Projects

 

Currently Funded

Tailored Inhibitory Control Training to Reverse EA-Linked Deficits in Mid-Life


Individuals with high levels of early adversity (EA) are particularly likely to engage in health-risking behaviors (HRBs). HRBs are associated with problematic health outcomes and can mark the beginning or escalation of life course trajectories towards long-term physical and mental health difficulties and early mortality. An underlying causal factor shared by many HRBs in early adulthood is behavioral disinhibition. Research from cognitive neuroscience indicates that behavioral disinhibition occurs when an individual is unable to recruit adequate inhibitory control (IC) related brain activation. We propose to evaluate the feasibility of a computerized intervention to reverse deficits in IC associated with EA among a sample of mid-life adults with EA and current IC difficulties. The primary aims are to test 1) intervention feasibility and efficacy to increase IC and alter its neural activity in an EA sample and 2) mediation of intervention effects on IC performance and IC-related HRBs by IC network changes.  


Translational Drug Abuse Prevention Center (TDAP)

Principal Investigators: Phil Fisher, PhD, Patti Chamberlain, PhD

Funder: National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA)


The Translational Drug Abuse Prevention Center (TDAP) includes a group of multidisciplinary scientists who will collaborate to create a national resource for cutting-edge, innovative research with studies spanning from basic science to implementation research in U.S. child welfare systems. Collaborating sites include the University of Oregon, Oregon Social Learning Center, New York Foundling, and the University of Southern California. Children and adolescents involved in child welfare are among the most disadvantaged individuals in American society and are at greatly elevated risk for drug use and related problems including delinquency, teen pregnancy, poor physical and mental health, homelessness, incarceration, and HIV-risk behaviors.  Moreover, long-term follow up studies show that even with existing community-based services, for many children involved in child welfare these problems prove intractable in to adulthood. The TDAP will focus on broadening our understanding of underlying mechanisms that contribute to healthy development and testing practical interventions and implementation strategies to improve outcomes for children and families involved in U.S. child welfare systems.

The TDAP will increase our understanding in three key areas that have direct effects on CWS policy and practice: (1) Understanding of underlying mechanisms and processes associated with exposure to high levels of early life adversity, and specific to risky decision-making in certain social contexts that are common for CWS youth during early adolescence; (2) reducing the high rates of drug use and engagement in HIV-risk behaviors in adolescent girls in the CWS via novel preventive intervention strategies; and (3) identifying methods for implementing extant evidence-based interventions into CWS real-world settings with high fidelity and empirically measuring implementation success/failure in the context of a public child welfare system-initiated reform.

Randomized Trial of KEEP-P, a Prevention Intervention for Foster Preschoolers

Principal Investigator: Phil Fisher, PhD

Funder: National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD)


Preschool-aged foster children are at high risk for numerous negative outcomes, and these risks are heightened for children who experience foster placement disruptions. However, there is very limited use of evidence-based interventions for young children in the child welfare system. The KEEP-P study will conduct a randomized clinical trial of a new, low-cost, manualized, group-based intervention for foster preschoolers and their caregivers.  Foster/kinship caregivers will attend 16 weekly support group sessions. Some participating families will also complete a 10-week video coaching program designed to reinforce and strengthen the naturally occurring supportive interactions seen between young children and their caregivers.  The goal is improved parenting, reduced rates of disrupted placements, and improved child outcomes.


A Microsocial Video-Coaching Intervention for Toxically Stressed EHS Families

Principal Investigator: Sarah Watamura, PhD

Funder: National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)


This project focuses on some of the highest risk children enrolled in Early Head Start (EHS) in the metro Denver area. These children are living in toxic stress conditions, which can result in dysregulated cortisol, putting the young child at increasing risk for poor physical and psychological health outcomes including obesity or inadequate growth, cardiovascular disease, infectious illness, and early signs of depression, anxiety and conduct problems. The primary aims of the project will be to: 1) identify families at risk for dysregulated stress physiology as a function of toxic stress exposure, 2) implement a two-level microsocial video-coaching intervention, 3) assess the effectiveness of the intervention implementation, and 4) assess intervention effects.


A Randomized Efficacy Trial of the Kids in Transition to School (KITS) Program to Improve the School Readiness of Children in Disadvantaged Communities

Principal Investigator: Katherine Pears, PhD

Funder: Department of Education


This study is a randomized controlled trial of an intervention to improve school readiness in economically disadvantaged children and families. Two hundred and forty children and their families will be randomly assigned to either receive the intervention or receive services as usual. The children and families will be assessed on a range of school readiness skills at the beginning of summer before the start of the intervention, at the end of the summer before the start of school, during the fall of kindergarten and during the spring of kindergarten. This will allow us to test the utility of a short-term, intensive school readiness intervention with a population traditionally at risk for gaps in achievement.


KITS: Long-Term Effects of a School Readiness Intervention for Foster Children

Principal Investigator: Katherine Pears, PhD

Funder: National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA)


This project is a continuation of the original KITS efficacy trial and will examine: (1) the long-term effects of the KITS intervention in terms of two domains of school functioning (academic and socioemotional competence) and three domains of psychosocial functioning  (drug-use risk behaviors and externalizing and internalizing behaviors); (2) the mediational effects of HPA axis activity, PFC functioning, and caregiving factors on the associations between early adversity and school and psychosocial functioning; (3) the long-term cost-effectiveness of the KITS intervention.


The Role of Risk Taking and Inhibitory Control on Alcohol Use in Maltreated Youth

Principal Investigator: Jacqueline Bruce, PhD

Funder: National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA)


The primary goal of the study is to investigate the impact of early adverse experiences and the cognitive processes underlying behavioral regulation (i.e., risk taking and inhibitory control) on the developmental trajectories of alcohol use in maltreated adolescents and low-income, nonmaltreated adolescents. The moderating effects of sex and pubertal status on the pattern of relations between early adverse experiences, risk-taking propensity, inhibitory control abilities, and early-onset alcohol use will also be explored.


Adapting a Decision-Making Task to Explore its ERP Correlates Through Adolescence

Principal Investigator: Jacqueline Bruce, PhD

Funder: National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD)


The overarching goal of the study is to modify an existing decision-making task for

use with event-related potential (ERP) techniques and to identify important ERP components measured during this task. The modified task will be validated by examining the associations between behavioral and electrophysiological performance on this task and related measures. The development of the ability to make advantageous decisions will then be examined by investigating the behavioral and electrophysiological performance of children and adolescents on this task.


Examining the Effects of Working Memory Training in Low SES Children

Principal Investigator: Richard Bryck, PhD

Funder: National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD)


This project tests a 15-session working memory training program in low-SES children. The project aims include: 1) measurement of working memory ability, fluid reasoning, and academic performance before and after training phase; 2) test for lasting effects of training, improvement in executive functioning, and potential transfer effects on fluid intelligence and academic achievement; and 3) determination of the feasibility of an in-home training design.


Development and Psychopathology Training Program

Principal Investigators: Elizabeth Stormshak, PhD

Funder: National Institute on Mental Health (NIMH), National Institutes of Health (NIH)


The Development and Psychopathology Research Training Grant is a program of research training for doctoral students in the behavioral sciences, as well as for postdoctoral research fellows. The training program tightly links studies on the development of psychopathology and on intervention science. It provides training in diverse approaches and methods used in developmental and child clinical psychology. The program is organized within an ecological framework that integrates neuroscience, cognitive psychology, personality, social development, and intervention science.

Faculty and researchers affiliated with the three participating sites—the University of Oregon, Oregon Social Learning Center, and Oregon Research Institute—are recognized internationally for research that links developmental mechanisms with innovations in child and family intervention. They are uniquely positioned to provide a comprehensive training program in the translation of developmental and neurobiological research to preventative and clinical interventions.


Early Experience, Stress Neurobiology and Prevention Science

Principal Investigators: Megan Gunnar, PhD (University of Minnesota); Phil Fisher, PhD (UO Subcontract)

Funder: National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)


This grant supports a network of researchers who are interested in the effects of stressful early environments on the developing brain, and on the extent to which interventions can remediate these effects. The grant brings together scientists studying these issues in animals as well as humans. The specific neural systems under investigation include the limbic-HPA axis, components of the prefrontal cortex involved in executive functioning, and elements of the threat appraisal-response system. Network studies involving children to date have examined how these systems are impacted by different types of early stress, including neglect and other forms of maltreatment, as well as institutional rearing (among children adopted from overseas orphanages). In addition, we have been investigating whether improved behavioral functioning that is observed in connection with therapeutic interventions is concordant with changes in these neural systems. The subcontract to the University of Oregon supports Research Component 1, which aims to examine how 1) early life stress affects neurobiological and behavioral functioning in maltreated, toddler aged children in foster care, and 2) how variations in foster caregiving impacts the neurobiological functioning and subsequent psychosocial outcomes of this population.



EIFC: Outcomes through Middle Childhood

Principal Investigator: Phil Fisher, PhD

Funder: National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)


This 10 Year study, focuses on a randomized clinical trial of the Multidimensional Treatment Foster Care Program for Preschoolers (MTFC-P). MTFC-P was specifically designed to meet the needs of foster preschoolers and their caregivers, and to improve permanency outcomes for this high-risk population. Over the course of the study, we investigated three groups of children: foster children randomly assigned to the MTFC-P intervention or a “services as usual” comparison condition, and non-maltreated low-income community children.  The study has yielded information about basic differences between foster and community children’s psychosocial and neurobiological functioning, as well as providing evidence of the MTFC-P intervention’s positive impact on permanency, attachment-related behaviors, and HPA axis functioning. 



Dimensions of Early Stress and Child Welfare Involvement

Principal Investigator: Phil Fisher, PhD

Funder: National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD)


This study focuses on children identified at birth as being at high risk for child welfare system involvement. Cognitive, developmental, and psychosocial measures were collected at birth, 12, 24, and 36 months, and an additional wave of data were gathered on the children at age 9-11.  This study will help us to better understand how specific dimensions of early adversity, including type, severity, and duration of maltreatment, levels of family conflict, and family instability differentially affect the development of key neurobiological systems such as the HPA axis. It will also allow us to begin to understand the linkages between early stress and the development of specific forms of psychopathology and substance abuse. 


Center for Drug Abuse Prevention in the Child Welfare System

Principal Investigator: Patti Chamberlain, PhD

Funder: National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA)

This NIDA-funded Center focuses on understanding the causes and reducing the incidence of drug abuse and related problems in the child welfare system. The Center is housed at OSLC, with Patti Chamberlain as Principal Investigator. Drs. Fisher and Pears are co-Investigators. The Center includes three emphasis areas: Studies of stress neurobiology and genetics, economic evaluation of interventions, and incorporating fathers into conceptual models and interventions in child welfare. 


KITS: School Readiness in Foster Care Efficacy Trial

Principal Investigator: Katherine Pears, PhD

Funder: National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA)


This intervention targets specific school-related skills during the summer and early fall preceding school entry via three mechanisms: (1) a therapeutic playgroup; (2) caregiver psychoeducational support groups; and (3) behavioral consultation in home, school, and community settings.  KITS is designed to increase children’s attention and effortful control in classroom settings, to promote preliteracy skills, and to provide caregivers with skills for facilitating children’s successful transition to kindergarten. The research evaluation will test the direct effects of the intervention on school readiness and kindergarten outcomes, as well as moderating effects of child and contextual characteristics including early adversity (prenatal/neonatal health, maltreatment history and placement history), child cognitive functioning, and placement transitions. We are also examining whether intervention effects are associated with changes in areas of the brain related to stress response, particularly the HPA axis and medial prefrontal cortex.  Over the 5 years of the project, a total of 200 foster children will be enrolled in the project. 


A Randomized Efficacy Trial of the Kids in Transition to School (KITS) Program for Children with Developmental Disabilities and Behavioral Problems

Principal Investigator: Katherine Pears, PhD

Funder: Department of Education


This 4-year study is funded by the Institute of Education Sciences (U.S. Department of Education). KITS is a randomized efficacy trial of a preventive intervention to enhance psychosocial and academic school readiness in children with developmental disabilities who may have difficulty making the transition to kindergarten. One hundred children will participate in the KITS intervention group and 100 children will participate in the services as usual group. Children in the KITS intervention group will participate in a multi-component intervention program during the summer before school starts and for the first two months of school. The study will investigate these two groups of pre-kindergarten children on immediate (prekindergarten), intermediate (kindergarten) and longer term (first grade) outcomes as well as examine a number of key factors that may impact intervention including: child history of early childhood special education and other services, child cognitive competence, and familial risk factors (e.g., low SES and multiple family transitions). This project will help to demonstrate whether a program developed specifically to give at-risk children a boost in school readiness skills before kindergarten entry will be effective.


Risk for Substance Use in Foster Adolescents: An fMRI Study of Inhibitory Control

Principal Investigator: Jacqueline Bruce, PhD

Funder: National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA)

An fMRI Study of Inhibitory Control is designed to examine children’s behavioral performance and brain activation during an inhibitory control task. The study involves data collection with a subsample of 9–13 year-old children who participated in a randomized efficacy trial of Multidimensional Treatment Foster Care for Preschoolers (MTFC-P). The randomized efficacy trial of MTFC-P started with three groups of preschool-aged children: foster children who received the MTFC-P intervention, foster children who did not received the MTFC-P intervention, and children who were not in foster care. The current study investigates the long-term impact of early experiences and the MTFC-P intervention on the structure of specific brain regions assessed via magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), connections between specific brain regions assessed via diffusion tensor imaging (DTI), and activation of specific brain regions during an inhibitory control task via functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI).

Previously Funded