CLINICAL RESEARCH FACULTY MENTORS
The Clinical Psychology Ph.D. Program at UMass Boston uses a clinical research apprenticeship model. Each first year graduate student apprentices with a clinical faculty member who will serve as research mentor and advisor to the graduate student. In order to match the clinical research interests of each graduate student with those of a faculty member, we would greatly appreciate if you could provide information as to which areas of clinical research interest you the most.
Faculty who will be taking on a new student for the 2010/2011 academic year:
Alice Carter, Ph. D.I am interested in studying young children at risk for problems in social and emotional functioning. There are three projects that students could easily become involved. Ideally, students will both contribute to the larger projects and develop their own independent projects within the larger projects. These independent projects most often become the focus of the Master's thesis and Dissertation research.
The first is a representative, longitudinal birth cohort study of children whose parents first completed a series of questionnaires about their 1- to 3- year olds' social-emotional, behavioral, and language development. We have recently obtained funding to follow these children in Kindergarten to Second grade. The current assessments include parent, teacher, and child reports about social-emotional and behavioral functioning as well as diagnostic status. Survey parent-report data have been collected from approximately 1300 parents who provided information on their children's social-emotional and language functioning as well as a variety of demographic characteristics, parenting stress, family functioning, social support, and parental affective symptoms. In addition, comparable information was collected about approximately 200 children who were referred for early intervention services based on developmental delays in language, motor, or adaptive functioning. In addition, videotaped home visits were completed in which parents were asked to interact with their child, and the child was administered a developmental assessment, a mastery motivation task, and a communicative competence task. Students can be involved in developing projects that utilize the observational data and/or the parent report information within the existing data set. Approximately 90% of families have now been followed longitudinally and a subset of children, enriched for psychopathology and language problems will be assessed in depth (e.g., parent-child interactions, direct/interview assessments of parent and child psychopathology).
The second project involves families with a child at genetic risk for Tourette syndrome or Obsessive Compulsive disorder by virtue of having a parent or older sibling with the disorder. The focus of yearly assessments in this project is on attention and executive functioning, visual-motor functioning, social-emotional and behavioral adjustment, and psychiatric symptoms and disorder. Students would have the opportunity to evaluate children, interview parents, and participate in planning and conducting data analyses in this ongoing longitudinal study.
A third possible project involves studying the reliability and validity of diagnostic assessment in infants and toddlers. A project is currently underway with an early intervention center in the Boston area to examine the impact of a variety of instruments designed to assess social-emotional functioning and communicative competence in children suspected of Pervasive Developmental Delays and Autism who are between 14-23-months of age.
Sheree Dukes Conrad, Ph.D.
Sheree Dukes Conrad does research in the areas of trauma
and dissociation. She is currently conducting a number of research projects
investigating the interaction between dissociation and contemporary social
stressors in maintaining or exacerbating symptoms of PTSD, borderline
personality and intimate partner violence. Her current work concerns the experimental measurement of state dissociation as well as risk and protective factors that predict male intimate partner violence.
Some of her students' past and current projects include:
- the influence of media violence on willingness to use force in intimate
conflicts among males with borderline personality - Attachment and trauma as contributors to male intimate partner violence
- the experimental measurement of defensive aggression
- a study of the contribution of dissociation to distorted body image among
young adults and adolescents with eating disorders - the effects of nonviolent communication on conflict resolution
I am interested in the early school experiences, family factors, and relationships of children with disruptive behavior problems, developmental disabilities, and other developmental or emotional risk factors. Students can become involved in the lab’s ongoing research studies and will ideally develop their own independent projects within these larger lab studies.
School Transitions Study
My research team has recently completed data collection for the first wave of the School Transitions Study. Working with local Women Infants & Children (WIC) clinics, we have recruited a sample of 54 families of children ages 3-5 years living in poverty, including approximately 50% recent immigrant families. This longitudinal study will follow these children and their families as they begin preschool or kindergarten, in order to identify predictors of school connectedness and positive social and emotional adjustment to school. Two teams of undergraduate and graduate students are currently collaborating to submit our initial findings from this project to present at the 2010 APA Convention.
Strong Start Program
Another ongoing project also analyzes the effectiveness of a new, school-based intervention program (Strong Start) for children with disruptive behavior problems during the transition to kindergarten. The transition to school is a crucial milestone in early childhood, and the quality of children’s relationships with their kindergarten teachers may play a pivotal role in their adjustment to school in the long-term. I recently conducted a block-randomized trial of the Strong Start program in both English and Spanish with parents and teachers in seven diverse, urban schools. We are currently examining the results of this trial to determine the program’s effectiveness in promoting positive student-teacher relationships, parent-teacher partnerships, and school adjustment for these children. Also under consideration are the familial, behavioral, social, cultural, socio-economic, and contextual factors that may explain why the program was more effective for some children than others. This rich dataset from nearly 100 families across two years of the study allows for the examination of many other research questions related to parenting, teacher factors, child psychopathology, and family and school functioning.
Next Steps
Next steps include: (1) an examination of predictors of student-teacher relationship quality for recent immigrant children, and (2) (pending grant funding) a study of the adaptation to school and early literacy development for children with high-functioning autism and their parents and teachers.
Michael Milburn's primary area of research interest is emotion. With this as a focus, he is engaged in research in the areas of political psychology, communication, and health psychology. Dr. Milburn's research in political psychology focuses on the determinants of political attitudes, the role of emotion in public opinion, and the effects of the mass media on political attitudes and social behavior. Working in the context of affect displacement theory, i.e., that emotions from childhood can be displaced onto adult political attitudes, his research has demonstrated a relationship between experiences of harsh childhood punishment and support for punitive public policies such as the death penalty and the use of military force. His 1996 book, written with Dr. Sheree Conrad, The Politics of Denial, presented his empirical research in this area and explored the broader implications of denial for physical and mental health and the political system.
Following publication of his book Sexual Intelligence in 2001, Prof. Milburn’s past students have done research on the relationship of authoritarianism to sexual harassment, research his has continued, as well as on the impact of childhood punishment experiences on individuals’ world view and political attitudes.
Paul Nestor, Ph.D.
I have two programs of research that are devoted to the study of serious mental illness, such as schizophrenia and mood disorders. One program is the study of the neuropsychology of attention and emotion disturbances in schizophrenia, which entails using converging clinical, experimental, and brain imaging techniques to study disease-related changes in brain function. The second program of research examines the relationship of violence and mental illness in subjects involuntarily committed to public psychiatric facilities as well as those incarcerated in jails and prisons. The focus here is on the development of a theoretical taxonomy to identify subtypes of mentally ill offenders that will be validated using crimonogenic and clinical outcome measures, including those related to neuropsychology.
My primary research interest is to understand how spirituality and religiousness influence mental health across the lifespan. I am particularly interested in the ways people use religious or spiritual resources (e.g., prayer, meditation, support from religious communities) to cope with stressful life events and chronic illnesses. A related research interest focuses on identifying the cognitive, social, and cultural mechanisms that buffer high-risk individuals against depression. My work is guided by social cognitive theory (Bandura, 1986, 2001), coping theory (Folkman & Moskowitz, 2000; Lazarus & Folkman, 1984), and utilizes cognitive-behavioral interventions. Across both of these research domains, I am committed to enhancing the welfare of low-income, multicultural populations, especially Latinos. Currently, my students and I are examining the types of prayer that people use to cope with cancer and looking at which types of prayer may be beneficial (or harmful) to mental health and well-being.
Research projects have included:
- The role of personal agency beliefs and coping style in mediating the relation between spirituality and depressive symptoms among adolescents
- The relation between religious/spiritual coping, depression, and utilization of health services among welfare mothers and their daughters
- Pain, distress, and social support in relation to spiritual beliefs and experiences among persons living with HIV/AIDS
- Spiritual growth, acceptance, and depression among adults with HIV/AIDS
For more information, visit my Web page: http://psych.umb.edu/faculty/perez/
Jean Rhodes' interests include mentoring relationships, risk and protective factors in adolescent development, emerging adulthood, preventive interventions, and the bridging of research, practice, and policy. Her research examines the development of adolescents and young adults with special attention to the role of non-parent adults. She is currently involved in a range of research projects that address the role of both formal and informal mentors in vulnerable groups including children of prisoners, survivors of Hurricane Katrina, community college students, high school dropouts, and low-income children in after-school settings. Her findings provide ample evidence of the extraordinary potential of mentoring relationships, while also exposing the rarely acknowledged risk for harm that unsuccessful relationships can render. A deeper understanding of these important relationships may lead to interventions and policies that better address the needs of youth.
My research interests focus on the social/individual construction of identities (particularly racial and ethnic identities). My projects focus primarily on Asian Americans and/or the relation of identity to an individual’s development in resisting racism and other forms of oppression. I have a split line between Psychology and Asian American Studies and therefore have a primary interest in race, culture, and identities within Asian American individual, groups, and identities
I currently have several research projects in different stages of development:
- The CAPAY project is a collaborative project with the Coalition for Asian Pacific American Youth, a high school student led, high school student run organization for Asian American high school students aimed at developing empowerment to create social change. This is a qualitative study exploring how the CAPAY program affects racial and ethnic identities in youth and how changes in these identities relate to empowerment and resisting racism. We are currently analyzing the data.
- The AsAmSt Project explores the psychological effects of Asian American Studies for Asian American college students. This is a mixed method study, pre-post test design examining how the completion of an Asian American Studies course affects racial and ethnic identities, race-related mental health (e.g. race related stress), and mental health (anxiety, depression, etc.). Data collection is continuing and we are beginning to analyze the data. I am interested in expanding the qualitative component of this study, exploring the educational experiences of Asian American students in relation to racial and ethnic identities and mental health.
- Meanings of Race and Ethnicity examines how people understand race and ethnicity and the effects on their daily lives. We are particularly interested in how race and ethnicity are confounded or differentiated colloquially. We are engaging in analysis as a team this year.
I am interested in mentoring a graduate student who would like to
participate in one of these projects for their Masters thesis and whose
primary longterm research and professional goals focus on Asian American
psychology and communities. Student involvement in these and other Team
projects may include quantitative and qualitative data collection,
analysis and interpretation, participating in interviewing,
participating in thematic analysis of interviews and linking the
qualitative and quantitative findings.
We are an active, community-oriented team. For example, grad students on my team may mentor undergrads or connect in various ways to Asian American Studies or Asian American community issues (teaching, organizing, mentoring). We frequently work together on team projects as well as our own.
Other Research Projects on our Team: Current Graduate Student Team Members are pursuing various projects related to Asian American psychology, and marginalized identities (some related to those above and some independent). These include:
- Nancy Lin is currently on internship and analyzing data for her dissertation (qualitative comparative grounded theory) exploring the ways in which Sudanese and Cambodian refugees’ identities and sense of themselves are affected by experiences of feeling one’s homeland due to war. Nancy’s Master’s thesis examined the intergenerational effects of the Cambodian refugee traumas on the children of Cambodian refugees.
- Phuong Nguyen is currently on internship and analyzing data for his dissertation (qualitative grounded theory) exploring perceptions of racialized peer groups and their effects on the racial and ethnic identities of Vietnamese American adolescents.
- Stephanie Day is collecting data for her dissertation (concurrent mixed method) exploring the relations between first-time motherhood and the development of racial identities, ethnic identities, and cultural orientations for Korean adopted women having a child with a White male partner. Stephanie’s Master’s thesis was part of the CAPAY project described above exploring the particular effects of Asian American Studies workshops on the racial and ethnic identities of the Asian American youth.
- John Tawa is developing his dissertation exploring the relationships between Asian American and African American individuals and communities. His Master’s thesis examined relations between race related stress, the perception of race, and immigrant status to individual and collective self esteem in Asian Americans.
- Vali Kahn is planning her dissertation focusing on how bisexual and multiracial people socially negotiate both insider/outsider positions and claims to identities.
- Sue Lambe is working on her Master’s thesis exploring racial and ethnic identities of Japanese European Americans and their relation to education and experiences of racism from different communities.
Ed Tronick, Ph. D.I am interested in studying the social emotional development of infants and young children and infant’s memory for stress. There are several ongoing projects that students would be welcome to participate in. The student could readily become an active member of the research team. There are many opportunities for developing master’s theses and dissertations.
A newly funded project by NICHD and NSF aims to understand infants’ memory for stressful events. The primary aims of this grant are to: (1) evaluate the stability of individual differences in infants’ behavior (positive and negative engagement, self-regulatory behaviors), vagal tone and cortisol response assessed during a social stress, maternal Face-to-Face Still-Face Paradigm over a 3- or a 6-month time interval; (2) evaluate infants’ memory for the still-face over the 3- or 6-month time interval; and (3) evaluate the relation between infant reactivity and memory. Ten independent groups of mother-infant dyads (N = 340, n = 34 per group) balanced for infant gender will comprise the sample. Six groups will be randomly assigned to an experimental condition. For infants in the experimental condition, the 1st exposure to the FFSF will take place when the infants are 6, 9, or 12 months of age, and their respective 2nd exposure will be either 3 or 6 months later, at 9, 12, 15 or 18 months of age. Infants in the control condition will be videotaped once in the FFSF, at the age corresponding to the 2nd exposure for infants in the experimental conditions (at 9, 12, 15, or 18 months of age). For all groups measures of infant gaze during the SF will be coded as a measure of memory. Infants' vagal tone (VT), cortisol response, skin conductance, and negative engagement states and self-regulatory behaviors during the FFSF paradigm will be scored microanalytically from videotapes will be collected at each visit as measures of reactivity. Variations in infants’ cardio-respiratory activity (vagal tone) will be assessed using the method developed by Porges, and cortisol response will be measured using salivary cortisol with methods developed by Gunnar. A measure of infant perceived temperament will be derived at each visit from temperament questionnaires completed by the mother: the Infant Behavior Questionnaire (IBQ) for infants at 6, 9, or 12 months and the Toddler Assessment of Behavior Questionnaire (TABQ) for infants at 15 or 18 months of age. This study will provide valuable longitudinal on a standard and widely used stress paradigm and make a significant contribution to our understanding the stability of individual differences in infants’ behavior, affect, physiological regulation, and memory during social stress. Additional projects will be elaborated around this project including the use of ERP to study the neurophysiology of memory and stress, and the use of the SF procedure to serve as a stress that may disrupt memory for events.
There are also numerous archival data sets that are available. For example, one is a naturalistic observational study of depressed and non-depressed mothers with their 3, 6 and 12 month old infants aimed at exploring naturally occurring social emotional processes. Strange situation observations are available on this sample. Another is a set of playful interactions of mothers and fathers and their 6 month old sons and daughters including a triadic interaction aimed at understanding gender differences in social emotional development and the influence of gender on family interactions. Yet a third, non-archival study not fully formulated is a study on the development of relationships during the first year of life.
Research Interests: Over the past several years I have focused my research interests on the experiences of both children who have been diagnosed with autism as well as their families. My lab has looked at a variety of topics within this area. These include defining ways in which aspects of early play may identify later cognitive and behavioral characteristics of children diagnosed with autism. We have also begun to look at ways in which families cope over the long term as well as how they make use of available resources to assist their children.