Author: vrparker3

Last week, members of the Gray lab research team virtually presented at the Society for Research in Child Development Biennial Meeting. Though this was a unique presentation format, we are excited to be able to continue to engage in research-related dialogue.

Elsia Obus, M.S. and Stephanie Ann Swanberg, M.S. were panelists in a roundtable discussion on trauma-informed, evidence-based interventions during COVID-19. All of the roundtable presenters were New Orleans-based scholar-practitioners who shared their respective interventions as case studies with the goal of answering, “How do you adapt trauma-informed, evidence-based practice for telehealth in a culturally and contextually responsive way across developmental stages?”. Elsia and Stephanie focused on how Mom Power impacts developmental, cultural, and contextual telehealth adaptations of care.

Renee Lamoreau, Ed.M presented a paper symposium talk on Intimate Partner Violence and Preschool Self-Regulation: Examining the Role of Maternal Emotion Socialization, on behalf of Janie Park B.S., Hillary Skov B.A., Victoria Parker, B.A., and Sarah Gray, Ph.D.

Victoria Parker, B.A. presented research on Regulatory Pathways of Child Social-Emotional Competencies: An Exploratory Structural Equation Model, on behalf of Erin Glackin, M.A., and Sarah Gray, Ph.D.

Elsia Obus, M.S. presented research on Disrupting the Family Stress-Proximal Process: A Critical Review of Interventions for Children with Incarcerated Parents, on behalf of Alexa Garfinkle, Celeste Pinto, B.S., Victoria Parker, B.A., and Sarah Gray, Ph.D.

Virginia Hatch, M.S. presented research on Maternal Insightfulness and Preschool School Readiness, on behalf of Lauren Fleming, B.S., Jana Becker, B.S., Anna Wilson, and Sarah Gray, Ph.D.

Congratulations to all who presented!

Last week, our Lab Manager, Victoria Parker, presented Tulane Child and Family lab research at the 36th annual ISTSS conference. She presented on how high rates of early exposure to violence may uniquely impact distinct dimensions of hot and cool self-regulation and corresponding social-emotional competencies in preschoolers. Although this was a new virtual format for the lab, we are excited to be able to continue to engage in research production and presentation.

Last week was a busy one here at the Child and Family Lab! Three of our 5th-year graduate students, Elsa Obus, Chloe Pickett, and Ginny Hatch were successful in completing their comprehensive exams and are now all officially doctoral candidates! Of note, Elsa passed with distinction, a rare honor in the department. We could not be more proud of all  of their hard work to get to this point. Congratulations Elsa, Chloe, and Ginny!

Disrupting the Family Stress-Proximal Process: A Comprehensive Review of Interventions for Children with Incarcerated Parents.

HERstory Untold: Black Childhood Sexual Abuse Survivors’ Experiences of Coping with Racism and Trauma While Successfully Navigating the Early Years of Motherhood.

Mother’s Insightfulness and Children’s School Readiness in the Context of Intergenerational Adversity

Although we have to celebrate remotely, we are so proud of our Child & Family lab members who are moving on from the lab and taking the next steps in their career. Cheers to Erin Glackin, Joi Bryant, Janie Park, Sarah Guilaume, Nina Bharadwaj, Yayu Du, Celeste Pinto, Lauren Fleming, and Mollie Keyser. We are so grateful for the many important ways you have contributed to the work we do in the lab and the sense of community you have brought to the team. 

Janie Park, Sarah Guilaume, Nina Bharadwaj, Yayu Du, Celeste Pinto, Lauren Fleming and Mollie Keyser made up a team of our accomplished graduating seniors!  Each was invaluable in supporting both the daily and big-picture goals and projects of the Child and Family Lab.

To feature just some of their accomplishments during their time at Tulane, Janie graduated with a Bachelors of Science in Psychology with Honors and a Bachelor of Arts in Economics. She was awarded the Rosa Cahn Hartman prize for her excellence in her academic performance and research activities in Psychology. Janie will be completing her Master’s in Behavioral Science at Tulane this Fall.  Sarah graduated with a Bachelors of Science in Psychology with a minor in Liberal Arts Management. She received the Faculty Award for Applied Psychological Research and will be pursuing her PsyD at Widener’s Clinical Psychology Program with a specialization in Neuropsychology this Fall. Nina graduated Summa Cum Laude with majors in Psychology and Dance. She is currently working as a medical scribe at an allergy and asthma clinic to obtain patient care experience and plans to apply for Physician Assistant master’s programs. Yayu graduated with a Bachelors of Science in Psychology and will be attending the University of Rochester this Fall to complete her master’s in Mental Health counseling. The University of Rochester awarded her the Dean’s Award scholarship for Master’s Study as a result of both her academic achievement and potential. Celeste Pinto graduated with a Bachelor’s of Science in Psychology and History. She will be continuing on to earn her Master’s of Science degree in Behavioral Health on the intervention course path at Tulane and plans to attend medical school in the future. Lauren Fleming graduated Summa Cum Laude with a major in Psychology and minors in Public Health and Social Innovation/Social Entrepreneurship. She received the Aaron Hartman Medal for excellence in Psychology and plans to pursue her PhD in Clinical Psychology in the future. Lastly, Mollie Keyser graduated Magna Cum Laude with her Bachelor of Science in Psychology. She is excited to start her Occupational Therapy Doctorate program at Tufts University this summer.

We are also proud to see Joi Bryant move forward on her path to pursue her career goals of earning her MD as an Obstetrician and Gynecologist. Joi spent the last year teaching elementary students and still dedicated her after-school time to being a Child Team member in our Mom Power project. Joi was accepted into post-baccalaureate programs in Louisiana, California, and Mississippi and will be leaving the Gray Lab to further her medical science studies. Congratulations, Joi!

Finally, we are incredibly proud to see our fifth-year doctoral student, Erin Glackin graduate and head off to her internship site at the University of Denver’s MHCD Infant Mental Health Track. Erin will be missed as a leader in the lab, but we know she is headed for big things!

This February, Elsa Obus, M.S.,  a fourth-year graduate student in the Child & Family Lab, collaborated with her colleague Abril Harris, MSW, a doctoral student at Boston College School of Social Work, to present at The Teachers College of Columbia’s Winter Roundtable. This professional continuing education conference focuses on cultural topics in psychology, social work, and education.  Elsa and Abril have both researched legal socialization– or how people develop their beliefs and attitudes about the legal system and its actors. In particular, they have examined how Black families and justice-involved families communicate about the police. At the Roundtable, Elsa and Abril led a discussion to help educators be aware of their roles as legal socialization agents and support their students in a trauma-informed way. We are so excited about the important work to which Elsa and Abril are contributing.

This February one of our Gray lab senior undergraduate Research Assistants, Yayu Du,  presented her research examining associations between neighborhood violence, maternal depression, and child negative affect. Her research used both maternal self-report and ArcGIS, a geographic information system, to capture neighborhood violence. Yayu’s work to include ArcGIS geocoding in her research is an exciting frontier that enriches the current data. Congratulations, Yayu!

This fall, Child and Family Lab senior, Lauren Fleming, was awarded $2,700 through the Newcomb College Institute Student Grant to fund research. Lauren’s funding is to support the coding of the Insightfulness Assessment data from the Child & Family Lab’s Parent Child and Coping Study. The Insightfulness Assessment follows a procedure of structured interviews with mothers about their children based on videotaped segments of mother-child interactions (Oppenheim & Koren-Karie, 2002). Dr. Nina Koren-Karie, a researcher at the

University of Haifa, created the Insightfulness Assessment (IA) and therefore codes the interview transcriptions. Coding the interviews is a time and cost consuming process, therefore, the grant funding will go towards coding more of our IA interviews. Lauren is using the IA coding data in her thesis project seeking to address the gaps present in the research on intergenerational transmission of adversity by examining key regulatory processes in early childhood as well as the potential buffering power of maternal insightfulness. She hopes that having more IA coded data available to the lab team in the future will allow for more research to be produced that examines the the potential protective aspect of maternal insightfulness as a strength within the parent-child relationship. Lauren plans on defending her thesis this Spring. We are proud of her hard work and excited to see it unfold!

This October, lab members Janie Park and Hannah Swerbenski traveled to Portland, Oregon to present Gray Lab data findings at the Society for the Study of Human Development Conference.  The poster they presented, “Mothers’ PTSD and Depression are Associated with Discordant Reporting of her Young Child’s Trauma Exposure”, examined the efficacy of different kinds of assessments that capture preschool-aged children’s Potentially Traumatic Experiences (PTE) by looking at how parental psychopathology may impact reporting of PTE exposure for one’s child. This poster was the result of scholarly teamwork between Janie Park (undergraduate RA), Hannah Swerbenski, B.S., Erin Glacklin, M.S., and Sarah Gray, PhD.

During the last week of June, the Child and Family lab had the honor of hosting a team of researchers and clinicians from the University of Michigan.  The Michigan team spent three days training Dr. Gray’s child and family lab members, Tulane School Psychology graduate students, and other community providers in the Mom Power program so that it can be adapted and implemented to serve the New Orleans community. 

Mom Power is an evidence-based intervention program that aims to support families who are facing adversity and stress through the challenges of caring for young children. Aligning with the Child and Family lab values, Mom Power is a strength-based, nurturing approach to promoting transgenerational resilience for mothers and children. 

The training was incredibly informative and powerful and we are so grateful for the Michigan team for bringing their knowledge to us all in New Orleans! A big thank you to our wonderful trainers: Dr. Kate Rosenblum, PhD, Dr. Maria Muzik, MD, MS, Melisa Schuster MSW, CAADC,  and Julie Ribaudo, MSW, ACSW, Infant Mental Health Specialist. We look forward to putting our Mom Power knowledge to action in the coming years.