To help address these challenges, Mississippi State is establishing the Rural Health, Safety and Security Institute to focus on ways the behavioral and social aspects of health can improve the possibility of positive outcomes.

RHSSI is an initiative of the university’s Social Science Research Center, which has a 50-year history of research programs focused primarily on the South. The departments of Psychology and of Sociology, Anthropology, and Social Work also are part of the multidisciplinary effort.

Supported by $2.2 million in funding from the federal Office of Rural Health Policy, the institute will conduct basic and applied research on rural American populations, with special emphasis on the Magnolia State. With rural populations continuing to grow, health and safety issues are becoming even more important, said SSRC director Arthur G. Cosby, who also will head the new institute.

Research at the newly formed institute will address the ways health-damaging behaviors can be improved through social intervention strategies.