Current Research

Research is important to increasing our understanding of the ways anxiety problem develop in youth, how anxiety affects youth, as well as understanding the factors which influence parenting behaviors. With information from our research, we can develop both intervention and prevention strategies to help other youth and families who struggle with anxiety and stress. We primarily rely on volunteers from the community to help us gather information to better understand issues such as the effect of child anxiety on family dynamics, the role of parenting stress on families with children with autism, and the effectiveness of behavioral intervention for children with autism.

Upcoming projects:

  • Child Adult Relationship Enhancement (CARE) for Allied Health Students: Increasing self-efficacy and perceptions of competence in working with children with disruptive behavior

  • Effectiveness and acceptability of a photovoice group intervention to promote resilience and coping skills among youth with pediatric sickle cell disease

  • Ecological Momentary Assessment to explore parental behavioral consistency and its relationships to parenting stress, burden, and quality of life in children with disruptive behavior

  • Development and testing of a neurocognitive screening to identify decline in youth with pediatric sickle cell disease

Our current and ongoing projects include:

Perceptions of racism, resourcefulness, and psychosocial factors in caregivers and pediatric patients with Sickle Cell Disease: This study aims to examine the role of potential protective or resilience factors (e.g., resourcefulness, spiritual practices) on perceived racism, quality of life, and healthcare satisfaction among children with sickle cell and their caregivers. The study will shed significant light on both the caregiver and patient experience within this population and how these factors are contributing to well-being.

College Students with Autism Spectrum Disorder: The purpose of this research is to identify the particular areas college students with Autism Spectrum Disorder struggle or would like more support within an academic setting. This needs assessment will provide the University of South Alabama with additional information on how to better serve its students.

Leveraging Technology to Evaluate Caregiver Stress and Quality Of Life: Led by Kristina Rossetti (5th year in Dr. Zlomke’s HYF Lab), this project focuses on the caregivers of children with ASD. It evaluates the unique challenges those caregivers may face throughout their daily lives while caring for their children and how those challenges affect them in regards to their emotional and physical well-being, using an app designed to measure possible stressors.

Some of our past projects include:

Effectiveness Trial of Parent Child Interaction Therapy: Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT) is an empirically-based, positive and intensive treatment program designed to help parents and children together to improve the quality of the parent-child relationship and to teach parents the skills necessary to manage their children's behavior problems. This research is examining the effect of PCIT on child disruptive behavior, psychological symptoms, parent stress, and parenting behaviors in children with and without autism spectrum disorders.

Communicative Outcomes of Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders Following a Parent-Implemented Therapy Program: The purpose of this collaborative research with faculty/students in the Speech-Language Pathology department is to determine whether participation in the child directed phase of Parent Child Interaction Therapy will result in measurable increases in language performance for children with ASDs.

Dyadic Parent-Child Interaction Coding System-III: The Dyadic Parent-Child Interaction Coding System-III, also known as DPICS-III, assesses the quality of parent-child interaction. This coding system is commonly used in Parent-Child Interaction Therapy, or PCIT. This project will allow us to look at the reliability and validity of the DPICS-III with children with autism symptomology compared to typically developing children.

Psychosocial Stress and Resiliency: This project examines the validity of a psychosocial screening tool in assessing risk factors and modeling the relation between risk factors (i.e., family context, resources, perceived severity and uncertainty), protective factors (i.e., optimism, mastery and control beliefs, hardiness), and family adaptation (i.e. quality of life, treatment engagement, child behaviors) in families with a child at-risk for developmental delays or diagnosed with a Pervasive Developmental Disability.

Parenting Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD): Due to the unique challenges of parenting a child with ASD, this project aims to better understand child and parent characteristics in treatment-seeking families. More specifically, this study will investigate the relationship between disruptive behaviors, autism severity, and parenting stress.

Developmental & Behavioral Health Literacy in Pediatric Health Care Providers and Trainees: In order to ensure that children and families are referred for evaluation and care appropriately, it is important that pediatric providers be informed on current diagnostic criteria and treatment options available. This project is a large survey we are conducting to assess levels of knowledge of common childhood disorders among a range of health care providers and trainees. Eventually, we hope that this information will inform curriculum and training to prepare professionals to provide quality integrated health care.