Rationale
Focus
Why
Methods
How
Identify new treatment targets.
We focus on identifying cognitive-affective mechanisms that underlie youth mood disorders and suicide-risk so we can eventually target them with interventions. This includes investigating factors such as emotion regulation, effort sensitivity, relief motivation, and stress controllability. Our lab prioritizes studying mechanisms that can be translated into novel behavioral intervention strategies that can scale.
Extend the reach & impact of existing treatments.
We also focus on finding ways to make existing mental health treatments more effective, efficient, and accessible. This requires re-imagining what care looks like, where it happens, and who provides it. Our lab is particularly interested in adapting and embedding evidence-based treatment strategies in youth natural environments, such as schools, summer camps, and community centers.
Design interventions for youth, informed by youth.
Additionally, we actively seek and gather feedback directly from adolescents about their personal experiences with mental health challenges and their perspectives on mental health treatments. By incorporating this data into our design and implementation, we aim to create more personalized and impactful interventions that resonate with the unique needs and experiences of youth.
Our mission is to improve youth mental health care because we can do better.
Almost one-third (29%) of youth report experiencing poor mental health.
Half (50%) of all lifetime mental illness begins by age 14.
Suicide is the 2nd leading cause of death among youth.
Only half (50.6%) of youth receive care for their mental health.
Current treatments only work for one-third (30%) of youth.
160 million people live in a designated Mental Health Professional Shortage area.
We utilize both translational and implementation science.
Questionnaires
Questionnaires allow us to collect information on how youth think, feel, and behave.
Mental Health Screening
Screening tools allow us to identify youth for intervention that might be missed by the traditional mental health system.
Behavior Paradigms
We use several behavioral paradigms to understand how teens learn rewards, make decisions, and expend effort.
Psychophysiology
We use a wireless recording system to examine respiration, heart rate, and skin conductance. These measures allow us to explore the time course of psychophysiological response in relation to emotional reactivity and emotion regulation tasks.
Focus Groups
Focus groups allow us to utilize stakeholders as experts of their own lives.
Theatre Testing
Theatre testing allows us to elicit feedback on context-specific adaptations and future implementation of proposed interventions.
Wearables
We use wearable devices to passively collect objective ratings of distress, heart rate, movement, and sleep.
Ecological Momentary Assessment
We use Ecological Momentary Assessment (EMA) to actively sample emotions, cognition, and behavior in real-time. These methods allow for the assessment of ecologically valid, context-dependent, and dynamic processes that unfold within the individual.