Mark Schuster, M.D., Ph.D.

Professor of Pediatrics and Health Services  UCLA RAND Center for Adolescent Health Promotion 1072 Gayley Avenue Los Angeles, CA 90024 E-mail: schuster@rand.org

Biographical Information

Mark A. Schuster, MD, PhD, is Professor of Pediatrics and Health Services at UCLA, where he serves as Chief of General Pediatrics and Vice Chair for Health Services, Policy, and Community Research in the Department of Pediatrics. He is Director of Health Promotion and Disease Prevention at RAND and holds the RAND Distinguished Chair in Health Promotion. He also leads the UCLA/RAND Center for Adolescent Health Promotion, a community-based participatory research center funded by CDC.

Dr. Schuster conducts research primarily on child, adolescent, and family issues. Currently, he is leading NIH-funded studies to (1) develop and evaluate a worksite-based parenting program for parents of adolescents to learn communication skills and foster healthy sexual development and sexual risk prevention, (2) partner with L.A. Unified School District to prevent obesity among youth, (3) examine the impact of California's new Paid Family Leave Act on families of children with chronic illness, and (4) understand the issues experienced by children with HIV-infected parents. He is head of the L.A. site of the CDC-funded "Healthy Passages," which seeks to identify personal, family, school, and community influences on substance use, violence, injuries, physical activity, nutrition, sexual behavior, and mental/physical health by studying 5,000 ten-year olds in three cities biennially to age 20. He has also studied quality of health care, childhood immunizations, anticipatory guidance, injury prevention, and the effects of terrorist attacks on stress and coping.

Dr. Schuster is the 2003 winner of the Nemours Child Health Services Research Award from AcademyHealth. He serves as a Commissioner on the Los Angeles City Commission for Children, Youth and Their Families and chairs its Health and Nutrition Committee. Dr. Schuster is Associate Director of the UCLA Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholars Program. He is co-author of Everything You Never Wanted Your Kids to Know About Sex (But Were Afraid They'd Ask): The Secrets to Surviving Your Child's Sexual Development from Birth to the Teens (Crown; 2003) and co-editor of Child Rearing in America: Challenges Facing Parents of Young Children (Cambridge University Press; 2002).

He has appeared on CNN, ESPN, Good Morning America, NPR, and the Today Show, and in the Los Angeles Times, the New York Times, Newsweek, USA Today, and the Washington Post.

Dr. Schuster received his BA summa cum laude from Yale, his MD from Harvard Medical School, his MPP from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard, and his PhD from RAND Graduate School. He did his pediatrics residency at Children's Hospital Boston and his fellowship with the Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholars Program at UCLA. He practices pediatrics at Mattel Children's Hospital at UCLA.

Selected Publications

Allen ML, Elliott MN, Morales LS, Diamant AL, Hambarsoomian K, Schuster MA. "Adolescent Participation in Preventive Health Behaviors, Physical Activity, and Nutrition: Differences Across Immigrant Generations for Asians and Latinos Compared with Whites." Am J Public Health. 2007;97:337-343.

Chung PJ, Garfield CF, Elliott MN, Carey C, Eriksson C, Schuster MA. "Need for and Use of Family Leave among Parents of Children with Special Health Care Needs." Pediatrics. 2007;119:e1047-e1055.

Wang CJ, McGlynn EA, Brook RH, Leonard CH, Piecuch RE, Hsueh SI, Schuster MA. "Quality of Care Indicators for the Neuro-developmental Follow-up of Children Born Very Low Birth Weight: Results of an Expert Panel Process." Pediatrics. 2006;117:2080-2092.

Schuster MA, Collins RL, Cunningham WE, Morton SC, Zierler S, Wong M, Tu W, Kanouse DE. "Perceived Discrimination in Clinical Care in a Nationally Representative Sample of HIV-Infected Adults Receiving Health Care." J Gen Intern Med. 2005;20:807-813.

Richardson J, Schuster MA, Everything You Never Wanted Your Kids to Know About Sex (But Were Afraid They'd Ask): The Secrets to Surviving Your Child's Sexual Development from Birth to the Teens, New York, NY: Crown; 2003 (hardcover) & Three Rivers Press; 2004 (trade paperback).

Halfon N, McLearn KT, Schuster MA, eds., Child Rearing in America: Challenges Facing Parents of Young Children. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press; 2002.

Schuster MA, Stein BD, Jaycox LH, Collins RL, Marshall GN, Elliott MN, Zhou AJ, Kanouse DE, Morrison JL, Berry SH. "A National Survey of Stress Reactions After the September 11, 2001 Terrorist Attacks." N Engl J Med. 2001;345:1507-1512.

Schuster MA, Franke TM, Bastian A, Sor S, Halfon N. "Firearm Storage Patterns in Homes with Children in the United States." Am J Public Health. 2000;90:588-594.

Schuster MA, McGlynn EA, Brook RH. "How Good Is the Quality of Health Care in the United States?" Milbank Q. 1998;76:517-563. Reprinted in 2005 Milbank Memorial Fund Special Issue of Milbank Q.

Schuster MA, Bell RM, Kanouse DE. "The Sexual Practices of Adolescent Virgins: Genital Sexual Activities of High School Students Who Have Never Had Vaginal Intercourse." Am J Public Health. 1996;86:1570-1576.