Completed Projects
BRAVE Young Families. We are currently recruiting pregnant women and their young children for participation in a research study on the the types of violence women experience during pregnancy, their specific needs for community services, and the well-being of themselves and their children. We are recruiting both women who have recently experienced violence in an intimate relationship and those who have not. The objective of this study is to gain a better understanding of how IPV effects (1) individual factors that may underlie the development of psychopathology (e.g., sleep, threat attenuation), (2) intergenerational processes and parent-child relationship quality, (3) adjustment across sibling groups. Notre Dame Institute for Scholarship in the Liberal Arts has generously supported the costs of sleep actigraphy.
Online support for posttraumatic stress among young adults in Egypt. This project seeks to translate, adapt and pilot a mobile health intervention for treating posttraumatic stress symptoms for use with young adults living in Egypt. Together with Dr. Kate Ellis (American University in Cairo) and collaborators at Ain Shams University (Cairo), we are preparing for a randomized control trial of the program. The translation costs for the program content have been supported by Notre Dame Institute for Scholarship in the Liberal Arts. Translation of the program into Arabic is being done by Nour Zaki. The pilot study is supported by the American University in Cairo.
Identifying processes underlying breastfeeding success in women exposed to adversity. In collaboration with the South Bend/Mishawaka WIC office, this project sought to determine how women’s history of exposure to adverse events may contribute to difficulties in initiating and sustaining breastfeeding. The goal of the research is to identify ways in which breastfeeding support and other forms of care can better address women’s and infants’ diverse needs. This project was supported by the Rodney F. Ganey Collaborative Community-Based Research Grant. See our resources page for downloadable resources related to this project, and see our publications page for scientific work emanating from this project.
Perceptions of Violence in Childhood and Relations to Adult Socioemotional Functioning. In collaboration with Dr. Kathryn Howell at the University of Memphis and Dr. Erin Hunter at the University of Michigan, this project assesses how college students’ past experiences with violence influence their current functioning. Of particular interest to our team is how past violence and trauma relates to substance abuse and current violent relationships. We also assess the role of religious and spiritual coping as it pertains to resilience in these college students. Please refer to the publications page for updates as we analyze these data.
Interpersonal Violence and Post-traumatic Growth. This project aims to evaluate the extent and nature of resilience following exposure to interpersonal violence, community violence, and political violence in order to better identify how posttraumatic functioning and resilience can be understood in these high-risk populations. Please refer to the publications page for updates as we analyze these data.
The Michigan-Örebro Collaboration for Research on Childhood Exposure to Violence. The BRAVE Project is a member of this international research collaboration, which includes researchers across the University of Notre Dame, University of Michigan, University of Memphis, and Örebro University in Sweden. Collaborators include Dr. Sandra Graham-Bermann, Dr. Kathryn Howell, and Dr. Åsa Källström Cater. The effort is aimed at assessing childhood exposure to intimate partner violence (IPV) in Sweden with a focus on providing insight into the development of practice and policy related to reducing violence in Sweden. This work examines a range of issues including perpetration patterns among Swedish couples experiencing IPV, children’s access to community resources and social supports, environmental contexts of IPV, gender differences in exposure to violence and consequent outcomes, and positive relationships that support children’s resilience following exposure to IPV. Please refer to the publications page for updates as we analyze these data.