Michigan School of Nursing and a Faculty Associate at the Population Studies Center (PSC) and Social Research Center (SRC) at the Institute for Social Research. Prior to this, Dr. Kusunoki was an Assistant Research Scientist at PSC and SRC and an NICHD postdoctoral fellow at PSC. She received her MPH and PhD in Public Health from the University of California, Los Angeles, with additional training in social demography and sociology. 

 

Dr. Kusunoki’s research focuses on understanding sources of gender, racial/ethnic, and socioeconomic disparities in reproductive health behaviors and outcomes during adolescence and emerging adulthood, particularly the role of young people’s social contexts such as their intimate relationships, families, neighborhoods, and schools. Current research projects include the influence of the multiple dynamic social contexts on young women’s risk of unintended pregnancy, the correlates and consequences of intimate partner violence (IPV), the trajectories of sexual violence (SV) victimization and perpetration among adolescents in middle and high school, and the attitudes and behaviors related to SV perpetration among emerging adults. She is also conducting translational research funded by the Michigan Institute for Clinical and Health Research (MICHR), the Injury Prevention Center, and PSC on the IPV and reproductive coercion (RC) experiences of young women seeking services in reproductive health clinic settings to inform the development of an intervention aimed at reducing IPV and RC.