Israt Jahan

Israt Jahan, MSW, is a first-year Ph.D. student in the School of Social Work at the University of Texas at Arlington. She earned her Bachelor of Social Sciences (BSS) in Social Welfare from the University of Dhaka, Bangladesh and her Master of Social Work (MSW) from the University of Central Florida.

During her MSW program, Israt served as a Graduate Research Assistant at the Center for Behavioral Health Research and Training (CBHRT), where her research focused on child and adolescent mental and behavioral health, suicidality, and suicide prevention. Her research experiences at CBHRT strengthened her interest in understanding the relationships among child maltreatment, adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), mental health, and behavioral health risk outcomes among children and adolescents.

Israt has presented her research at national and international conferences and has received several recognitions for her research and scholarly contributions, including the 2023 Award for Excellence by a Graduate Student Researcher, recognition as a finalist in the Three Minute Thesis (3MT) Competition, and First Runner-Up at the Global Goals Summit, organized by STUDEC International in Malaysia.

Her current research interests focus on child maltreatment and child and adolescent behavioral health. At UTA, she is particularly interested in examining the family, social, community, and structural factors associated with child maltreatment, as well as patterns of mental health and behavioral health risk outcomes among children and adolescents exposed to abuse, neglect, and other adverse childhood experiences. She is also interested in evaluating policies, programs, and prevention initiatives designed to improve outcomes for vulnerable children and families.