About Us

The Assessment of Preferred Leisure Alternatives for Youth (A-PLAY) is supported by a multidisciplinary team of researchers from the University of Kansas. Dr. Jomella Watson-Thompson, Department of Applied Behavioral Science, and Dr. Jun Huan, Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science collaboratively lead a team of graduate and undergraduate researchers supporting the development and administration of the web-based survey application.

The Assessment of Preferred Leisure Alternatives for Youth (A-PLAY) and the Preferred Leisure Alternatives for Youth (PLAY) program supports an emerging line of research for Dr. Jomella Watson-Thompson and the Community Youth Development and Prevention Research Team, affiliated with the Work Group for Community Health and Development and the Department of Applied Behavioral Science at the University of Kansas. Dr. Watson-Thompson is examining the use of a behavioral-analytic approach of reinforcing pro-social behaviors (e.g., physical activity) to foster sustained participation of youth in healthy positive behaviors during out-of-school time.

Collaborators and Partners

Kaston Anderson-Carpenter, MPH, M.A.
Graduate Research Assistant, Work Group for Community Health and Development; Dept. of Applied Behavioral Science

Peng Hao
Undergraduate Research Assistant

Jun Huan, Ph.D.
Associate Professor, Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science; Director of Bioinformatics and Computational Life Sciences Laboratory at KU Information and Telecommunication Technology Center (ITTC).

Marvia Jones, MPH
Graduate Research Assistant, Work Group for Community Health and Development; Dept. of Applied Behavioral Science

Parker Roth
Undergraduate Research Assistant

Erica Taylor, B.A.
Graduate Research Assistant, Work Group for Community Health and Development; Dept. of Applied Behavioral Science

Jomella Watson-Thompson, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, Dept. of Applied Behavioral Science; Associate Director, Work Group for Community Health and Development

Kaige Yan, B.S.
Graduate Research Assistant