Network News
TF-CBTWeb 2.0 is Coming!
Nov 13, 2017On January 1, 2018, a new version of the online course, TF-CBTWeb 2.0, will be launching. This is a brand new course that incorporates the most recent research-based adjustments to TF-CBT. It has several new modules and lots of new material, including new training videos and downloads. Because of the new course, the current version of TF-CBTWeb will be closing to new registrations on November 30, 2017 at 11:59 p.m. and will cease operations on December 31, 2017 at 11:59 p.m. If you already have registered for the current course, or if you register before December 1, 2017, you will have until December 31, 2017, at 11:59 p.m. to complete it. At that time, the current version will be closed down and no longer operational. If you do not complete the entire course prior to this time, all work will be lost and you will not receive a Certificate of Completion or CEUs. Please take note of these dates. More information about TF-CBTWeb 2.0 will be coming out in the next few weeks!
New professorship will support research to help vulnerable children
Nov 10, 2017Through a $1 million gift, Penn State alumnus Ken Young, of Tampa, Florida, is creating a professorship to support a faculty member focused on enhancing the health and well-being of vulnerable children, especially survivors of child maltreatment. Young plans to add another $1 million through his estate to ultimately elevate the Ken Young Family Professorship for Healthy Children in the College of Health and Human Development (HHD) to a chair. “As I have gotten more involved in the college in recent years, I have had the opportunity to meet faculty members and listen to them talk about their work,” Young said. “I have been so impressed with the people I have met and their dedication to their research. Jennie Noll, director of the Child Maltreatment Solutions Network and professor of human development and family studies, was especially impressive. I thought a lot about what she said about the science of resilience and how it is influencing recovery for survivors of child maltreatment. Then I was able to meet with her and learn more about the work she and others are doing to make children healthier. I decided I wanted to contribute to that.” Young graduated from Penn State in 1972 with a degree in food service and housing administration and began his first managerial job in the food services industry at the Providence Civic Center. His early career saw him directing food and beverage services at preeminent sporting events such as the Olympics, the Super Bowl, the World Series and major political conventions. In 1997, Young, along with Todd Wickner, began a food and beverage company, Ovations (now Spectra), which has grown into one of the most successful in the industry. Young’s love of sports and sporting events also led him to acquire ownership of five minor league baseball teams. Young’s involvement with HHD goes back nearly 20 years and includes many visits to speak to hospitality management classes, recruiting for his former employer, and establishing the Ken and Mary Young Trustee Scholarship for students majoring in hospitality management. “I am thrilled and grateful to Ken for his decision to fund this professorship that addresses such a pressing need in society,” said Ann C. Crouter, Raymond E. and Erin S. Schultz Dean of the College of Health and Human Development. “To continue the visionary work that is underway here, we need the resources to attract and retain the very best scholars. Competition with other universities for top people can be intense, but the Ken Young Family Professorship for Healthy Children, and the discretionary funds it brings for research and curriculum development, will make a direct impact on the future of this critical work at Penn State.” The College of Health and Human Development is a core contributor to the Child Maltreatment Solutions Network, a growing group of researchers and practitioners developing innovative approaches to the prevention, detection, and treatment of maltreatment. The Network, led by Noll, successfully competed for a grant from the Eunice Kennedy Schriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, part of the National Institutes of Health, to create the Center for Healthy Children, a national resource for research and training. Young thought the Center’s overarching goal of translating research into solutions for families was compelling. He encourages alumni who are not up-to-date on all that is happening at HHD to reengage and see how far the college has come. “This has been a real source of pride for me,” Young said. “When you have the ability I feel it is important to give back to the community,” he added. “Maybe we can start a new cycle where troubled children get the help they need, they see the impact, and their own children will someday benefit. And, it is such a great feeling when you can help other people.” Endowments like the Ken Young Family Professorship for Healthy Children have been essential to the success of the University’s historic land-grant mission to serve the public good. To fulfill that mission for a new era of rapid change and global connections, the University's capital campaign, "A Greater Penn State for 21st Century Excellence," is focused on the three key imperatives of a public university. Private support will keep the doors to higher education open and enable students to graduate on time and on track to success; create transformative experiences on Penn State campuses and around the globe that tap the full potential of Penn Staters to make a difference; and impact the world through discovery, innovation and entrepreneurship. To learn more, visit greaterpennstate.psu.edu or contact Kathleen Rider, director of development in the College of Health and Human Development, at 814-863-1064 or kmr8@psu.edu.
Sixth annual Child Maltreatment Solutions Network conference held recently
Oct 10, 2017Conference focused on synergy between military families and child welfare contexts All families experience some type of stress; however, military families may be facing particular stressors due to frequent moves, deployment, and operational stress. Promoting family well-being broadly through different perspectives and common challenges was the focus of Penn State’s sixth annual Child Maltreatment Solutions Network conference, co-sponsored by the Clearinghouse for Military Readiness at Penn State, held recently at the Nittany Lion Inn. Jennie Noll, Child Maltreatment Solutions Network director and professor of human development and family studies at Penn State, notes that the military and civilian sectors often work independently, but there is much to gain in working together and gleaning knowledge from each other. “The purpose of the conference was to present child welfare research to determine if there are disparities in current knowledge; support shared aspects; and allow time for cooperative discussion between its attendees," said Noll, "and to take military family research and programs and use them more broadly to promote family well-being in the military and civilian worlds.” Amy Slep, professor of clinical psychology at New York University, discussed developing a definitive definition of child maltreatment for the military. She was part of a research team that evaluated the reliability and validity of these definitions to make them consistent within the U.S. Air Force. After numerous studies and field trials, she discovered a 90 percent reliability when widely implemented, which also resulted in additional prevention efforts. The criteria she helped develop was adopted by the U.S. Department of Defense, as well as the Alaska Child Welfare system and numerous healthcare organizations. Dara Lively, a social services program officer for the state of Alaska, piloted the child maltreatment assessment protocol (MAP), heavily informed by the program being used by Alaskan Air Force installations. “MAP is great example of a military program adapted for civilian use,” said Lively. “The Air Force customized it for us and even provided training for attorneys, tribal partners, law enforcement and others. Adoption of MAP allows for increased consistency in determining child maltreatment cases." Combined parent-child cognitive behavioral therapy for at-risk-families programs was also discussed at the conference. Melissa Runyan, licensed psychologist and child trauma and abuse expert, and her colleagues developed a combined parent-child program after learning social services typically only offered parent trainings. “We wanted a program that would address the emotional and behavioral needs of both children and their parents, one that would assist children in healing from trauma while improving parenting skills and parent-child relationships,” Runyan said. Another program highlighted at the conference was one developed at Penn State’s Clearinghouse for Military Family Readiness. Jennifer DiNallo, director of research, and Alison Turley, research assistant, presented the THRIVE Initiative’s GROW! Program for children. GROW! has four program areas for children from birth through the age of 18. The program includes positive parenting practices, parent and child stress management, and child physical health promotion. “We looked into other programs, but none of them included a health promotion component, so we created one that would get parents to think about promoting health to their children,” DiNallo explained. The program utilizes a components approach and includes strategies for parents backed by evidence. It aims to harness the immense potential of parents as agents of change to assist their children through adolescence. The Clearinghouse provides training for facilitators of the program, along with evaluating the program’s effectiveness. They’ve tested the program in two communities in central Pennsylvania and found high levels of satisfaction from both parents and facilitators. They recently conducted a military pilot study and had similar outcomes. The conference also explored the use of technology to promote and deliver evidence-based programs. “In rural areas, tele-health addresses the barriers of few trained examiners, high examiner burn-out, traveling great distances and allowing for mobile technology, evaluation and innovation,” said Sheridan Miyamoto, assistant professor of nursing and Solutions Network co-funded faculty member. Utilizing technology, "After Deployment: Adaptive Parenting Tools (ADAPT)" was presented by Abigail Gewirtz, professor of family social science at the University of Minnesota. ADAPT is a 14-week group program that is available online and in a tele-health version. “Deployment creates stressors for our military families, in both parents and children. The ADAPT program helps to alleviate these stressors and improve outcomes for both parents and children,” Gewirtz said. Furthering the technology discussion, a 16-session family education program was presented -- "Families OverComing Under Stress (FOCUS)." FOCUS is a customizable program that is available via an in-home tele-health version and provides families with resiliency trainings where they live. Included with the program is a mobile app called "Focus On the Go!" that contains modeling videos for parents, and games to help families become stronger in the face of challenges. The conference concluded by focusing on how research can be translated to stress-exposed individuals, along with applicable strategies for prevention and improving outcomes. “With an eclectic audience representation, this conference was a unique opportunity to encourage a dialogue between attendees, an essential step in in scientific inquiry and the evolution of scientific knowledge into real-world application and practice,” said Noll. Since the Solutions Network was launched in Fall 2012, The Child Maltreatment Solutions Network conferences have established a concrete frontier of understanding child maltreatment through advanced research. Other conference sponsors include Penn State’s The Bennett Pierce Prevention Research Center, The Child Study Center, The Clinical and Translational Science Institute, and The College of Nursing, and Penn State’s departments of Biobehavioral Health; Human Development and Family Studies; Public Health Sciences; and Educational Psychology, Counseling and Special Education. The Solutions Network was created to advance Penn State’s academic mission of teaching, research, and engagement in the area of child maltreatment. It is part of the Social Science Research Institute at Penn State.
Self-care program helps Pennsylvania juvenile justice caregivers combat stress
Sep 22, 2017Imagine going to work each day knowing that you may need to comfort a tearful 15-year-old as she reveals the devastating details of abuse by her mother’s boyfriend. Or, that you may have to restrain a suicidal teenager to keep him from hurting himself. Or, that you could be attacked by an 18-year-old who thinks he will be sent to jail and make bail (but he won’t). To help staff cope with the stress and strain encountered routinely in these residential facilities, the Pennsylvania Department of Human Services (DHS) through the Office of Children, Youth and Families, Bureau of Juvenile Justice Services (BJJS) is taking action. A new mindfulness-based self-care initiative is being launched to teach youth services workers stress-management techniques needed to reduce the physical and emotional effects of on-the-job stress. BJJS has partnered with Penn State’s Edna Bennett Pierce Prevention Research Center to develop a specialized self-care curriculum and conduct training in collaboration with BJJS training staff. The program will introduce mindfulness skills, attention-focusing practices that incorporate breathing and body awareness to relieve stress. Pennsylvania has long been a leader in juvenile justice reform. It was the first state to participate in the 2004 Models for Change initiative, which called for operational changes to address disproportionate minority contact, and improved mental health and aftercare supports within the juvenile justice system. The state’s commitment to sustain reform and make improvements based on evidence-based strategies continues. “This is just another way we are working to improve the juvenile justice system at every level,” said Lois Huling, director of administration and quality improvement at BJJS. “The challenges our staff face working with high-risk kids cause a lot of personal and professional stress. This program has the potential to make the lives of our staff better, inside and outside of work.” After the state implemented its Juvenile Justice System Enhancement Strategy in 2012, more low-risk youth were diverted from highly restrictive environments. Since then, state-run facilities that typically operate close to full capacity are drawing youth with more serious issues that add to the already enormous pressures on staff. By learning mindfulness-based, self-care techniques to deal with stress on the job, the BJJS staff are joining the ranks of other highly stressful occupations including teachers, police officers and military personnel for whom stress-reduction programs have been developed. BJJS staff, most of whom are new to this type of self-care, are embracing the program. “People are getting excited about the techniques we’ve shown them,” said Sebrina Doyle, a specialist in the practice of mindfulness and program leader. “We are hearing positive feedback and staff are sharing new ideas to mindfully de-stress.” In developing the curriculum, Doyle is drawing from her work with Tish Jennings on an evidence-based, mindfulness training program, "Cultivating Awareness and Resilience in Education," or CARE, which helps teachers reduce stress and promotes awareness, presence, compassion, reflection, and inspiration. Doyle is also incorporating lessons learned from a mindfulness-based study conducted by Nirbhay Singh, on staff who care for people with developmental disabilities showing the cost-effectiveness of teaching these strategies. Some of the stress-reduction tools Doyle is introducing to staff include “Navy Seal” box breath, a controlled breathing exercise, and “Soles of Feet,” a body awareness practice. Mindfulness-based techniques have been used successfully to treat chronic health problems, post-traumatic stress disorder, depression and anxiety; reduce conflict racial and age bias; improve focus; and prevent substance use and relapse. “Through implementation of this program, the hope is to reduce stress-related illness and injuries, absences, burnout and job turnover … because despite the physical attacks and exposure to secondary trauma, the staff here love their jobs. It’s high risk, but it’s also high reward. They stay because they love the work,” said Huling. By addressing the stress-related problems of its youth services workers, Pennsylvania once again is proving its leadership in juvenile justice — this time by strengthening the safety net for Pennsylvania’s troubled youth by caring for the caregivers. Their efforts with youth are sometimes the last chance these children have to turn their lives around and escape a destiny of corrections, or even death.
Physical abuse and punishment impact children’s academic performance
Sep 19, 2017A Penn State researcher and her collaborator found that physical abuse was associated with decreases in children’s cognitive performance, while non-abusive forms of physical punishment were independently associated with reduced school engagement and increased peer isolation. Sarah Font, assistant professor of sociology and co-funded faculty member of the Child Maltreatment Solutions Network, and Jamie Cage, assistant professor in Virginia Commonwealth University’s School of Social Work, found that children’s performances and engagement in the classroom are significantly influenced by their exposure to mild, harsh and abusive physical punishment in the home. Their study was recently published in Child Abuse and Neglect. While corporal punishment and physical abuse have been linked with reduced cognitive development and academic achievement in children previously, Font’s study is one of the few that simultaneously examines abusive and non-abusive physical punishment as reported by both children and caregivers. Even if physical punishment does not result in serious physical injury, children may experience fear and distress, and this stress has been found to negatively impact brain structure, development and overall well-being. “This punishment style is meant to inflict minor pain so the child will change their behavior to avoid future punishment, but it does not give children the opportunity to learn how to behave appropriately through explanation and reasoning,” stated Font. In this study, over 650 children and their caregivers were examined in three areas of physical punishment: mild corporal punishment, harsh corporal punishment, and physical abuse. The groups reported their use or experience with physical punishment and researchers then measured cognitive outcomes, school engagement, and peer isolation in the children. The data was analyzed to determine trajectories between cognitive and academic performance and how initial and varying exposure to physical punishment and abuse influences them. “We found that while all forms of physical punishment and abuse are associated with declines in school engagement, only initial exposure to physical abuse has a significant negative influence on cognitive performance, and only harsh corporal punishment notably increases peer isolation in children and was observed in both child and caregiver reports. This suggests that preventing physical abuse could promote children’s cognitive performance, but it may not be enough to get children to be involved and well-adjusted in school,” said Font. Considering that mild physical punishment can develop into physical abuse and that even these mild punishments have consequences on children’s cognitive and social school functioning, parent education on alternative forms of punishment may be one solution to prevent physical abuse. Programs that reach parents during services that they regularly use may be one way to give them alternative punishment technique education. This could be a medical professional informing parents during a child’s health visit or staff members of an Early Head Start program providing parent education during the child’s enrollment. “Further research and efforts in these types of interventions needs to continue so we can learn more,” Font said. This research was made possible support from the Population Research Institute, part of the Social Science Research Institute.
Still time to register for child maltreatment conference
Sep 12, 2017The detection and prevention of child abuse in military families via practical and evidence-based solutions will be explored at Penn State’s sixth annual Child Maltreatment Solutions Network Conference. In partnership with the Clearinghouse for Military Family Readiness, the conference will be held from Sept. 27-28 at the Nittany Lion Inn on Penn State's University Park campus. This event promotes the collaboration of researchers, policy analysts, and practice professionals to discuss and determine how to take military family research and programs and use them broadly. All Penn State faculty, staff and students can register for the conference at a reduced rate. Registration will take place up until the start of the conference. The purpose of the conference is to present this research to determine if there are disparities in current knowledge, support shared aspects, and to take the information that both the military and child maltreatment and welfare research has gathered and integrate them to apply to general practice. Session topics include systematic determination of child abuse and neglect, intervention tactics including combined parent-child cognitive behavioral therapy for families that physically abuse, prevention programs to reduce family stress, and solutions and next steps. The sessions incorporate "translation" and "future-directions" aspects that emphasize how the research can be used in situations such as treating individuals exposed to stress, strategies for prevention, mitigating negative outcomes, and reversibility in child abuse. Small-group discussions will be incorporated after each session to allow communication between researchers, trainees and practitioners on how to utilize the findings and material presented throughout the event. The Child Maltreatment Solutions Network was created to advance Penn State’s academic mission of teaching, research and engagement in the area of child maltreatment. Since the Solutions Network was launched in fall 2012, its conferences have established a concrete frontier of understanding child maltreatment through advanced research. It is part of the Social Science Research Institute at Penn State.
'Ask the Experts' series features Sheridan Miyamoto
Aug 28, 2017The latest episode in the “Ask the Experts” series features Sheridan Miyamoto, who discusses the problem of sexual assault and health care’s response in underserved and rural communities. Watch the interview. In the “Ask the Experts” video series, produced by the Center for Health Care and Policy Research (CHCPR) at Penn State, leaders in the industry share their perspectives on key topics affecting health care delivery and policy. The series is designed to reveal where and how important policy and practice topics intersect, and highlight ways in which research can advance that integration. View past episodes of “Ask the Experts.” Sheridan Miyamoto is an assistant professor in the College of Nursing and is a faculty member of the Child Maltreatment Solutions Network at Penn State University. Miyamoto received her doctorate in nursing science and health-care leadership from the Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing at UC Davis. Her clinical work as a nurse practitioner at the UC Davis Child and Adolescent Abuse Resource and Evaluation Center focused on providing health and forensic services to children in Northern California. She supported six rural sites through live telehealth sexual assault consultations, allowing children to receive quality care within their own community. Miyamoto’s research interests include utilizing administrative databases to improve risk tools to identify children at risk of maltreatment, identification and prevention of commercial sexual exploitation of children (trafficking), and the use of telehealth technology to improve sexual assault forensic care in rural communities. Miyamoto is the principal investigator of the Pennsylvania Sexual Assault Forensic Examination Telehealth (SAFE-T) Center, a project funded by the Department of Justice to enhance access to quality forensic services in underserved communities. Dennis P. Scanlon, distinguished professor of health policy and administration and director of CHCPR in the College of Health and Human Development at Penn State, interviews the guests on “Ask the Experts.” Scanlon’s research focuses on understanding the role of measurement, incentives, quality improvement and individual and organizational behavior change for improving important health care outcomes, including clinical quality, patient experience and economic efficiency. The mission of CHCPR is to create and disseminate new scientific knowledge that will help private and public decision-makers to develop cost effective services and programs that improve people's health. CHCPR helps researchers interested in all aspects of health services and health care improvement find funding, develop quality research designs, collect and analyze data, and disseminate findings to the right audiences.
Early registration ending for child maltreatment conference
Aug 25, 2017The detection and prevention of child abuse in military families via practical and evidence-based solutions will be explored at Penn State’s 6th annual Child Maltreatment Solutions Network conference. In partnership with the Clearinghouse for Military Family Readiness, the conference will be held from September 27 – 28 at the Nittany Lion Inn, University Park, Pa. This event promotes the collaboration of researchers, policy analysts, and practice professionals to discuss and determine how to take military family research and programs and use them broadly. Early reduced registration for the event will be ending on September 1. Additionally, all Penn State faculty, staff and students can register for the conference at a reduced rate. The purpose of the conference is to present this research to determine if there are disparities in current knowledge, support shared aspects, and to take the information that both the military and child maltreatment and welfare research has gathered and integrate them to apply to general practice. Session topics include systematic determination of child abuse and neglect, intervention tactics including combined parent-child cognitive behavioral therapy for families that physically abuse, prevention programs to reduce family stress, and solutions and next steps. The sessions incorporate ‘translation’ and ‘future-directions’ aspects that emphasize how the research can be used in situations such as treating individuals exposed to stress, strategies for prevention, mitigating negative outcomes, and reversibility in child abuse. Small group discussions will be incorporated after each session to allow communication between researchers, trainees, and practitioners on how to utilize the findings and material presented throughout the event. For more information about the conference and to register, go to http://solutionsnetwork.psu.edu/conf17 The Child Maltreatment Solutions Network was created to advance Penn State’s academic mission of teaching, research, and engagement in the area of child maltreatment. Since the Solutions Network was launched in Fall 2012, its conferences have established a concrete frontier of understanding child maltreatment through advanced research. It is part of the Social Science Research Institute at Penn State.
Register today for the sixth annual child maltreatment conference
Aug 15, 2017The United States Military and its efforts, programs, and research into the detection and prevention of child abuse in military families will be explored at Penn State’s 6th annual Child Maltreatment Solutions Network conference. In partnership with the Clearinghouse for Military Family Readiness, “Scientific Synergy & Innovation from Military Family & Child Welfare Contexts”, the conference will be held from September 27 – 28 at the Nittany Lion Inn, University Park, Pa. This event promotes the collaboration of researchers, policy analysts, and practice professionals to discuss and determine how to take military family research and programs and use them broadly. Jennie Noll, Solutions Network director and professor of human development and family studies at Penn State, notes that the military and civilian sectors often work independently, but there is much to gain in working together and gleaning knowledge from each other. “Research has made vast improvements in child abuse detection and prevention, family advocacy, trauma treatment, and long-term psychological and physiological consequences for the victims. Working together rather than in silos will help us expand our collective knowledge around child abuse and neglect to identify similarities and differences within the child welfare and military sectors.” The purpose of the conference is to present this research to determine if there are disparities in current knowledge, support shared aspects, and allow time for cooperative discussion between its attendees to take the information that both the military and child maltreatment and welfare research has gathered and integrate them to apply to general practice. Session topics include systematic determination of child abuse and neglect, intervention tactics including combined parent-child cognitive behavioral therapy for families that physically abuse, prevention programs to reduce family stress, and solutions and next steps. The sessions incorporate ‘translation’ and ‘future-directions’ aspects that emphasize how the research can be used in situations such as treating stress-exposed individuals, and strategies for prevention, alleviating injuries, and reversibility in child abuse. Small group discussions will be incorporated after each session to allow communication between researchers, trainees, and practitioners on how to utilize the findings and material presented throughout the event. For more information about the conference and to register, go to http://protectchildren.psu.edu/conf17. The Child Maltreatment Solutions Network was created to advance Penn State’s academic mission of teaching, research, and engagement in the area of child maltreatment. Since the Solutions Network was launched in Fall 2012, its conferences have established a concrete frontier of understanding child maltreatment through advanced research. It is part of the Social Science Research Institute at Penn State.
Shalev named Mark T. Greenberg Early Career Professor
Jul 30, 2017Idan Shalev, assistant professor of biobehavioral health and Child Maltreatment Solutions Network co-funded faculty member, is the recipient of the Mark T. Greenberg Early Career Professorship for the Study of Children's Health and Development. Shalev's research entails an interdisciplinary approach to identify mechanisms underpinning the biological embedding of stress across the lifespan. His research combines the disciplines of molecular genetics, endocrinology, neurobiology and psychology. This systems approach integrates data sources across multiple levels of genomic, biomarker and phenotypic data. He tests the effects of stress from early life on change in telomere length and other biomarkers of aging across the life course, and the consequences of change in telomere length for physical and mental health problems