Research
My research aims to prevent homelessness, reduce the affordable housing gap, and promote child and family well-being.
Currently Funded Projects
2022-2026: The California-Nevada Adaptation Program (CNAP): Building Capacity for Near- and Long-term Resiliency in California and Nevada
Funder: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
This 5-year collaboration between UNLV, University of Nevada Reno, and Desert Research Institute supports several projects to investigate climate change adaptation in Nevada and California. Kate is leading a project on mitigating extreme heat effects for homeless and insecurely housed populations in Las Vegas.
2022-2023: Eviction Prevention and Neighborhood Resilience
Funder: City of Las Vegas ($25,000)
This 1-year municipal contract aims to investigate the prevalence, geographic concentration, and outcomes of eviction cases in Las Vegas before, during, and after the COVID-19 federal and local eviction moratoria. Kate is the co-lead on this project responsible for data management and analysis, as well as development and dissemination of policy recommendations.
2022-2023: Homelessness in Early Head Start: A Statewide Investigation to Promote Child Well-being
Funder: Doris Duke Charitable Foundation ($80,000)
This 1-year policy grant aims to assess the nature and scope of homelessness among children enrolled in Nevada Early Head Start programs. Kate is the co-lead on this project along with a colleague at the University of Nevada Reno responsible for leading a small team in data collection, management, and analysis along with dissemination of policy recommendations to key state and regional policymakers and practitioners.
2021-2024: Pathways to Scale Up Integrated Early Childhood Development Programs
Funder: National Institutes of Health ($743,926)
This 2-year K00 aware aims to elucidate complex dynamics underlying efforts to scale up a conditional cash transfer program targeting household food insecurity in Brazil. Kate is leading the computational system dynamics modeling for the project.
2020-2023: Youth Homelessness Data Solutions Project
Funder: U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development ($681,000)
This 3-year project addresses the limitations of administrative data for estimating the scope and nature of youth homelessness in the U.S. Kate is leading participatory group modeling and computational modeling to estimate and close gaps in existing data sources.
Recent Publications
Marçal, K.E., Fowler, P.J., & Hovmand, P.S. (2022). Feedback dynamics of the low-income rental housing market: Exploring impacts of COVID-19 and the federal eviction moratorium. Available at https://arxiv.org/pdf/2206.12647.pdf
Fowler, P.J., Marçal, K.E., & Hovmand, P.S. (2022). Meeting needs of child welfare-involved families: Policy insights from simulation modeling. Child Abuse & Neglect, 132, doi:10.1016/j.chiabu.2022.105809
Maguire-Jack, K. & Marçal, K.E. (2022). The mediating role of housing insecurity in the relationship between neighborhood social cohesion and child maltreatment. Child Abuse & Neglect, 132. doi:10.1016/j.chiabu.2022.105792
Marçal, K.E. (2022). Domains of housing insecurity: Associations with child maltreatment risk. Child Abuse & Neglect, 131. doi:10.1016/j.chiabu.2022.105696
Marçal, K.E. (2022). Housing insecurity and adverse parenting of adolescents: The roles of maternal stress and depression. Journal of the Society for Social Work and Research. doi:10.1086/712954
Marçal, K.E., Showalter, K.S., & Maguire-Jack, K. (2022). Intimate partner violence and depression of mothers and their adolescent children: The roles of housing insecurity and system contacts. Journal of Interpersonal Violence. doi:10.1177/08862605221078814
Marçal, K.E. & Maguire-Jack, K. (2022). Informal supports, housing insecurity, and adolescent outcomes: Implications for promoting resilience. American Journal of Community Psychology. doi:10.1002/ajcp.12589
Marçal, K.E. (2022). Pathways from food and housing insecurity to adolescent behavior problems: The mediating role of parenting stress. Journal of Youth and Adolescence. doi:10.1007/s10964-021-01565-2
More
Featured
Marcal, K. & Maguire-Jack, K. (2022). “Importance of Social Supports to Resiliency for Youth.” Society for Community Research and Action.
Saha, V. & Denk, D. (2022, August 28). “UNLV professor examines link between affordable housing, child abuse.” 8 News Now.
Todd, C. (2022, August 22). “UNLV study traces links between unaffordable housing and child mistreatment.” Nevada Current.
Bawany, A. (2022, August 16). “Housing Insecurity and Its Risk to Child Maltreatment”. UNLV News Center.
Barr, N. Marcal, K., & Waugh, N. (2021, November 19). “The solution to homelessness is housing first.” The Nevada Independent.
Thomad, S. (2020, February 24). “The Interview: Katherine Marcal.” UNLV Today.
