Publications & Projects


publication

Experiences with COVID-19 stressors and parents’ use of neglectful, harsh, and positive parenting practices in the Northeastern United States

Experiences with COVID-19 stressors and parents’ use of neglectful, harsh, and positive parenting practices in the Northeastern United States

Connell, C.M. & Strambler, M.J. Experiences with COVID-19 stressors and parents’ use of neglectful, harsh, and positive parenting practices in the Northeastern United States. Child Maltreatment, 26, 255-266, 2021.

publication

Experiences with COVID-19 stressors and parents’ use of neglectful, harsh, and positive parenting practices in the Northeastern United States.

Experiences with COVID-19 stressors and parents’ use of neglectful, harsh, and positive parenting practices in the Northeastern United States.

publication

Enhancing capacity for trauma-informed care in child welfare: Impact of a statewide systems change initiative

Enhancing capacity for trauma-informed care in child welfare: Impact of a statewide systems change initiative

publication

Effects of community-based wraparound services on child and caregiver outcomes following child protective service involvement.

Effects of community-based wraparound services on child and caregiver outcomes following child protective service involvement.

publication

Legislating to prevent adverse childhood experiences: Growth and opportunities for evidence-based policymaking and prevention.

Legislating to prevent adverse childhood experiences: Growth and opportunities for evidence-based policymaking and prevention.

publication

Receptive language abilities for females exposed to early life adversity: Modification by epigenetic age acceleration at midlife in a 30-year prospective cohort study.

Receptive language abilities for females exposed to early life adversity: Modification by epigenetic age acceleration at midlife in a 30-year prospective cohort study.

publication

Childhood Maltreatment and DNA Methylation: A Systematic Review

Childhood Maltreatment and DNA Methylation: A Systematic Review

Rubens, M., Bruenig, D., Adams, J. A. M., Suresh, S. M., Sathyanarayanan, A., Haslam, D., Shenk, C. E., Mathews, B., & Mehta, D. (in press). 

publication

Cortisol trajectories measured prospectively across thirty years of female development following exposure to childhood sexual abuse: Moderation by epigenetic age acceleration at midlife.

Cortisol trajectories measured prospectively across thirty years of female development following exposure to childhood sexual abuse: Moderation by epigenetic age acceleration at midlife.

Shenk, C.E., Felt, J.M.*, Ram, N., O’Donnell, K.J., Sliwinski, M.J., Pokhvisneva, I., Benson, L., Meaney, M.J., Putnam, F.W., Noll, J.G. (2022). Psychoneuroendocrinology, 136, PMCID: PMC8724404.

publication

Respiratory sinus arrhythmia change during Trauma-Focused Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy: Results from a randomized controlled feasibility trial.

Respiratory sinus arrhythmia change during Trauma-Focused Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy: Results from a randomized controlled feasibility trial.

publication

Behavioral and pharmacological interventions for the prevention and treatment of psychiatric disorders with children exposed to maltreatment.

Behavioral and pharmacological interventions for the prevention and treatment of psychiatric disorders with children exposed to maltreatment.

project

Caregiver-Child Communication (C3) to Promote Resilience following Child-Maltreatment

Caregiver-Child Communication (C3) to Promote Resilience following Child-Maltreatment

The C3 Project is supported by an NIH P50 Center Grant (P50HD089922; Noll, PI) that is conducting a multi-wave, prospective cohort study, the Child Health Study (CHS; Shenk, Co-I), examining the impact of child maltreatment on multiple biological systems and subsequent pediatric health. One of Shenk Lab's contributions to the CHS is the use of observational methods to quantify caregiver-child dyadic communication and establish how specific patterns of communication are involved in promoting resilience to adverse health following exposure to child maltreatment.

Caregivers and their children participating in the CHS (N=600 and counting!) complete three separate interaction tasks designed to promote relationship quality and dyadic problem-solving. Caregiver-child communication is then sampled using a multilevel, intensive longitudinal design, where specific processes are quantified in 30-second epochs to estimate dynamic change within and across tasks. Furthermore, families in the CHS complete waves of data collection every two years with the same three interaction tasks administered at each wave, allowing for inferences about how specific caregiver-child communication patterns change from childhood to adulthood and in response to child maltreatment.

Following a deep phenotyping and multiple levels of analysis approach, data obtained from these observational methods will ultimately be included with biological, behavioral, and other environmental mechanisms of adverse health being measured in the CHS, such as structural and functional MRI, genome-wide DNA methylation, immune function, cognitive development, psychiatric function, and more. The data generated from the C3 project will inform models of how the experience of pediatric trauma “gets under the skin” and whether parent-child communication can facilitate reductions in risk for adverse health.

T32 Fellows will have the opportunity to learn and apply two different observational coding paradigms for quantifying caregiver behaviors and child affect (positive and negative). Research and statistical methods where Fellows can receive training include: observational methods, measuring inter-rater reliability, multi-level modeling, and dynamic systems modeling.

Research Team

Profile photo for Chad Shenk, Ph.D.
Chad Shenk, Ph.D.

Professor

Department of Human Development and Family Studies /

Department of Pediatrics (Joint Appointment)

publication

Assembling a cohort for in-depth, longitudinal assessments of the biological embedding of child maltreatment: Methods, complexities, and lessons learned

Assembling a cohort for in-depth, longitudinal assessments of the biological embedding of child maltreatment: Methods, complexities, and lessons learned

publication

Informant Discrepancies in Child Maltreatment Reporting: A Systematic Review

Informant Discrepancies in Child Maltreatment Reporting: A Systematic Review

New systematic review by PSU Psychology graduate student Daryl Cooley and her advisor and CMSN faculty, Dr. Yo Jackson, shows consistent disagreement between reporters (e.g., official case file and youth self-report) on what kinds of child abuse a given child has experienced –  could be important for knowing how to intervene.

publication

The first NIH Capstone Center for Child Maltreatment: Assembling a cohort for in-depth, longitudinal assessments of the biological embedding of child maltreatment

The first NIH Capstone Center for Child Maltreatment: Assembling a cohort for in-depth, longitudinal assessments of the biological embedding of child maltreatment

publication

Child maltreatment and substance use in emerging adulthood: Internalizing and externalizing behaviors at the transition to adolescence as indirect pathways

Child maltreatment and substance use in emerging adulthood: Internalizing and externalizing behaviors at the transition to adolescence as indirect pathways

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