James R. McDonell

Phone: 864.250.4663
Email: jmcdnll@clemson.edu

James R. McDonell (BA, Methodist; MSW, North Carolina; PhD, Columbia) is Interim Director of the Institute and Associate Professor of Sociology. Prof. McDonell’s work focuses primarily on neighborhood indicators of child safety and family well-being.  He has particular interests in child maltreatment, adolescent dating violence, and teen pregnancy

Prof. McDonell led a 3-year research demonstration to examine the effectiveness of a comprehensive, community-based intervention for pregnant and parenting teens in several high-need South Carolina counties. Funded by the federal Center for Substance Abuse Prevention, this project examined the impact of peer, family, and community support in preventing subsequent pregnancies, reducing substance use, improving educatonal outcomes, and improving well-being.

As a component of several projects, Prof. McDonell has collected repeated cohort data on dating violence and related risks among middle- and high-school students over seven years in a rural South Carolina county.  This work led to an award from the National Institutes for Health for a four-year, multi-level, cohort-sequential study of rural adolescent dating violence victimization and perpetration.  This study will identify individual, family, organizational, and community-level factors that influence the growth trajectory of dating violence from 6th through 12th grade (approximate ages 12 to 18).  This is believed to be the most comprehensive study of rural adolescent dating violence to date.

Dr. McDonell's other projects focus on strengthening community support to improve the well-being of young people and their families in rural communities and on the development of neighborhood-level child and family well-being indicator measures.