She Motivates Troubled Teens to Change

BY Cynthia Lee, UCLA Today

MAY 8, 2007 - Psychologist Marguerita Lightfoot has a formidable task — she develops intervention programs designed to change the behavior of troubled young people who have committed crimes or live on the streets. Many have mental health problems; some are prostitutes and drug users.

To make a difficult challenge more formidable, the specific behavior she is trying to change in teenagers is their sexual practices.

For the past decade, Lightfoot has been working to alert at-risk young people to the dangers of having unprotected sex with multiple partners and to the "triggers" that may lead them down a ruinous path to pregnancy, sexually transmitted diseases and HIV/AIDS. The intervention programs she creates use cognitive-behavioral therapy. In small therapy groups, teens pick up the skills they need to take a different path — to problem-solve, set goals, identify their feelings, recognize emotional triggers and regulate these emotions.

A three-time Bruin with a B.A. in psychology and a master's and Ph.D. in counseling psychology, Lightfoot is skilled at building, testing and evaluating such programs. But it's what she does with these interventions that recently won her the Ann C. Rosenfield Distinguished Community Partnership Prize awarded by the UCLA Center for Community Partnerships.

"We don't just build these programs to sit on a shelf somewhere. It's not for the purpose of my publishing journal articles," she said. "I do this because I want to help a young person do better."

An associate research psychologist for the Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior, Lightfoot has been working with My Friend’s Place, a drop-in program in Hollywood where runaways can come in from the cold for food, hygiene and "Street Smart," a program she helped create to teach problem-solving and other skills needed to change risky behavior. The young people adopted it, and the staff there embraced it.

"Marguerita is just awesome, and the contribution she and her team have made to our work is invaluable," said Heather Carmichael, associate executive director of My Friend’s Place. “We've really seen significant changes and gained knowledge in the process. This is a beautiful example of how researchers and a community-based program can work together."

One reason for her success, Lightfoot said, is that young people instinctively know that she cares. "They can tell this is not just a job for me. I really do want to help. It's all about being honest, genuine and willing to listen without judging them."

As a UCLA student, Lightfoot learned some of those skills as a peer counselor for the Academic Advancement Program. She also worked at the Financial Aid Office as a student adviser.

"I grew up a Navy brat, moving around every two years," she reminisced. "I went to three high schools in three years. … So I always had an inclination for folks who were on the fringe and on the outside, partly because I'd been there. Maybe that's why I have such compassion for those who are underserved. And my experiences at UCLA definitely fostered that."