Aim 1
Investigate the long-term impact of child maltreatment on physical and mental health in middle adulthood
TRANSFORM Research Studies
Research Project 1
Family Health Study: Long-Term and Multigenerational Impact of Maltreatment
The Family Health Study is a study examining the long-term impact of child maltreatment on physical and mental health in adulthood and across generations. The study is following a cohort of people who originally participated in a research summer camp study and are now in middle adulthood. The Family Health Study represents the 3rd wave of data collection with these participants (wave 1-childhood, wave 2-young adulthood, wave 3 (current)-mid adulthood). This study is particularly interested in the biological embedding of stress and how exposure to child maltreatment may impact different biological systems to influence health throughout life and throughout generations. A particularly novel part of this study is the inclusion of the original participants’ (who are now adults) children to determine how a history of exposure to maltreatment in childhood may affect the health and wellbeing of the next generation.
STUDY AIMS
Aim 2
Determine the impact of child maltreatment on women’s reproductive health
Aim 3
Test the impact of parental history of child maltreatment on child offspring health
Research Project 2
Project TRAIL (Thriving, Responding, and Adapting in Interpersonal Life)
CAN is an enduring predictor of adult social difficulties in intimate partner relationships and caregiving of offspring. However, little is known about how, why, and when CAN increases vulnerability to adulthood relationship problems. The aim of Project TRAIL is to examine the adult intimate partner and parent-child relationship sequelae of adverse and benevolent socialization experiences in childhood.
- The longitudinal project seeks to follow a sample of approximately 200 28 to 32 year-old adults who participated in two prior measurement occasions when they were 10 to 12 years-old and 18 to 22 years-old.
- The multi-method, multi-informant methodological approach is designed to examine the close relationship qualities of adults with their partners and own children who experienced different types of adverse and supportive experiences. A key aim of this long-term longitudinal study is to identify the mediating mechanisms and moderating conditions (e.g., protective factors) that underpin their close relationship experiences in adulthood.
STUDY AIMS
Aim 1
Prospectively examine how CAN dimensions might operate as sources of variability in multiple adult experiences in intimate partner and parent-child relationships
Aim 2
Test neurocognitive functioning, psychopathology, parent-child attachment representations, and social competence as mediating mechanisms in links between CAN adult experiences in intimate partner and parent-child relationships
Aim 3
Identify sources of heterogeneity in the relational sequelae of CAN within a multi-level moderator framework including: intrapersonal attributes, family characteristics, and ecological characteristics
Research Project 3
Resilient Roots
The pilot study will examine the feasibility and acceptability of combining racial socialization practices with Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (TF-CBT) to enhance outcomes for Black youth and their families to develop interventions to support parenting strategies that can promote positive racial socialization and racial identity for Black youth facing the combined effects of CAN and racial stress.
STUDY AIMS
Aim 1
From a community-based participatory research framework (CBPR), engage community partners and assess acceptability of racial socialization (RS) procedures to augment TF-CBT for Black youth ages 10-15, as well as to inform study design, and implementation plans through focus groups with diverse stakeholders (youth, family, mental health clinicians) to inform Aim 2.
Aim 2
Evaluate the feasibility of a pilot randomized control trial (RCT) testing the combination of racial socialization and TF-CBT to improve coping, racial socialization, and to reduce mental health symptoms in Black youth with CAN histories.
Aim 3
Investigate whether TF-CBT leads to greater improvement in mental health symptoms for Black youth with CAN when augmented with racial socialization enhancements.