Current Projects
Emotion Regulation Flexibility and Suicide Risk
The ability to employ emotion regulation strategies flexibly across contexts may enhance resilience in adolescence. Teaching emotion regulation skills is also a core feature of common interventions for acute suicidality in youth. When and how emotion regulation processes impact acute suicide risk remains unclear. This study seeks to examine this question, utilizing ecological momentary assessment and psychophysiology to explore in-the-moment and longitudinal relationships between flexible regulation and suicide.
Funding: NIMH
Mobile Health Intervention for Parents after ED Visit
The primary objective of this grant is to develop and pilot test a mobile health intervention (Intervention for Parent Education About Care after the ED; iPEACE) for parents of youth presenting to the ED for psychiatric care. Previous mobile health interventions in the pediatric emergency setting have primarily targeted adolescents, neglecting the role of parents in supporting their teens access to and engagement in care following a mental health crisis. The current proposal aims to address this significant gap in the literature.
Funding: Klingenstein Third Generation Foundation Access to Care Fellowship
Understanding Disclosure of Suicidal Thoughts & Behaviors
In collaboration with Dr. Taylor Burke (Brown) and Dr. Kathryn Fox (Denver), this project seeks to better understand both teen and parents’ experiences when youth disclose suicidal thoughts and behaviors. The long-term goal of this research is to inform clinical intervention and guidelines to improve disclosure experiences for youth at-risk for suicide and self-injury.
Visit ProjectAnchor.org to learn more about our work with parents.
Funding: Mental Research Institute
Collaborators: Taylor Burke, PhD Kathryn Fox, PhD
REACH Youth Advisory Board
The Recognizing and Enhancing Adolescent and Community Health (REACH) Youth Advisory Board is a collaborative endeavor with five clinical psychologists to engage the perspectives of youth with lived experiences of depression and/or suicidality in our research. Visit reachboard.org to learn more.
Collaborators on the REACH Board: Drs. Kathryn Fox, Jessica Hamilton, Hannah Lawrence, and Rachel Vaughn-Coaxum
Completed Projects
Developing a Task-Based Assessment of Secondary Control Coping in Youth
For my dissertation, I adapted a common emotion regulation task used in neuroimaging studies to examine how adolescents employ distraction and reappraisal in response to parental distress.
Funding: APA Division 53 Routh Dissertation Grant
Bettis et al., 2021
College Student Coping with Stress Preventive Intervention
We compared two interventions aiming to prevent depression and anxiety in college students. Students were randomized to receive a 6-week coping skills group intervention, a 6-week on-line cognitive training intervention, or a combination of the two.
Alex Bettis, PhD 