Christine H. Wang

Participant: PROMISE AGEP Research Symposium, 2014

Christine H. Wang
Department: Chemical, Biochemical and Environmental Engineering
Institution: University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC)

.

ABSTRACT

Children with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) are at risk for various emotional and social difficulties, and both parental depression and parenting have important implications for the developmental trajectories of children with ADHD (Chronis et al., 2007). However, treatments for ADHD often do not directly target parental depressive symptoms (Chronis et al., 2004). Therefore, our lab developed and evaluated an integrated parenting intervention for children with ADHD, which combines evidence-based behavioral parent training for children with ADHD and cognitive behavioral therapy for caregiver depression. In our efficacy trial, we found that the integrated parenting intervention outperformed standard behavioral parent training on several family, child, and caregiver outcome measures (Chronis-Tuscano et al., 2013). We now aim to disseminate this intervention to a community mental health center that serves disadvantaged families. Interventions that are shown to be effective in a controlled setting can have less optimal outcomes in community mental health settings due to characteristics and constraints unique to community mental health settings (Southam-Gerow, Rodriguez, Chorpita, & Daleidan, 2012). The study therefore seeks to examine the appropriate modifications that need to be made to the current treatment protocol to best fit the population. We also plan to pilot community therapist training and supervision procedures and to assess whether community therapists are able to implement the intervention with adherence and fidelity. Lastly, we plan to assess whether the intervention will improve caregiver and child outcomes. Preliminary findings from focus groups will be discussed.

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH

As an undergraduate at Emory University, I worked in the BUILD Lab headed by Dr. Patricia Brennan and assisted with a study examining the relationship between deficits in emotional processing and child externalizing behaviors. I conducted my honors thesis on the interactive effect of maternal depression and marital conflict on offspring internalizing symptoms during the transition to young adulthood. During summers 2009 and 2010, I worked as a summer fellow at the Child and Family Research Section at the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. I assisted with a project examining infant temperament and maternal depression and another study examining child and family functioning across developmental stages. Upon graduating college, I pursued a clinical research coordinator position at the Massachusetts General Hospital to work under the mentorship of Dr. Dina Hirshfeld-Becker. My responsibilities included coordinating an NIMH (R01) funded study on risk factors for adverse outcomes in offspring of parents with bipolar disorder. I decided to pursue a PhD in Clinical Psychology to further study how parental psychopathology and parenting are related to developmental and treatment outcomes in youth. I seek to better understand how knowledge of such relationships can aid in the development of more efficacious interventions for youth experiencing behavioral and emotional difficulties. Currently, I am a first year graduate student in the Maryland ADHD Program in the Clinical Science (Psychology) Program at the University of Maryland.

GENERAL SUMMARY OF GRADUATE RESEARCH

Currently, I am a graduate co-therapist on a treatment development study examining the efficacy of using Parent-Child Interaction Therapy with an Emotional Development component (PCIT-ED) as an early intervention for preschoolers with ADHD. Standard PCIT has already been shown to decrease noncompliance in children with Oppositional Defiant Disorder, a subset of who also often have co-morbid ADHD. However, because emotional regulation difficulties are common among children with ADHD and their family members and because emotion dysregulation predicts the development of depression in children with ADHD, coaching parents to model and teach their children adaptive emotional regulation techniques may be especially salient for children with ADHD. I am also working with my mentor on a dissemination study examining the feasibility of implementing an integrated parenting intervention for caregivers of children with ADHD in a community mental health center. The study seeks to examine the appropriate modifications that need to be made to the current treatment protocol to best fit the population in a community mental health setting. We also plan to pilot community therapist training and supervision procedures and to assess whether community therapists are able to implement the integrated parenting intervention protocol with adherence and fidelity. Lastly, we plan to assess whether the integrated parenting intervention will improve caregiver stress/mood, parenting, and child behavior problems in a community mental health setting. In addition, I am also working on a review paper with my mentor and another colleague regarding the effect of parental ADHD on treatment outcomes for children with ADHD.

SELECTED LIST OF PRESENTATIONS AND PUBLICATIONS

Freed, R.D., Tompson, M.C., Otto, M.W., Nierenberg, A.A., Hirshfeld-Becker, D.R., Wang, C.H., & Henin, A. (accepted) Early risk factors for psychopathology in offspring of parents with bipolar disorder: The role of obstetric complications and maternal comorbid anxiety. Depression & Anxiety.
Hirshfeld-Becker, D.R., Micco, J.A., Wang, C.H., & Henin, A. Behavioral Inhibition: A Discrete Risk Factor for Social Anxiety Disorder? In J. Weeks (Ed.) Handbook on Social Anxiety Disorder. Wiley-Blackwell. (In press)
Wang, C. & Brennan, P.A. (2011). Maternal Depression, Marital Satisfaction, and Internalizing Behaviors at Age 20. Poster presented at the 2011 Georgia Psychological Association Annual Conference, Atlanta, Georgia.
Wang, C., Jager, J.O. & Bornstein, M.H. (2010) The Relation Among Parental Separation Anxiety, Adolescent Adjustment, and Adolescent Perception of Parent-Child Relationships: The Moderating Role of Parenting Styles. Poster presented at the 2010 National Institutes of Health Annual Summer Poster Day, Bethesda, Maryland.
Wang, C., Shapiro, S. & Manian, N. (2009) Maternal Behavior During Mother-Infant Interactions: The Influence of Maternal Depression, Maternal Personality, and Infant Temperament. Poster presented at the 2009 National Institutes of Health Annual Summer Poster Day, Bethesda, Maryland.

Disclaimer: Information on this page has been provided by and is owned by the student presenter.