(1) We are pilot testing new assessment protocols to interpret various forms of informant discrepancies in clinical and community based assessments.  Specifically, we are testing two parent-youth rating discrepancies protocols, one for youth anxiety symptoms and the other for parental monitoring of youth whereabouts and activities, based on the ABC Model (see publications page; De Los Reyes & Kazdin, 2005).  We will soon begin testing a protocol for parent-teacher rating discrepancies in assessments of preschool children's disruptive behavior symptoms.  These assessment protocols were all developed in collaboration with Dr. Robin Weersing at San Diego State University.  The social anxiety protocol is being tested in a clinic-based sample of parents and teenagers, the parental monitoring protocol is being tested in a community-based sample of parents and teenagers, and the disruptive behavior protocol will be tested in a clinic-based sample of parents, teachers, and children.  Students will receive training in conducting multi-informant standardized assessments in clinic and community based research. 

A peer-reviewed article that reports the initial findings of the parental monitoring study is "in press" at the Journal of Child and Family Studies.  We used these data to support multiple grant applications submitted to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in October 2011 and January 2012.   

An application for the social anxiety study was submitted to the NIH in October 2011, and it awaits review

(2) In collaboration with Dr. Lea Dougherty (UMD), Amelia Aldao (Yale University), and Candice Alfano (National Children's Medical Center), we are conducting a study in which we incorporate behavioral, questionnaire, interview, and biological (i.e., heart rate, cortisol reactivity, genotyping) measurements in the screening of youth social anxiety.  We are testing this assessment protocol in a clinic-based sample of parents and teenagers.  We received funding for this project through the University of Maryland Dean's Research Initiative, an internal university grant competition.  This funding allowed us to collect pilot data on approximately 45 parent-teenager dyads.  We have used this data as pilot data on multiple grant applications and manuscript submissions. Students will receive training in integrating behavior, rating, and biological  measurements when screening for social anxiety in teenagers.  This training will include learning how to administer heart rate variability, blood pressure, and salivary cortisol assessments to parents and teenagers coming in for the study.

(3) We are conducting a community-based study on the validation of a new structured interview measure of how differently caregivers and youths perceive daily life events and whether conflict exists surrounding these events (e.g., doing chores, homework, hanging out with friends).  This structured interview was developed in collaboration with Dr. Liza Suarez at the University of Illinois at Chicago.  Students will receive training in administering structured interview and questionnaire assessments in community samples of parents and teenagers.  We are currently collecting feasibility data on this interview with NIH funding that we received in collaboration with fellow faculty member Dr. Carl Lejuez (UMD) and through his study of a community sample of 10-to-12-year-old children and the development of child and adolescent risk-taking behaviors.  In collaboration with Drs. Lea Dougherty and Jude Cassidy (UMD), we are also collecting similar data in a separate sample of parents and 14-to-17-year-old teenagers.  In this older teenage sample we are collecting laboratory observation data of caregiver-youth conflict and measurements of parent's and teenager's biological responses to these laboratory conflict tasks.   We recently submitted a manuscript to a peer-reviewed journal outlet that reports the psychometric properties of the structured interview.  Additionally, based on this data we submitted a grant application for further funding of this project to the NIH in January 2012.   

(4) We are conducting an online study in collaboration with Dr. Jessecae Marsh at Lehigh University examining clinicians' diagnostic impressions of youth conduct disorder and the effects of contextual framing of conduct disorder symptoms.  Data collection for this study was completed in the Fall Semester 2008, and we published the main findings of this study in 2011 in Journal of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology.  In February 2012 we submitted a funding application to the NIH to conduct follow-up studies of this work.  Students may receive training in online study design and data collection.