Aishwarya Ganguli is currently a third-year graduate student in Biobehavioral Health (BBH). She received her B.A in Psychology with a minor in Public Health in 2019.
Her research interests include examining how early life adversities such as exposure to maltreatment, harsh parenting, or lower socio-economic status could impact life-long physiological outcomes such as inflammation or metabolic syndrome. Further, she is interested in understanding the psycho-social mechanisms, such as social support, that could explain the association between childhood maltreatment and health outcomes. Lastly, she is interested in translating her lab work (maltreatment, physiological measures, psycho-social mechanisms) to policies and community-based programs to improve the care and health outcomes for individuals exposed to childhood maltreatment. She is on the Biology and Health and Policy and Administrative Data Systems training tracks. Her primary mentor is Dr. Hannah Schreier, and her secondary mentor is Dr. Sheridan Miyamoto.
Through her T-32 training, she plans to process data looking at immune markers and metabolic markers for the Child Health Study and look at the role of social support in the association between child maltreatment and physical health outcomes. Simultaneously, she will be training in Dr. Miyamoto’s lab to learn about the Sexual Assault Forensic Examination- Telehealth (SAFE-T) program and its impact on improving care for individuals exposed to sexual assault in underserved communities.
Aishwarya Ganguli is currently a third-year graduate student in Biobehavioral Health (BBH). She received her B.A in Psychology with a minor in Public Health in 2019.
Her research interests include examining how early life adversities such as exposure to maltreatment, harsh parenting, or lower socio-economic status could impact life-long physiological outcomes such as inflammation or metabolic syndrome. Further, she is interested in understanding the psycho-social mechanisms, such as social support, that could explain the association between childhood maltreatment and health outcomes. Lastly, she is interested in translating her lab work (maltreatment, physiological measures, psycho-social mechanisms) to policies and community-based programs to improve the care and health outcomes for individuals exposed to childhood maltreatment. She is on the Biology and Health and Policy and Administrative Data Systems training tracks. Her primary mentor is Dr. Hannah Schreier, and her secondary mentor is Dr. Sheridan Miyamoto.
Through her T-32 training, she plans to process data looking at immune markers and metabolic markers for the Child Health Study and look at the role of social support in the association between child maltreatment and physical health outcomes. Simultaneously, she will be training in Dr. Miyamoto’s lab to learn about the Sexual Assault Forensic Examination- Telehealth (SAFE-T) program and its impact on improving care for individuals exposed to sexual assault in underserved communities.
Anneke Olson is currently a third year graduate student in Human Development and Family Studies (HDFS). She received her B.S. in Psychology and B.A. in Sociology from Tulane University in 2016.
Her research interests include elucidating the mechanisms underlying early child maltreatment and later outcomes, as well as the development and evaluation of programs for children and families impacted by maltreatment. Relatedly, she is on the Developmental Processes and Prevention and Treatment training tracks. Her primary mentor is Dr. Chad Shenk, and her secondary mentors are Drs. Erika Lunkenheimer, and Sy-Miin Chow.
Through the training of the T32 and the expertise of her mentors, she is specifically interested in learning about observational methodology as well as innovative dynamic systems methods to study familial relationships in the context of child maltreatment. She will begin this work by analyzing observational data of parent-child relationships collected in the ongoing Child Health Study.
Brian Allen, Psy.D.,is an associate professor of Pediatrics and Psychiatry at the Penn State College of Medicine and Director of Mental Health Services in the Center for the Protection of Children at the Penn State Children's Hospital. His research focuses on the developmental impact of childhood trauma and maltreatment, including the efficacy of mental health interventions in ameliorating that impact. More specifically, he investigates the role of attachment processes in post-maltreatment development and treatment outcome, the etiology and treatment of problematic sexual behavior in pre-teen children, and the dissemination and implementation of evidence-based treatments. He is responsible for directing the provision of clinical services at the Stine Foundation TLC Research and Treatment Center, an outpatient mental health program serving maltreated children and their families.
2004, M.S., Clinical Psychology, Eastern Michigan University
2008, Psy.D., Clinical Psychology, Indiana University of Pennsylvania
2008, Internship, Clinical Psychology, CAARE Diagnostic and Treatment Center, UC Davis Children's Hospital
2009, Fellowship, National Center for Child Traumatic Stress, UCLA & Duke University
Expertise
child sexual abuse; child physical abuse; developmental sequelae of sexual and physical abuse; attachment theory; childhood problematic sexual behavior; trauma-focused cognitive-behavioral therapy; parent-child interaction therapy
Research Interests
mediators and moderators of treatment outcome; the role of attachment processes in development and treatment; problematic sexual behavior of preteen children; application of evidence-based treatments to understudied populations; historical context of child abuse
The AAT+TF-CBT project (Shenk, Co-I) is an NIH-funded (Allen, PI: R21HD091887) randomized feasibility trial examining the tolerability and acceptability of delivering TF-CBT while a service dog is present throughout the active phase of treatment. TF-CBT is one of the few well-established interventions for children experiencing maltreatment and this clinical trial is examining whether introducing a service dog during standard administration of TF-CBT enhances treatment effects above and beyond TF-CBT alone. The laboratory’s contribution to this project is overseeing the collection, editing, and analysis of electrocardiogram data obtained at pre-treatment as well as at strategic sessions during the active treatment phase. Current work on this project involves generating estimates of the respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA), an index of parasympathetic control of cardiac activity, in 30-second epochs and modeling within and between session change in RSA as a potential mechanism of action in TF-CBT when treating child maltreatment-related post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Potential opportunities for CMT32 Fellows include modeling RSA reactivity to the Trier Social Stress Test administered at pre-treatment to determine whether such reactivity is related to within-session changes in RSA and PTSD symptom severity at post-treatment.
This is a multi-faceted line of research that includes a number of distinct, albeit related, projects. The first is a multi-institutional collaboration to develop and psychometrically test a new measure of sexual behavior among children, including problematic sexual behavior (PSB). Second, data analysis is progressing on a number of data sets to examine etiological factors related to the development of PSB among children. Third, we have developed and pilot tested an intervention for children displaying PSB and grant-funding to conduct a randomized controlled trial of the intervention is currently under review. To date, these projects have been funded by the Children's Miracle Network and the Penn State Social Science Research Institute.
This longitudinal project aims to examine factors related to a maltreated child's adjustment and development following adoption. Specific factors assessed include the child's psychophysiological stress response, attachment representations, self-regulation, and temperament. In addition, various factors of the parent-child relationship and the home environment are being examined. The goal of this project is to identify those factors most predictive of adaptive development post-adoption to better inform treatment and services.
Selected Grants
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Integrating AAT into TF-CBT for Maltreated Children: A Randomized Feasibility Trial (R21HD091887)
2017 – 2019
Assessing and Updating the Norms of Child Sexual Behavior
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Development and pilot testing of a treatment for child sexual behavior problems
2017 – 2022
Penn State’s Translational Center for Child Maltreatment Studies (P50HD089922)
Selected Publications
Allen, B., Berliner, L., Shenk, C. E., Bendixsen, B., Zellhoefer, A., Dickmann, C. R., Arnold, B., & Chen, M. J. (in press). Development and pilot testing of a phase-based treatment for preteen children with problematic sexual behavior. Evidence-based Practice in Child and Adolescent Mental Health.
Allen, B., Timmer, S. G., & Urquiza, A. J. (2014). Parent-Child Interaction Therapy as an attachment-based intervention: Theoretical rationale and pilot data with adopted children. Children and Youth Services Review, 47, 334-341.
Allen, B., Timmer, S. G., & Urquiza, A. J. (2016). Parent-Child Interaction Therapy for sexual concerns of children with maltreatment histories: A preliminary investigation. Child Abuse & Neglect, 56, 80-88.
Allen, B., & Hoskowitz, N. A. (2017). Structured trauma-focused CBT and unstructured play/experiential techniques in the treatment of sexually abused children: A field study with practicing clinicians. Child Maltreatment, 22, 112-120.
Allen, B., Bendixsen, B., Babcock Fenerci, R., & Green, J. (2018). Assessing disorganized attachment representations: A systematic psychometric review and meta-analysis of the Manchester Child Attachment Story Task. Attachment & Human Development, 20, 553-577.
Carlomagno C. Panlilio, Ph.D. is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Educational Psychology, Counseling, and Special Education and a faculty member with the Child Maltreatment Solutions Network at the Pennsylvania State University. The overarching goal of Dr. Panlilio’s program of research is to understand the dynamic interplay between maltreatment, context, and development, and how these processes influence individual differences in learning. His research is guided by an interdisciplinary approach that draws from Developmental Science, Educational Psychology, Statistics, and Social Welfare to examine the multisystemic influences on early adversity and children’s development and learningover time. More specifically, he is interested in further explicating self-regulation and self-regulated learning as key developmental and learning processes that explain variability in the academic outcomes of children with a history of maltreatment.
2000, B.A., Psychology, California State University Long Beach
2005, M.S., Family Studies, University of Maryland College Park
2015, Ph.D., Human Development, University of Maryland College Park
Expertise
child abuse and neglect, self-regulation, maltreatment and learning processes, academic competence, trauma-informed classrooms, dynamic and person-centered methodologies
Research Interests
practice and policy implications of child maltreatment, self-regulation, school readiness & academic achievement, parenting and family processes in at-risk environments, student-teacher relationship, maltreatment and learning processes
A major goal of this project is the development of a testable trauma-sensitive curriculum that can serve as an important classroom-level intervention by providing educators with the necessary knowledge and skills to address the learning needs of young children who have experienced trauma.
The online learning program, iLookOut for Child Abuse (iLookOut) was designed to increase knowledge and improve attitudes about mandated reporting of child abuse for Early Childhood Caregivers and Educators. A perennial challenge for educational interventions is how to help learners retain and apply what they have learned. The goal of this project is to examine the effectiveness of digital scaffolding procedures to increase learner engagement and motivation.
Selected Grants
2017 – present
Improving the social-emotional wellbeing of children with disabilities and early traumatic experiences: Implementation of the PATHS curriculum using a teacher coaching model
2017 – 2018
Trauma sensitive pedagogy for young children: A curriculum for early childhood educators
Selected Publications
Panlilio, C., Miyamoto, S., Font, S., & Schreier, H.M.C. (2019). Assessing risk of commercial sexual exploitation among children involved in the child welfare system. Child Abuse & Neglect.
Jones Harden, B., Duncan, A. D., Morrison, C. I., Panlilio, C., & Clyman, R. B. (2015). Compliance and internalization in preschool foster children. Children and Youth Services Review, 55, 103 – 110.
Jones Harden, B., Panlilio, C., Monahan, C., Duncan, A. D., Duchene, M., & Clyman, R. B. (2016). Emotion regulation of preschool children in foster care: The influence of maternal depression and parenting. Journal of Child and Family Studies, 1 – 11. doi:10.1007/s10826-016-0636-x.
Panlilio, C., Jones Harden, B., & Harring (2017). School readiness of maltreated preschoolers and later school achievement: The role of emotion regulation, language, and context. Child Abuse & Neglect, 75, 82 - 91. Available online: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.chiabu.2017.06.004.
Panlilio, C., Hlavek, E., & Ferrara, A. (2018). Neurobiological impact of trauma. In A. D. Hunter (Ed.). Art for children experiencing psychological trauma: A guide for educators and school-based professionals. New York, NY: Routledge.
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.
Catherine Diercks is a fourth-year doctoral student in Developmental Psychology at Penn State. She completed her undergraduate and post-baccalaureate work at the University of Oregon under the guidance of Drs. Philip Fisher and Caitlin Fausey.
Catherine works with her primary mentor, Dr. Erika Lunkenheimer, to better understand the role of parental cognitive factors (e.g., attributions, executive functions) in the etiology of harsh and neglectful parenting, especially in parents who experienced their own early life adversities.
Catherine also works Dr. Douglas Teti to learn more about supporting parents as these processes unfold across the transition to parenthood, and with Dr. Timothy Brick to learn more about improving the ecological validity of methods used to observe harsh and neglectful parenting.
Chad Shenk, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor in the Departments of Human Development & Family Studies and Pediatrics at Penn State. He is also a licensed clinical psychologist with specialty training in pediatrics and trauma exposure and actively sees patients exposed to child maltreatment through Penn State’s Department of Pediatrics. Dr. Shenk’s basic science research examines the longitudinal pathways linking child maltreatment to the onset of adverse health outcomes across the lifespan. This work identifies risk mechanisms of various health conditions in the child maltreatment population using a multiple levels of analysis approach. His clinical trials and translational research therefore centers on the optimization of treatments applied following exposure to child maltreatment by targeting identified risk mechanisms more directly and effectively.
2010 Postdoctoral Fellow, Child Maltreatment, Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center
2007 Doctor of Philosophy/Master of Arts, Clinical Psychology, University of Nevada, Reno
2007 Predoctoral Intern, Child Clinical Psychology, University of Rochester Medical Center
1998 Bachelor of Arts, Psychology, The Pennsylvania State University
Expertise
assessment of pediatric trauma; prospective cohort and clinical trials methodology; long-term health consequences of child maltreatment; etiology and treatment of psychiatric disorders following child trauma exposure
Research Interests
improving methods of risk estimation in child maltreatment research; biological embedding of child maltreatment; identification of transdiagnostic mechanisms across multiple levels of analysis; optimization of preventive and clinical interventions for child trauma
Contamination occurs in many different experimental designs outside the field of child maltreatment. In this project, contamination refers to the presence of child maltreatment in an already established, non-child maltreatment comparison condition. Research has shown that failure to detect and control contamination biases effect size estimates for child maltreatment outcomes and leads to variation in the significance and magnitude of those estimates within and across studies, increasing the chances of discovery and replication failures. The Detecting and Controlling Contamination Bias Project (Shenk, PI; Shores and Ram, Co-I’s) is supported by an NIH award (R03HD104739) examining contamination in prospective cohort studies of child maltreatment.
The current project is using existing data from a large, multi-site, multi-wave prospective cohort study of confirmed child maltreatment (N=1354) to accomplish two specific aims: 1) estimate the prevalence of contamination, defined as any self-reported instance of child maltreatment by members of the established comparison condition, and 2) test five different statistical approaches for reducing bias in risk estimates for child behavior problems attributable to contamination.
Finally, this project will conduct extensive data simulations based on these results to extend inferences across different research conditions, including variations in sample size, contamination prevalence, statistical power, and effect size magnitude. The end product of this project will be to disseminate to the larger scientific field the optimal methods for detecting and controlling contamination bias across a range of research conditions in order to minimize variation in the significance and magnitude of effect size estimates reported across prospective studies. T32 Fellows will have the opportunity to generate, execute, and report results from statistical models aiming to establish the optimal detection and control of contamination. Statistical models where Fellows can receive training include, multi-level modeling, propensity score matching, and augmented synthetic controls.
This grant (R01HL158577; PI: Schreier) takes advantage of a large, well-characterized, prospective cohort of youth who were recently investigated for child maltreatment and comparison youth without a maltreatment history to better understand the physiological mechanisms between early adversity and cardiovascular diseases risk. By taking advantage of detailed assessments of immune function coupled with administrative health care records and thorough behavioral and psychosocial assessments, we will prospectively examine links between child maltreatment and cardiovascular disease risk, with the hopes of informing future prevention and intervention efforts.
ECAP (Shenk, PI; O’Donnell, Sliwinski, Ram, and Noll, Co-I’s) is supported by an NIH award (R01AG059682) examining the impact of child maltreatment on epigenetic age acceleration, a cross-tissue index of the biological aging of cells that is derived from DNA methylation across the genome and has added explanatory power of adulthood health beyond chronological age. This project will first examine epigenetic age acceleration and its relation to mid-life cognitive function in the Female Growth and Development Study (FGDS), a 30-year prospective cohort study of the long-term effects of childhood sexual abuse. The FGDS cohort also provides an unprecedented opportunity to test the mediational properties of glucocorticoid remodeling occurring over the 20 years following exposure to substantiated child sexual abuse on epigenetic age acceleration as well as the risks associated with epigenetic age acceleration and a comprehensive assessment of cognitive function at mid-life. Once statistical models of epigenetic age acceleration and cognitive outcomes are developed using data from the FGDS discovery cohort, they will be exported for replication in independent, international cohorts to extend models to more diverse samples, including older ages and alternative cognitive outcomes (e.g. mild cognitive impairment). Results will inform precision-based efforts at preventing, delaying, or reversing the onset of various cognitive aging outcomes across different points of the lifespan.
LEARS is a genetic case-control association study (Shenk, PI: KL2TR000078) examining the genetic and epigenetic mechanisms associated with the onset of psychiatric disorders in the child maltreatment population. Children between the ages of 8 and 15 years of age who have experienced substantiated child maltreatment participated in this study. Biospecimens (oral fluid, buccal swab) collected in this study are being used to generate estimates of variation in DNA and DNA methylation to predict the course and severity of psychiatric symptoms and diagnoses obtained from a structured psychiatric interview. Results from this study will provide insight into the genetic, epigenetic, and psychological contributions for these disorders in the child maltreatment population so that interventions targeting these processes can be developed or applied more effectively. CMT32 Fellows would have the opportunity to examine a variety of epigenetic age acceleration estimates and their relation to a host of psychiatric disorders and symptom severity with the existing data collected in this project.
The AAT+TF-CBT project (Shenk, Co-I) is an NIH-funded (Allen, PI: R21HD091887) randomized feasibility trial examining the tolerability and acceptability of delivering TF-CBT while a service dog is present throughout the active phase of treatment. TF-CBT is one of the few well-established interventions for children experiencing maltreatment and this clinical trial is examining whether introducing a service dog during standard administration of TF-CBT enhances treatment effects above and beyond TF-CBT alone. The laboratory’s contribution to this project is overseeing the collection, editing, and analysis of electrocardiogram data obtained at pre-treatment as well as at strategic sessions during the active treatment phase. Current work on this project involves generating estimates of the respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA), an index of parasympathetic control of cardiac activity, in 30-second epochs and modeling within and between session change in RSA as a potential mechanism of action in TF-CBT when treating child maltreatment-related post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Potential opportunities for CMT32 Fellows include modeling RSA reactivity to the Trier Social Stress Test administered at pre-treatment to determine whether such reactivity is related to within-session changes in RSA and PTSD symptom severity at post-treatment.
Selected Grants
2017 – 2022
Penn State’s Translational Center for Child Maltreatment Studies (P50HD089922)
2018 – 2022
Epigenetic and Cognitive Aging Project (R01AG059682)
2020 – 2025
Creating the Next Generation of Scholars in Child Maltreatment Science (T32HD101390)
2021 – 2023
Controlling Contamination Bias in Child Maltreatment Research (R03HD104739)
Selected Publications
(* = Student or Postdoctoral Fellow Authorship)
Shenk, C.E., Rausch, J.R., Shores, K.A., Allen, E.K.,* & Olson, A.E.* (2021). Controlling contamination in child maltreatment research: Impact on effect size estimates for child behavior problems measured throughout childhood and adolescence. Development and Psychopathology.
Noll, J.G., Haag, A.C., Shenk, C.E., Wright, M.F., Barnes, J.E., Koram, M., Malgaroli, M., Foley, D.J., Kouril, M., & Bonanno, G.A. (2021). An observational study of Internet behaviors for adolescent females following sexual abuse. Nature Human Behavior.
Allen, E.K.*, Desir, M.*, & Shenk, C.E. (2021). Child maltreatment and adolescent externalizing behavior: Examining the indirect and cross-lagged pathways of prosocial peer activities. Child Abuse & Neglect.
Allen, B., Shenk, C.E., Dreschel, N.E., Wang, M., Bucher, A.M., Desir, M.P., Chen, M.J., & Grabowski, S.R. (2021). Integrating animal-assisted therapy into TF-CBT for abused youth with PTSD: A randomized controlled feasibility trial. Child Maltreatment.
Shenk, C.E., O’Donnell, K.J., Pokhvisneva, I., Kobor, M.S., Meaney, M.J., Bensman, H.E., Allen, E.K.*, & Olson, A.E.* (2021). Epigenetic age acceleration and risk for post-traumatic stress disorder following exposure to substantiated child maltreatment. Journal of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology.
Olson, A.E.*, Shenk, C.E., Noll, J.G., & Allen, B. (2021). Child maltreatment and substance use in emerging adulthood: Internalizing and externalizing behaviors at the transition to adolescence as indirect pathways. Child Maltreatment.
Schreier, H.M.C., Heim, C.M., Rose, E.J., Shalev, I., Shenk, C.E., & Noll, J.G. (2021). The first NIH Capstone Center for Child Maltreatment: Assembling a cohort for in-depth, longitudinal assessments of the biological embedding of child maltreatment. Development and Psychopathology.
Kugler, K., Guastaferro, K., Shenk, C.E., Beale, S., Zadzora, K., & Noll, J.G. (2019). The effect of substantiated and unsubstantiated investigations of child maltreatment and subsequent adolescent health. Child Abuse & Neglect, 87, 112-119.
Shenk, C.E., Ammerman, R.T., Teeters, A.R., Bensman, H.E., Allen, E.K., Putnam, F.W., & Van Ginkel, J.B. (2017). History of maltreatment in childhood and subsequent parenting stress in at-risk, first-time mothers: Identifying points of intervention during home visiting. Prevention Science, 18, 361-370. doi: 10.1007/s11121-017-0758-4
Shenk, C.E., Noll, J.G., Peugh, J.L., Griffin, A.M., & Bensman, H.E. (2016). Contamination in the prospective study of child maltreatment and female adolescent health. Journal of Pediatric Psychology, 41, 37-45. doi: 10.1093/jpepsy/jsv017. PMCID: PMC4710181
Charles Alvarado is a third-year Ph.D. student and former middle school teacher in the Department of Educational Psychology, Counseling, and Special Education at Penn State. His current research centers on understanding the effects of adversity on students' attentional processing and learning outcomes from cognitive and neuroscience perspectives. As a predoctoral fellow, he is mentored by Carlomagno Panlilio and Koraly Perez-Edgar from the Developmental Processes Track, and Eric Claus from the Biology & Health Track.
With his primary mentor, Dr. Panlilio, Charles investigates the adverse effects of early childhood maltreatment on emerging and complex reading outcomes and cognitive processes over time, which has important implications to teacher practices, especially within a trauma-informed framework. Charles also works with his secondary mentor, Dr. Perez-Edgar, on her project that investigates parent-child dyads and anxiety transmission using methods in psychology and neuroscience. With their guidance, Charles aims to meaningfully engage in projects that utilize longitudinal designs to model developmental trajectories following exposure to maltreatment.
To explore the biological embedding of maltreatment on specific attentional processes, Charles is also training with Dr. Claus to understand complex neuroimaging methods and what they can reveal about neural structure, function, and connectivity differences related to childhood maltreatment.
Christian M. Connell, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor of Human Development and Family Studies and a faculty member with the Child Maltreatment Solutions Network at Penn State University. Dr. Connell received his Ph.D. in Clinical-Community Psychology from the University of South Carolina and completed pre- and postdoctoral training in the Department of Psychiatry at Yale University School of Medicine. His research focuses on the experiences of youth who have been maltreated, as well as those who become involved in the child welfare system and other child-serving systems (e.g., mental health, juvenile justice). His research examines individual, family, and contextual risk and protective processes that impact child behavioral health and wellbeing following incidents of maltreatment or child welfare system contact, as well as community-based efforts to prevent or treat the negative effects of maltreatment and other traumatic experiences in children and adolescents. Dr. Connell’s research has been supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health, Administration for Children and Families, and State and local contracts.
2001 Postdoctoral Fellowship, Department of Psychiatry, Yale School of Medicine
2000 Predoctoral Fellowship, Department of Psychiatry, Yale School of Medicine
2000 Ph.D., Clinical-Community Psychology, University of South Carolina
1993 B.S., Psychology, Pennsylvania State University
Expertise
child welfare outcomes, administrative data systems, community-based research methods, program and service system evaluation
Research Interests
individual, family, and contextual risk and protective processes that impact child behavioral health and wellbeing following incidents of maltreatment, child welfare system contact, or other traumatic experiences; evaluation of community-level evidence-informed efforts to prevent or treat the negative effects of maltreatment and other traumatic experiences in children and adolescents; use of administrative data systems to inform child welfare system practice and policy initiatives
This study will examine the link between prescription opioid misuse on risks of maltreatment and foster placement through creation of a statewide birth cohort of mothers enrolled in Medicaid at the time of delivery. Study aims include creating a statewide birth cohort of mother-child pairs enrolled in Medicaid at the time of delivery, and integrating the cohort with child maltreatment and foster care record systems (PA Medicaid Birth Cohort, PMBC). This cohort will be used to document maternal prenatal and postnatal prescription opioid use and misuse rates, and examine the relation to a range of maternal and child risk characteristics to misuse, as well as the effect of prescription opioid and other substance misuse on risks of child maltreatment and foster care placement.
The primary aim of the proposed study is to investigate the effects of child-focused permanency services, managed through Pennsylvania’s SWAN, on adoption, permanency, and post-permanency outcomes. Child-focused services to be investigated include child preparation, child-specific recruitment, placement, and post-permanency services. Using statewide foster care records, we will be developing a matched comparison group of youth who have not received SWAN supports. The study will leverage a range of existing data sources to examine outcomes within the child welfare system and into other child and young-adult systems.
The primary aim of the study is to investigate the effects of involvement with the general protective services (GPS) system on subsequent contact with GPS or CPS and subsequent out-of-home placement; and to assess the effects of post-GPS services on child behavioral health and well-being outcomes. Pennsylvania’s GPS system represents an alternative or differential response to incidents of maltreatment that do not rise to the level of child abuse, as defined by State statute – primarily comprised of non-serious injury and neglect incidents. The study will leverage a range of existing data sources to examine outcomes within and across the child welfare system and other child-serving systems.
This project involves multiple statewide initiatives (Connecticut and Rhode Island) to improve the capacity of child welfare systems to provide trauma-informed care to children and families involved in services. Three separate demonstration grants (funded by ACF and the National Child Traumatic Stress Network) addressed specific populations using comparable methods. Key features of the initiatives included work force development efforts, development and deployment of trauma screening tools and procedures, and dissemination of evidence based treatments (including TF-CBT; Trauma Systems Therapy; and Attachment, Regulation, and Competency (ARC)). Project aims include examining the impact of these efforts at the child/family, workforce, and system levels through a mix of clinical outcome, survey, and administrative data.
This community-based intervention study examines the effects of wraparound and other community-based services for children and families who have recently been involved in a child protective services (CPS) investigation. Wraparound is a family-centered, team-based planning process to provide individualized community-based services and natural supports for children and families. The study investigates 6- and 12-month effects of the intervention on child, caregiver, and family well-being, as well as processes resulting in outcomes. A parallel study uses administrative data to investigate child safety outcomes in a multi-year statewide cohort. The research study was supported by grants from the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) and the Administration for Children and Families (ACF).
Selected Grants
2009 – 2019
Adopt Wellbeing and Trauma Grant
2011 – 2018
Connecticut Collaboration on Effective Practices for Trauma (CONCEPT)
2016 – 2021
Evaluation of Early Childhood Trauma Collaborative (ECTC) Grant
2012 – 2015
Effects of the Wraparound Service Model for Maltreated Youth
2014 – 2018
Rhode Island Wraparound Study
Selected Publications
Vidal, S., Connell, C.M., Prince, D.M., & Tebes, J.K. (in press). Multisystem-involved youth: A developmental framework and implications for research, policy, and practice. Adolescent Research Review.
Vidal, S. & Connell, C.M. (in press). Treatment effects of parent-child focused evidence-based programs on problem severity and functioning among children and adolescents with disruptive behavior. Journal of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology.
Lang, J.M. & Connell, C.M. (2018). The Child Trauma Screen: A follow-up validation. Journal of Traumatic Stress, 31, 540-548.
Connell, C.M., Pittenger, S.L., & Lang, J.M. (2018) Patterns of trauma exposure in childhood and adolescence and their relation to behavioral well-being. Journal of Traumatic Stress, 31, 518-528.
Connell, C.M., Steeger, C.M., Schroeder, J.A., Franks, R.P., & Tebes, J.K. (2016). Child and case influences on recidivism in a statewide dissemination of multisystemic therapy for juvenile offenders. Criminal Justice and Behavior, 43, 1330-1346.
Christine Heim, Ph.D., is Professor and Director of the Institute of Medical Psychology at Charité Universitätsmedizin Berlin. Dr. Heim is also a Member of the Cluster of Excellence “Neurocure” at Charité in Berlin as well as Professor of Biobehavioral Health and Member of the Child Maltreatment Solutions Network at Penn State University. Dr. Heim’s research is focused on the neurobiological consequences of early-life trauma and their relationship to the development of depression, anxiety, and functional somatic disorders. The impact of her work is acknowledged in more than 14000 citations. She is the recipient of several honors and awards, including the 2015 Patricia Barchas Award in Sociophysiology of the American Psychosomatic Society. She is an elected member of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology. She is the recipient of multiple federal grants and foundation grants, and she serves on numerous national and international scientific review committees regarding research on the consequences of childhood trauma.
multi-level, longitudinal approaches to integrating developmental and clinical data with functional and structural neuroimaging, endocrine and immune measures, and molecular genetics to elucidate the role of child maltreatment in the development of complex psychiatric and medical disorders
This grant (R01HL158577; PI: Schreier) takes advantage of a large, well-characterized, prospective cohort of youth who were recently investigated for child maltreatment and comparison youth without a maltreatment history to better understand the physiological mechanisms between early adversity and cardiovascular diseases risk. By taking advantage of detailed assessments of immune function coupled with administrative health care records and thorough behavioral and psychosocial assessments, we will prospectively examine links between child maltreatment and cardiovascular disease risk, with the hopes of informing future prevention and intervention efforts.
Claire Selin received her Ph.D. in Child Language from the University of Kansas and her M.S. in Speech-Language Pathology from Rush University. Her primary research focuses on the causal pathways and developmental trajectories linking child maltreatment to increased risk for language disorders.
Claire works primarily with Yo Jackson in the Developmental Processes Track where she investigates the longitudinal stability of language acquisition within an intergenerational context when children are exposed to maltreatment and trauma. Specifically, Claire examines how maltreatment exposure associates with 1) child and caregiver performance on a nonword repetition task--a classic indicator and clinical marker of language disorders, and 2) child-caregiver communicative interactions using observational methods.
Claire also works with Jennie Noll in the Biology & Health Track to explore how biological embedding of child maltreatment may disrupt developmental timing mechanisms underlying cognitive and linguistic trajectories. Working with Eric Claus, Claire is also training in neuroimaging methods to study how child maltreatment affects neural structure, function, and development as related to language acquisition.
Dr. Lunkenheimer is an Associate Professor of Developmental Psychology and an Associate Director of the Child Maltreatment Solutions Network. Her research program revolves around risk and protective processes in the parent-child relationship, with the dual goals of (1) understanding how mother-child and father-child interactions and regulatory processes contribute to developmental psychopathology and (2) uncovering malleable relationship processes that aid in the tailoring and improvement of preventive intervention programs for families at risk, particularly risk for child maltreatment. This work is grounded in dynamic systems theory and dyadic and time series analytic methods, and has provided an understanding of parent-child biobehavioral coregulation in early childhood and its association with family risk.
The Parenting Young Children Project is an NICHD-funded K01 award of 150 families designed to understand how parents and preschoolers regulate their behaviors, emotions, and physiology with one another while tackling challenges, like solving a difficult problem or puzzle together. We examine how moment-to-moment patterns and coregulation of heart rate, expression of positive and negative emotions, and behaviors such as discipline and compliance act as risk and protective factors for child maltreatment and associated problems. This research is designed to identify malleable relationship targets for prevention and intervention for families at risk for child maltreatment.
PRISM is a pilot project involves studying how parents control their emotions, behaviors, and heart rate when disciplining their preschoolers. This project is designed to test methods for the capture of biological data using wearable technology in the home and using a phone app to collect information on discipline and stress. Our interest is in understanding how parents regulate themselves while disciplining their children so that we may learn how to better intervene with parents to reduce stress and prevent harsh discipline and physical abuse of children.
Selected Grants
2012 – 2017
Parent-Child Biobehavioral Coregulation and Child Maltreatment Risk
2018 – 2019
Dynamic Coupling of Parental Biobehavioral Regulation and Discipline
Selected Publications
Lunkenheimer, E., Busuito, A., Brown, K. M., & Skowron, E. A. (2018). Mother-child coregulation of parasympathetic processes differs by child maltreatment severity and subtype. Child Maltreatment, 23(3), 211-220. doi: 10.1177/1077559517751672
Lunkenheimer, E., Tiberio, S. S., Buss, K. A., Lucas-Thompson, R. G., Boker, S. M., & Timpe, Z. C. (2015). Coregulation of respiratory sinus arrhythmia between parents and preschoolers: Differences by children’s externalizing problems. Developmental Psychobiology, 57(8), 994-1003.doi: 10.1002/dev.21323
Lunkenheimer, E., Lichtwarck-Aschoff, A., Hollenstein, T., Kemp, C. J., & Granic, I. (2016). Breaking down the coercive cycle: How parent and child risk factors influence real-time variability in parental responses to child misbehavior. Parenting: Science and Practice, 16(4), 237-256. doi: 10.1080/15295192.2016.1184925
Lunkenheimer, E., Kemp, C. J., Lucas-Thompson, R. G., Cole, P. M., & Albrecht, E. C. (2017). Assessing biobehavioural self-regulation and coregulation in early childhood: The Parent-Child Challenge Task. Infant and Child Development, 26(1). doi: 10.1002/icd.1965
Lunkenheimer, E., Ram, N., Skowron, E., & Yin, P. (2017). Harsh parenting, child behavior problems, and the dynamic coupling of parents’ and children’s positive behaviors. Journal of Family Psychology, 31(6),689-698. doi: 10.1037/fam0000310
Dr. Schreier received training in health psychology and is currently an Assistant Professor of Biobehavioral Health at Penn State. Broadly speaking, she is interested in how experiences during childhood and adolescence shape long-term chronic disease risk. Her research focuses primarily on the impact of growing up in low socioeconomic environments, of different family-level influences, and of exposure to child maltreatment and how these influence metabolic and inflammatory markers of chronic disease risk in youth. She is also interested in exploring the potential role that social interventions may be able to play in actively improving physiological outcomes among at-risk youth.
2008, M.A., Health Psychology, The University of British Columbia
2012, Ph.D., Health Psychology, The University of British Columbia
Expertise
health disparities, child and adolescent health, immune, endocrine, and metabolic functioning
Research Interests
adolescent health and well-being, cardiovascular disease risk, inflammation, immune functioning, socioeconomic health disparities, social interventions, family functioning
This grant (R01HL158577; PI: Schreier) takes advantage of a large, well-characterized, prospective cohort of youth who were recently investigated for child maltreatment and comparison youth without a maltreatment history to better understand the physiological mechanisms between early adversity and cardiovascular diseases risk. By taking advantage of detailed assessments of immune function coupled with administrative health care records and thorough behavioral and psychosocial assessments, we will prospectively examine links between child maltreatment and cardiovascular disease risk, with the hopes of informing future prevention and intervention efforts.
This project focuses on the assessment of cardiovascular disease risk among 7-8 year old children and their parents part of an ongoing intervention trial evaluating the impact of a perinatal coparenting intervention (Family Foundations; PI: Mark Feinberg). We are following up with the original sample of 399 first-time parents and their children who were recruited across several states. This will allow us to investigate psychosocial pathways within the family that influence cardiovascular disease risk as well as potential intervention effects of Family Foundations on parent and child cardiovascular disease risk.
Selected Grants
2022 – 2025
Child maltreatment and cardiovascular disease risk (R01HL158577)
2018 – 2022
Early Psychosocial Intervention and Child and Parent Cardiovascular Disease Risk (R01HL137809)
2017 – 2022
Penn State’s Translational Center for Child Maltreatment Studies (P50HD089922)
2018 – 2019
Immunocompetence Among 8-13 Year Olds With and Without a History of Child Maltreatment
Selected Publications
Schreier, H. M. C., Heim, C. M., Rose, E.J., Shalev, I., Shenk, C. E., & Noll, J. G. (2021). Assembling a cohort for in-depth, longitudinal assessments of the biological embedding of child maltreatment: Methods, complexities, and lessons learned. Development & Psychopathology, 33(2), 394-408.
Huffhines, L., Jackson, Y., McGuire, A.B. & Schreier, H. M. C. (2021). The intergenerational interplay of adversity on salivary inflammation in young children and caregivers. Psychoneuroendocrinology, 128, 105222.
Panlilio, C., Miyamoto, S., Font, S., & Schreier, H.M.C. (2019). Assessing risk of commercial sexual exploitation among children involved in the child welfare system. Child Abuse & Neglect.
Schreier, H. M. C., Chen, E. & Miller, G. E. (2016). Child maltreatment and pediatric asthma: a review of the literature. Asthma Research and Practice, 2(7).
Schreier, H. M. C., Roy, L. B., Frimer, L., & Chen, E. (2014). Family chaos and adolescent inflammatory profiles: the moderating role of socioeconomic status. Psychosomatic Medicine, 76(6), 460-467.
Schreier, H. M. C., Schonert-Reichl, K. A., & Chen, E. (2013). Effect of volunteering on cardiovascular risk in adolescents. JAMA - Pediatrics, 167(4), 327-332.
Schreier, H. M. C. & Chen, E. (2013). Socioeconomic status and the health of youth: A multi-level, multi-domain approach to conceptualizing pathways. Psychological Bulletin, 139(3), 606-654.
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, biomarkers and phenotypic data. Specifically, using innovative research designs, his research 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. In the first study of children, Shalev and colleagues showed that cumulative violence exposure was associated with accelerated telomere erosion, from age 5 to age 10 years, for children who experienced violence at a young age. This finding provided initial support for a mechanism linking cumulative childhood stress to telomere maintenance, observed already at a young age, with potential impact for life-long health. Shalev is the Mark T. Greenberg Early Career Professor for the Study of Children's Health and Development and an author of more than 50 scientific articles and chapters.
A project funded by the Sara van Dam Foundation (Roseriet Beijers, Radboud University, Netherlands PI, Shalev Co-I). Its aim is to test early-life factors associated with children’s socio-emotional development, cognition, and pubertal development. This includes biological-embedding mechanisms underlying this link. These research questions are being investigated in the Dutch BIBO-study (Basal Influences on the Baby Development): a prospective study in which 193 mothers and their children are followed from pregnancy until the last assessment at age 10. My lab is conducting all telomere length testing in children at both age 6 and 10.
The aim of this project is to comprehensively characterize cardio-metabolic, cognitive, genomic, and epigenetic effects of sleep insufficiency in a controlled laboratory setting. My lab assist with the collection and sorting of blood samples for DNA methylation and whole-genome expression analysis. For this study, we are further investigating specific type of cells including monocytes and lymphocytes.
The overarching goal is to test the hypothesis of intergenerational transmission of trauma by measuring cellular aging in both mothers and children, members of the Female Growth and Development Study. Specifically, we are testing telomere length in mothers exposed to sexual abuse, control mothers, and their children.
The goal of this project is to identify genomic mechanisms involved in young adults’ response to stress, as moderated by early adversity. Specifically, we are testing whether individuals exposed to early-life adversity show dysregulated changes in gene expression in response to a well-established laboratory stressor, compared with a no-stress condition, and compared with individuals without exposure to early adversity.
This grant (R01HL158577; PI: Schreier) takes advantage of a large, well-characterized, prospective cohort of youth who were recently investigated for child maltreatment and comparison youth without a maltreatment history to better understand the physiological mechanisms between early adversity and cardiovascular diseases risk. By taking advantage of detailed assessments of immune function coupled with administrative health care records and thorough behavioral and psychosocial assessments, we will prospectively examine links between child maltreatment and cardiovascular disease risk, with the hopes of informing future prevention and intervention efforts.
Selected Grants
2017 – 2022
Penn State’s Translational Center for Child Maltreatment Studies (P50HD089922)
2016 – 2018
Biological embedding of early-life experiences: How early-life experiences impact childhood development and can accelerate aging
2017 – 2018
Early-life adversity and gene expression response to acute psychological stress
2018 – 2020
Temporal Genomics Mechanisms Underlying Disease and Aging
Selected Publications
Shalev, I. (2012). Early life stress and telomere length: investigating the connection and possible mechanisms: a critical survey of the evidence base, research methodology and basic biology. Bioessays, 34(11), 943-952.
Shalev, I., Moffitt, T. E., Sugden, K., Williams, B., Houts, R. M., Danese, A., ... & Caspi, A. (2013). Exposure to violence during childhood is associated with telomere erosion from 5 to 10 years of age: a longitudinal study. Molecular Psychiatry, 18(5), 576.
Shalev, I., Moffitt, T. E., Braithwaite, A. W., Danese, A., Fleming, N. I., Goldman-Mellor, S., ... & Robertson, S. P. (2014). Internalizing disorders and leukocyte telomere erosion: a prospective study of depression, generalized anxiety disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder. Molecular Psychiatry, 19(11), 1163.
Shalev, I., & Belsky, J. (2016). Early-life stress and reproductive cost: a two-hit developmental model of accelerated aging? Medical Hypotheses, 90, 41-47.
Shalev, I., Heim, C. M., & Noll, J. G. (2016). Child maltreatment as a root cause of mortality disparities: a call for rigorous science to mobilize public investment in prevention and treatment. JAMA Psychiatry, 73(9), 897-898.
Jane Lee received her M.Sc and Ph.D. in Child Development and Education from the University of Oxford. Jane’s research interests are focused on investigating typical and atypical processes of development, and identifying risk and protective mechanisms that attenuate or exacerbate children’s risk for mental health problems and associated difficulties.
Jane will mainly be working together with Dr. Yo Jackson in the Prevention and Treatment track to understand the mechanisms that may underlie protective processes among children who have experienced early adversity and prioritize different factors for specific subgroups of children. She will also be working with Dr. Erika Lunkenheimer in the Developmental Processes track to examine children’s self-regulatory processes within their network of evolving and interacting factors that affect a child’s outcome cumulatively. With Dr. Christian Connell, Jane will receive training on the use of administrative datasets to assess the effects of services or treatments on system-involved children and their outcomes, and also understand how children in the welfare system may be fairing at the population level.
Jennie G. Noll, Ph.D., is a professor of Human Development and Family Studies, Director of the Child Maltreatment Solutions Network, and PI of the NICHD P50 Capstone Center for Healthy Children her primary research foci are the bio-psycho-social consequences of childhood sexual abuse, pathways to teen pregnancy and high-risk sexual behaviors for abused and neglected youth, the long-term adverse health outcomes for victims of sexual abuse, midlife reversibility of neurocognitive deficits in stress-exposed populations, and the propensity for abused and neglected teens to engage in high-risk internet and social media behaviors. Dr. Noll works with local, state, and federal policy makers to translate science into messages that impact child welfare policy and practice.
1990, B.A., Psychology, University of Southern California
1995, Ph.D., Developmental Psychology/Statistical Methodology, University of Southern California
Expertise
child sexual abuse, longitudinal studies, research-to-policy, health consequences of abuse, teen pregnancy, sexual abuse prevention, developmental sequelae of sexual abuse over the lifecourse
Research Interests
internet and social media, sexual behaviors, intergenerational transmission, biological embedding, neurocognitive development, policy analysis, sex trafficking, prevention
TechnoTeens is a NICHD R01-funded study where we are objectively tracking the internet and social media behaviors of 460 sexually abused and comparison teens longitudinally from age 12 to 15. This study aims to articulate the role of internet pornography and high-risk social media behaviors on sexual development and on internet-initiated victimization (including sexual exploitation, cyber bullying, “slut-shaming”, and sex-trafficking). This is the first study to objectively monitor internet activity and social media behaviors and to record and quantify adolescents’ “internet and social media footprints” in real-time. Results will inform internet safety campaigns for normative and at-risk teens.
This is a 30-year longitudinal study of the consequences of child sexual abuse on female development. Now in its 8th wave of data collection via a R01 from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), we are currently assessing this cohort (and their offspring) in terms of physical health outcomes, intergenerational transmission, and the identification of mechanisms of resilience. This research is also funded through a R01 from the National Institute on Aging (NIA) to assess the cohort’s daily stress-coping and premature cognitive aging.
The Safe and Healthy Communities Initiative is a comprehensive approach to sexual abuse prevention in 5 counties across Pennsylvania in a highly unique State/University partnership. This initiative includes the coordination of evidence-based child sexual abuse prevention programs for adults in the community, school children, and at-risk parents. Programs will be delivered to 5% of the adult population (~71,000), 100% of second-graders (~17,000), and 100% of at-risk child welfare-involved parents. The aims are to empirically demonstrate that this coordinated effort (1) changes knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors of participants, (2) impacts rates of child sexual abuse, and (3) raises public awareness at the population level. The ultimate goal is to create a sustainable model of sexual abuse prevention that can be used at a systems level in PA and across the US.
This grant (R01HL158577; PI: Schreier) takes advantage of a large, well-characterized, prospective cohort of youth who were recently investigated for child maltreatment and comparison youth without a maltreatment history to better understand the physiological mechanisms between early adversity and cardiovascular diseases risk. By taking advantage of detailed assessments of immune function coupled with administrative health care records and thorough behavioral and psychosocial assessments, we will prospectively examine links between child maltreatment and cardiovascular disease risk, with the hopes of informing future prevention and intervention efforts.
The System and Social Determinants of the Health of Foster Children project (1 R01 HD095946-01) will investigate the impact of specific foster care experiences on a range of health outcomes over time. In doing so, this proposal will inform efforts to improve longstanding problems of poor health among of one of the country’s most vulnerable populations. We will provide sound empirical evidence on the importance of current state and federal foster care priorities for foster children’s health. The investigative team for this project is Drs. Font (primary investigator), Noll, and Crowley (co-investigators).
Selected Grants
2013 – 2018
Abused and Non-Abused Females’ High-Risk Online Behaviors: Impact on development (R01HD073130)
2014 – 2016
Daily Stress Coping and Premature Cognitive Aging in Child Abuse Victims at Midlife (R01AG04879)
2013 – 2018
Health & Well-Being of Sexually Abused Females & Offspring: 25 and 27 yr. follow-up (R01HD072468)
2007 – 2012
A Prospective Investigation of the Mechanisms Involved in Teen Pregnancy (R01HD052533)
2017 – 2022
Penn State’s Translational Center for Child Maltreatment Studies (P50HD089922)
Selected Publications
Noll, J. G., Trickett, P. K., Long, J. D., Negriff, S., Susman, E. J., Shalev, I., Li, J. C., Putnam, F.W. (2017). Childhood sexual abuse and early timing of puberty. Journal of Adolescent Health, 60(1), 65-71. PMID: 27836531. doi:10.1016/j.jadohealth.2016.09.008
Trickett, P. K., Noll, J. G., & Putnam, F. W. (2011). The impact of sexual abuse on female development: lessons from a multigenerational, longitudinal research study. Development and Psychopathology, 23, 453-476. PMID: 23786689 PMCID: PMC3693773. doi: 10.1017/S095457941000174
Noll, J. G., Shenk, C. E., Barnes, J. E., & Haralson, K. J. (2013). Association of maltreatment with high risk internet behaviors and offline encounters. Pediatrics, 131(2), e510-e517. PMID: 23319522 PMCID: PMC3557406. doi:10.1542/peds.2012-1281
Noll, J. G., & Shenk, C. E. (2013). Teen birth rates in sexually abused and neglected females. Pediatrics, 131, e1181-e1187. PMID: 23530173 PMCID: PMC3608488. doi:10.1542/peds.2012-3072
Noll J. G., Guastaferro K, Beal S. J., Schreier H. M. C., Barnes J., Reader J. M., & Font S. A. (2018). Is sexual abuse a unique predictor of sexual risk behaviors, pregnancy, and motherhood in adolescence? Journal of Research on Adolescence. PMID:30019514. doi: 10.1111/jora.12436
Jennifer Murray Connell is licensed clinical social worker and Penn State alumna (Political Science) and works as psychology clinic staff since July 2017. Jennifer has over 25 years of experience providing clinical and consultative services to children, youth, adults, and families.
Kate Guastaferro, Ph.D., is an assistant research professor at Penn State. She has a doctorate and masters of public health with a focus on prevention science. Dr. Guastaferro completed a T32 postdoctoral fellowship in the Prevention and Methodology Training program at Penn State with advanced training centered substantively upon the prevention of child sexual abuse and methodologically on innovative methods for the optimization, evaluation, and dissemination of interventions (e.g., the multiphase optimization strategy [MOST]) with high public health impact. Working at the cutting edge of prevention and intervention science, Dr. Guastaferro’s program of research is devoted to the development, optimization, and evaluation of effective, efficient, economical, and scalable interventions, specifically focusing on the prevention of child maltreatment.
Parents have a responsibility to create a happy, healthy, and safe environments for their children. Many parent-education programs exist giving parents the skills to do this, but no parent-education program exists for the prevention of CSA specifically. Capitalizing on skills taught in existing parent-education programs, we seek to efficiently and economically help parents prevent their child from experiencing sexual victimization by teaching them about children’s healthy sexual development, facilitating parent-child communication regarding sex and sexual abuse, and enacting measures to ensure their children’s safety (i.e., monitoring and vetting of babysitters). SPSHK was designed as a single additional session added toward the end of an evidence-based parent education program. SPSHK aims to improve parents’ knowledge about sexual development (i.e., demonstration of age-appropriate and inappropriate behaviors), facilitate parent-child communication about sex and CSA, and empower parents to take charge of their children’s safety (i.e., vetting potential babysitters, monitoring exposure to media).
The Safe and Healthy Communities Initiative (SHCI) is a cooperative project between the CMSN and the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency (PCCD) with the goal of developing, implementing, and evaluating a comprehensive child sexual abuse (CSA) prevention strategy. SHCI consists of three evidence-based components: a community-based intervention, a school-based intervention, and a parent-focused intervention (see above). The components were rolled out in five counties over three years using a staggered implementation approach. We hypothesize that by targeting different segments of the population (i.e., adults in the community, children, and at-risk parents), the prevention of CSA is attainable. Impact of this approach is measured by administrative data (e.g., reports and substantiations of CSA), measurement of knowledge and skills learned among those who participate in the three interventions, and community level awareness via a statewide web panel survey.
I am interested in and committed to using innovative methods to support the development, optimization, and evaluation of multicomponent behavioral interventions. Working closely with Dr. Linda Collins, I use the multiphase optimization strategy (MOST), an engineering inspired framework, to build behavioral and biobehavioral interventions that are effective, efficient, economical, and immediately scalable across a number of public health priorities including STI prevention, palliative care, and child mental health.
Selected Grants
2016 – 2020
Engineering an Online STI Prevention Program
Selected Publications
Guastaferro, K., Font, S.A., Miyamoto, S., Zadzora, K.M., Walters, K., O’Hara, K., Kemner, A., & Noll, J.G. (In Press) Provider attitudes and self-efficacy when delivering a child sexual abuse prevention module: An exploratory study. Health Education & Behavior
Guastaferro, K., Felt, J.M., Font, S.A., Connell, C.M., Miyamoto, S., Zadzora, K.M., & Noll, J.G. (2020). Parent-focused sexual abuse prevention: Results from a cluster randomized controlled trial. Child Maltreatment, 1-12. DOI: 10.1177/1077559520963870
Guastaferro, K., Zadzora, K.M., Reader, J.M., Shanley, J., & Noll, J.G. (2019). A parent-focused child sexual abuse prevention program: Development, acceptability, and feasibility. Journal of Child and Family Studies, 28(7), 1682-1877. DOI: 10.1007/s10826-019-01410-y
Guastaferro, K. & Collins, L.M. (2019). Achieving the goals of translational science in public health intervention research: The multiphase optimization strategy (MOST). American Journal of Public Health, 109(S2), S128 – S129. DOI: 10.2105/AJPH.2018.304874 PMID: 30785800
Kayla Brown is a fifth-year doctoral student in the Developmental Psychology program at Penn State working with Dr. Erika Lunkenheimer, Dr. Koraly Perez-Edgar, and Dr. Nilam Ram.
She received her B.S. in General Science from Penn State. She then spent two years studying temperament and attentional bias in children and adolescents with Dr. Koraly Perez-Edgar and Dr. Kristin Buss. Her research is focused on how individual differences in parents, children, and familial characteristics influence their dynamic interaction patterns and how these patterns shape child development, particularly in families at risk for child maltreatment.
Working closely with Dr. Lunkenheimer and Dr. Perez-Edgar, she aims to use novel dynamic modeling methods on micro longitudinal data to investigate vital influences and patterns and identify salient targets to intervene on maladaptive parent-child interactions in families at risk for child maltreatment.
Additionally, working with Dr. Ram, Kayla aims to investigate how we can use machine learning techniques to leverage large administrative data in order to better understand those at risk for severe trajectories of child maltreatment.
Kristina is CMAS Advisor and Assistant Teaching Professor for CMAS 258, 465 and 466, developing courses and working collaboratively with Network leadership.
Lindsey Palmer graduated from the University of Southern California with an MSW and PhD in Social Work. She has previously worked as a licensed clinical social worker providing mental health services to adolescents involved with the child protection and juvenile justice systems.
Lindsey’s research agenda seeks to understand the nature, extent, and impact of Child Protective Service (CPS) involvement for the safety and wellbeing of vulnerable children. Her work in this area uses linked administrative data and epidemiological methods with current projects largely falling into three interrelated areas: the nature and context of neglect allegations; emotional and behavioral health among children involved with CPS; and the strengths and limitations of administrative data for documenting the experiences, conditions and outcomes of children involved with CPS. Her research seeks to generate evidence to inform policies and practices that prevent child maltreatment and promote child wellbeing, both within and outside of the CPS system.
Lindsey will be working together with Dr. Sarah Font in the Policy and Administrative Data systems track to examine families reported to CPS due to allegations of neglect. In addition, Lindsey will be working with Dr. Jennie Noll to better understand how the use of longitudinal cohort studies can compliment administrative data in obtaining a more comprehensive picture of psychosocial outcomes related to child maltreatment.
My research seeks to understand the individual, familial, community, and system factors that promote or inhibit immediate and later life success among youth who experience maltreatment or foster care placement. Within this agenda, I have focused on three issues: (1) determinants of wellbeing among Child Protective Services (CPS)-involved and foster care youth; (2) implications of measurement for understanding causes and consequences of maltreatment and child welfare events; (3) the role of social disadvantage in child maltreatment.
The Emerging Adulthood for Maltreated and Foster Youth project (1 R21 HD091459-01) uses a statewide, longitudinal, administrative dataset that includes the entire population of CPS-involved youth and youth whose families participated in social welfare benefit programs in Wisconsin to examine how a range of maltreatment and OHC experiences are associated with social, educational, and economic outcomes in emerging adulthood, including employment and earnings, benefit receipt, educational attainment, fertility timing, incarceration, paying close attention to the type(s) of maltreatment experienced as well as OHC placement characteristics (type, length, number of placements) and type of exit from OHC (aging out, reunification or adoption). This research extends prior work in this area by using multiple identification strategies and comparison (counterfactual) groups to reduce bias in estimated associations of both maltreatment and OHC with subsequent outcomes. It has implications for informing policy and practice to better prepare CPS-involved youth to successfully transition to adulthood and, thereby, for reducing subsequent public expenditures on this population. Dr. Font is a co-investigator on this project, which is led by Dr. Lawrence Berger at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
The System and Social Determinants of the Health of Foster Children project (1 R01 HD095946-01) will investigate the impact of specific foster care experiences on a range of health outcomes over time. In doing so, this proposal will inform efforts to improve longstanding problems of poor health among of one of the country’s most vulnerable populations. We will provide sound empirical evidence on the importance of current state and federal foster care priorities for foster children’s health. The investigative team for this project is Drs. Font (primary investigator), Noll, and Crowley (co-investigators).
The Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children (CSEC) project seeks to estimate the prevalence and typologies of CSEC in Pennsylvania. Funded by the Center for Rural Pennsylvania, the CSEC study involves reviewing and coding over 2,000 Pennsylvania's Children and Youth Services investigation records over a 2-year span. The goals of this study are to estimate the incidence of CSEC in the participating counties, to assess rural and urban differences in the incidence and typologies of CSEC, and to identify risk and protective factors for CSEC. This research aims to inform current statewide efforts to develop and implement screening tools to detect children vulnerable to or affected by CSEC. Drs. Miyamoto, Pinto, and Font lead this project, and are assisted by undergraduate research assistants involved with the Child Maltreatment and Advocacy Studies (CMAS) minor at Penn State.
Selected Grants
2017 – 2018
Emerging Adulthood for Maltreated and Foster Youth
2018 – 2018
Effects of Permanency on the Adulthood Criminality of Former Foster Care Youth
2018 – 2019
Incidence Rates and Risk Factors for Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children (CSEC) in Rural and Urban Counties in Pennsylvania
2018 – 2022
System and Social Determinants of the Health of Foster Children
2017 – 2022
Penn State’s Translational Center for Child Maltreatment Studies (P50HD089922)
Selected Publications
Font, S. A., & Cage, J. (2018). Dimensions of physical punishment and their associations with children’s cognitive performance and school adjustment. Child Abuse & Neglect, 75, 29–40. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chiabu.2017.06.008
Font, S. A., Sattler, K. M. P., & Gershoff, E. T. (2018). Measurement and correlates of foster care placement moves. Children and Youth Services Review, 91, 248–258. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.childyouth.2018.06.019
Font, S. A., Sattler, K., & Gershoff, E. T. (2018). When Home is Still Unsafe: From Family Reunification to Foster Care Reentry. Journal of Marriage and Family, 80(5), 1333–1343. https://doi.org/10.1111/jomf.12499
Font, S. A., Berger, L. M., Cancian, M., & Noyes, J. L. (2018). Permanency and the educational and economic attainment of former foster children in early adulthood. American Sociological Review, 83(4), 716–743. https://doi.org/10.1177/0003122418781791
Font, S. A., Cancian, M., & Berger, L. M. (in press). Prevalence and risk factors for early motherhood among low-income, maltreated, and foster youth. Demography.
Sheridan Miyamoto is an Assistant Professor in the College of Nursing and the Child Maltreatment Solutions Network at Penn State University. Dr. Miyamoto received her Ph.D. in Nursing Science and Health-Care Leadership from the Betty Irene Moore School ofNursing 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 child maltreatment 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 childrenat risk of maltreatment, identification and prevention of commercial sexual exploitation of children (trafficking), the use of telehealth technology to improve sexual assault forensic care in rural communities, and the use of technology and innovation to improve patient outcomes. 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.
The SAFE-T Center was created in 2016, with support from the U.S. Department of Justice, Office for Victims of Crime. The mission of the Center is to partner with underserved communities in Pennsylvania to enhance compassionate, high-quality care for sexual assault victims. The Center provides access to expert mentoring, quality assurance, education and live examination consultation for victims of sexual assault in underserved and rural areas. The goals of the project are to enhance access to high-quality care for victims of assault and to demonstrate the effectiveness of a statewide model to support forensic nurses to deliver care in underserved communities.
The Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children (CSEC) project seeks to estimate the prevalence and typologies of CSEC in Pennsylvania. Funded by the Center for Rural Pennsylvania, the CSEC study involves reviewing and coding over 2,000 Pennsylvania's Children and Youth Services investigation records over a 2-year span. The goals of this study are to estimate the incidence of CSEC in the participating counties, to assess rural and urban differences in the incidence and typologies of CSEC, and to identify risk and protective factors for CSEC. This research aims to inform current statewide efforts to develop and implement screening tools to detect children vulnerable to or affected by CSEC. Drs. Miyamoto, Pinto, and Font lead this project, and are assisted by undergraduate research assistants involved with the Child Maltreatment and Advocacy Studies (CMAS) minor at Penn State.
Selected Grants
2016 – 2021
Using Telemedicine Technology to Enhance Access to Sexual Assault Forensic Exams
2014 – 2018
Patient and Provider Engagement and Empowerment Through Technology (P2E2T2) Program to Improve Health in Diabetes
2018 – 2019
Incidence Rates and Risk Factors for Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children (CSEC) in Rural and Urban Counties in Pennsylvania
2017 – 2022
Penn State’s Translational Center for Child Maltreatment Studies (P50HD089922)
2019 – 2021
Sexual Assault Forensic Examination Telehealth
Selected Publications
Panlilio, C., Miyamoto, S., Font, S., & Schreier, H.M.C. (2019). Assessing risk of commercial sexual exploitation among children involved in the child welfare system. Child Abuse & Neglect.
McCann, J., Miyamoto, S., Boyle, C., & Rogers, K. (2007). Healing of hymenal injuries in prepubertal and adolescent girls: A descriptive study. Pediatrics, 119(5):e1094-1106
Miyamoto, S., Dharmar, M., Boyle, C., Yang, N. H., MacLeod, K., Rogers, K., Nesbitt, T., & Marcin, J. P. (2014). Impact of telemedicine on the quality of forensic sexual abuse examinations in rural communities. Child abuse & neglect, 38(9), 1533-1539. doi:10.1016/j.chiabu.2014.04.015
Miyamoto, S., Romano, P.S, Putnam-Hornstein, E., Thurston, H., Dharmar, M., & Joseph, J.G. (2017). Risk factors for fatal and non-fatal child maltreatment in families previously investigated by CPS: A case-control study. Child Abuse Neglect. 63, 222-232. doi:10.1016/j.chiabu.2016.11.003
Miyamoto, S., Dharmar, M., Fazio, S., Tang-Feldman, Y., & Young, H. M. (2018). mHealth technology and nurse health coaching to improve health in diabetes: Protocol for a randomized controlled trial. JMIR Research Protocols, 7(2), e45. http://doi.org/10.2196/resprot.9168
Stacey Shipe received her Ph.D. in Social Work from the University of Maryland, Baltimore, her MSc in Evidence Based Social Work from University of Oxford, and her MSW in Social Work from New York University.
Stacey's interests are twofold – her first area focuses on the functioning of child welfare organizations. Her second area is related but broader in that she focuses on specific users of child serving systems. The first area centers specifically on organizational functioning (i.e., culture and climate) with an eye on caseworker decision making and how this affects family outcomes. Her second area targets single (custodial) fathers and their lived experiences managing child serving systems (i.e., child welfare, welfare, healthcare, education, and juvenile justice).
Stacey's primary mentor is Dr. Connell and Dr. Crowley is her secondary mentor. Both researchers have solid footing in the child welfare sector – Dr. Connell with a long history of work within child serving organizations as well as a focus on the policy-practice continuum and Dr. Crowley with policy and benefit-cost analyses. An additional secondary mentor is Dr. Noll. Her extensive background and knowledge in child sexual abuse, specifically with interventions to help understand and mitigate this hidden problem falls in line with my experiences in child welfare agencies and also a desire to equip families and communities to discuss this difficult subject matter.
Tenesha Littleton earned a BA in Psychology from Tulane University and a MSW and PhD in Social Work from the University of Georgia. Littleton previously worked as a Clinical Social Worker for 10 years providing services to children and families within the child welfare, mental health, and educational systems.
Littleton works with primary mentor Sarah Font in the Policy and Administrative Data Systems Track on research projects exploring disparities associated with child welfare system involvement. They are currently examining discipline disparities in school experiences among a cohort of children investigated for child maltreatment.
In addition, Littleton works with secondary mentor Yo Jackson in the Prevention and Treatment track exploring factors associated with resilience among youth in foster care, including spirituality and placement stability. She also works with Dawn Witherspoon in the Context Lab examining how neighborhood institutions, resources, and processes are implicated in patterns of child welfare system involvement among families.
Toria Herd received her PhD in Developmental Psychology from Virginia Tech in 2021. She received her M.S. in Developmental Psychology at Virginia Tech and her B.A. in Psychology from the State University of New York College at Geneseo.
Toria's research uses a developmental psychopathology framework and longitudinal modeling to understand how individual and environmental risk and protective factors coalesce to predict adolescent health risk behaviors and psychopathology. She has primarily focused on parenting factors, (e.g., maltreatment, parent-child relationship quality) and emotion regulation development.
As a postdoctoral research fellow at Pennsylvania State University, she will be continuing this line of research with Dr. Jennie Noll, focusing specifically on longitudinal sequelae of child sexual abuse as well working with Dr. Sarah Font to understand how treatment of youth mental health is associated with placement outcomes for youth involved in the child welfare system. Moreover, in her work with Drs. Taylor Scott and Max Crowley, she provides science communication training to researchers as well as non-partisan technical assistance to congressional offices on child welfare issues.
Yo Jackson is a Professor in the Clinical Child Psychology Program in the Psychology department at Penn State University and the Associate Director of the Child Maltreatment Solutions Network. Her research focuses on the mechanisms of resilience for youthexposed to trauma and developing models of the process from exposure to outcome for youth and families. She also studies intergenerational transmission of trauma and methods and measurement in child maltreatment research. She is a reviewer for numerous journals and serves as an Associate Editor for Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology and Professional Psychology: Research and Practice.
Ph.D., Clinical Child Psychology, University of Alabama
Expertise
trauma assessment, nature and mechanisms of trauma impact on youth development, child maltreatment, foster care systems and foster care youth, evidence-based interventions, influence of cultural on mental health, program evaluation, competency development in clinical child psychology
Research Interests
mechanisms of resilience for youth exposed to trauma, intergenerational transmission of trauma, foster care youth and families, assessment of trauma and child maltreatment
The SPARK project is a longitudinal study of the mechanisms of resilience for youth in foster care and the nature of child maltreatment and trauma exposure on healthy development. Data was collected on over 400 youth over four years on the individual and social potential protective factors and modeled to determine the nature and pattern of adjustment over time.
The PAIR project is a longitudinal study of the impact of trauma on the emotional and cognitive functioning of preschool-age youth and their families. The prospective design of the project includes ongoing assessment of trauma exposure in both youth and the parents as well as assessment of developmental health over time.
Selected Grants
2016 – 2021
Trauma exposure, emotion regulation and cognitive skills in early childhood: Prospective and longitudinal examination of the mechanisms of adjustment
2009 – 2015
Testing Determinates of Resilience: Child Maltreatment and the Development of Adaptive Behavior
Selected Publications
Gusler, S., & Jackson, Y. (2017). The role of poly-victimization in predicting differences in foster youths’ appraisals. Child Abuse & Neglect, 69, 223-231.
Jackson, Y., Huffhines, L., Stone, K. J., Fleming, K., & Gabrielli, J. (2017). Coping styles in youth exposed to maltreatment: Longitudinal patterns reported by youth in foster care. Child Abuse & Neglect, 70, 65-74.
Jackson, Y., & Huffhines, L. (2018). Physical health and foster youth. In E. Trejos & N. Trevino (Eds.), Handbook of Foster Youth (pp. 117-132). New York: Taylor & Francis
Jackson, Y., Gabrielli, J., Fleming, K., Tunno, A., & Makanui, P. K. (2014). Untangling the relative contribution of maltreatment severity and frequency to type of behavioral outcome in foster youth. Child Abuse and Neglect, 38(7), 1147-1159.
Jackson, Y., Cushing, C. C., Gabrielli, J., Fleming, K., O'Connor, B. M., & Huffhines, L. (2016). Child maltreatment, trauma, and physical health outcomes: The role of abuse type and placement moves on health conditions and service use for youth in foster care. Journal of Pediatric Psychology, 41(1), 28-36
Zhenyu (Zach) Zhang, M.S., M.A., is a fourth-year graduate student in the Clinical Psychology program at Penn State. Zach’s research interests include : 1) examining multidimensionality of child maltreatment, including developmental timing, type, duration and severity, and their unique effects on adverse outcomes, including psychopathology, risky behaviors, and health outcomes; 2) elucidating biological mechanisms (e.g., neuroendocrine markers and biological aging) linking child maltreatment and adverse outcomes; 3) examining potential sex differences in the biological processes following child maltreatment; and 4) translating findings we learn from basic research to inform, develop, and evaluate timely, accessible and cost-effective prevention and treatment programs for maltreatment populations.
Zach is on the Prevention and Treatment and Developmental Processes training tracks. His primary mentor is Dr. Chad Shenk, and his secondary and tertiary mentors are Drs. Lorah Dorn, and Chris Engeland respectively. Under the mentorship of Dr. Shenk, Zach is working on the Child Health Study to identify the potential differential impact of those dimensions on later health outcomes. He is also working on Dr. Shenk’s, Life Events and Reactions Study (LEARS), and, Epigenetic and Cognitive Aging Project (eCAP), to examine genetic and epigenetic markers linking child maltreatment and later adverse health. Zach is working with Dr. Dorn to study how puberty as a sensitive period can shape developmental trajectories of children exposed to maltreatment. Additionally, Zach is working with Dr. Engeland to observe the assaying of various sex and stress-related hormones, participate in the handling of specimens, and study the links between various biomarkers.
