Karen J. Aroian, PhD, RN, FAAN

CHATLOS FOUNDATION ENDOWED PROFESSOR --
Director of Research

Office: HPA-I (building 80), Room 217 (Map)
Phone: 407-823-4290
E-mail: karoian@mail.ucf.edu

PROFILE

Chatlos Foundation Endowed Professor Dr. Karen Aroian is the director of research at the College of Nursing and teaches a dissertation seminar for PhD nursing students.

Dr. Aroian has a longstanding program of research and extensive publications on immigrant and minority health, including extensive instrument development for research with non-English speaking populations; self care and health care utilization; and stress, resilience, coping and psychosocial adaptation. She has conducted research across the lifespan (children, adults, elders) with various groups, including African Americans and immigrants from Poland, Ireland, the former Soviet Union, China, the Philippines, the Middle East and Latin America.

She is currently the principal investigator of a $2 million National Institutes of Health funded study looking at mother-child adjustment in Arab immigrants and refugees.

Dr. Aroian is a fellow of the American Academy of Nursing, a distinction held by only 1,500 nursing leaders nationwide. She has a doctorate from the University of Washington and is a registered nurse. Her clinical specialty is in psychiatric and community mental health nursing. Download full CV.

PUBLICATION HIGHLIGHTS

Journals
Ramaswamy, V., Aroian, K.J., & Templin, T.N. (2009). Adaptation and Psychometric Evaluation of the Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support for Arab American Adolescents. American Journal of Community Psychology.

Norris, A.E. & Aroian, K.J. (2008). Avoidance symptoms and assesstment of post traumatic stress disorder in Arab women. Journal of Traumatic Stress, 21 (5), 471-478.

Aroian, K.J., Hough, E.S., Templin, T.N.,  & Kaskiri, E.A.  (2008). Development and Psychometric Evaluation of An Arab Version of the Family Peer Relationship Questionnaire. Research in Nursing and Health, 31, 402-416.

Norris, A.E. & Aroian, K.J. (2008). Assessing reliability and validity of the Arabic language version of the Post-traumatic Diagnostic Scale (PDS) symptom items. Psychiatry Research, 160(3), 327-34.

Aroian, K. J., Norris, A.E., González de Chávez Fernández. M.A., Averasturi, L.M.G., (2008). Gender differences in psychological distress among Latin American immigrants to the Canary Islands. Journal of Sex Roles Research,59:107-118.

Aroian, K.J., Kaskiri, E.A., & Templin, T.N. (2008). Psychometric evaluation of the Arabic language version of the Demand of Immigration Scale. International Journal of Testing, 8:1, 2-13.

Book Chapters
Aroian, K.J., Khatutsky, G., & Daskevskaya, A. (2006). Cross-cultural health care for older Russian-speaking Americans. In R.N. Adler & H.K. Kamel (Eds), Doorway Thoughts: Cross-cultural Health Care for Older Adults (Vol2, pp. 152-15), Boston: Jones and Bartlett.

Aroian, K.J. & Norris, A.E. (2004). Confirmatory factor analysis. In B.H. Munro (Ed.) Statistical Methods for Health Care Research, (5th ed., pp. 351-375). New York: Lippincott. 

Aroian, K.J. (2003). The demands of immigration scale. In O.L. Strickland & C. DiIoria (Eds.), Measurement of Nursing Outcomes: Self-care and Coping (2nd ed., pp. 128-140). New York: Springer Publishing.

PRESENTATION HIGHLIGHTS

Aroian, K.J. Arab Muslim mothers’ coping and adjustment: How demands of immigration, social support, and quality of parent-child relationship affect child adjustment. Presented with Templin, T., Hough E., Kulwicki, A., Ramaswamy, V. & Katz, A. at the 5th National Conference on Health Issues in the Arab American Community. Dearborn, MI. November, 2008.

Aroian, K.J. Terror and its aftermath: Impact of persecution and refugee camp experiences on Arab immigrant women. Presented with Norris, A. at the 24th Annual Meeting of the International Society for Traumatic Studies. Chicago, IL. November, 2008.

Aroian, K.J. A causal model of mother-child adjustment in Arab Immigrants. Presented with Hough, E.,  Templin, T., Kulwicki, A., Ramaswamy, V. & Katz, A. at the 2008 National State of the Congress on Nursing Research, Council for the Advancement of Nursing Science. Washington, D.C.
October, 2008.

Aroian, K.J. Defining and Testing Discriminant Validity: Five Hypotheses and Some Guidelines. Presented with Templin, T. and Ramaswamy, V. at the American Psychological Association's 116th Annual Convention. Boston, MA.
August, 2008.

Aroian, K.J. The importance of pre-migration persecution to post-migration mental health: A study of severely traumatized US Arab immigrant women. Presented with Norris, A. at the 18th Annual Meeting of the Eastern Nursing Research Society. Philadelphia, PA. April, 2008.

AWARD HIGHLIGHTS

  • Chatlos Foundation Endowed Professorship at the UCF College of Nursing (2008)
  • Psychiatric Nursing Research Award, Society for Education and Research in Psychiatric-Mental Health Nursing (1998)
  • Inducted Fellow, American Academy of Nursing (1998)
  • Multi-Cultural Outreach Award, Staff Builders Home Health Care (1993)

PROFESSIONAL ORGANIZATION HIGHLIGHTS

  • American Academy of Nursing
  • American Nurses Association
  • American Psychiatric Nurses' Association
  • Florida Nurses Association
  • Council of Nurses and Anthropologists of the American Anthropological Association
  • Council of Armenian American Nurses
  • Midwest Nurses Research Society
  • Sigma Theta Tau International Nursing Honor Society, Theta Epsilon Chapter

COMMUNITY SERVICE HIGHLIGHTS

  • Reviewer for several high impact nursing and interdisciplinary journals
  • Grant reviewer for numerous agencies including the Israeli Institute of Health

EDUCATION HISTORY
PhD-University of Washington
MSN-Boston College
BSN-University of Massachusetts

RESEARCH INTERESTS
-Stress, coping and adaptation; immigrant and minority health; health care access and utilization; qualitative and multi-method research; and instrument development.

IN THE NEWS
»Aroian's research published in Social Science & Medicine
»Two renowned professors join UCF's College of Nursing