Casey Mullins is a PhD student in Educational Psychology. Her research interests focus around exploring the effect experiencing maltreatment has on students’ academic outcomes and identifying academic mechanisms, which may be sources of intervention that mitigate some of the negative effects of maltreatment.

Specifically, her research focuses on academic engagement as potential mechanism. Mullins is on the Developmental Processes track with her primary mentor, Carlomagno Panlilio, and one of her secondary mentors, Jennie Noll. She is also on the Policy and Administrative Data track with her other secondary mentor, Sarah Font. As a fellow, Mullins is working with Dr. Noll to train to collect data for the Child Health Study and is working with Dr. Panlilio and Dr. Noll to conduct secondary data analyses of the Child Health Study data to examine the psychometric properties of the academic engagement measure used in the study.

Mullins is also working with Dr. Panlilio and Dr. Font to explore academic engagement as a mediator in the relationship between maltreatment and academic performance and to examine protective and risk factors, such as parent-child and teacher-student relationships, foster care placement, and trauma symptomology, that may affect this mediating relationship.