LAB MISSION
Lab Mission
Our lab aims to prevent suicide and promote adolescent mental health. We focus on identifying and modifying risk and protective factors for suicidal thinking and self-injurious behaviors among young people, including social media and sleep as potential risk factors, protective factors, and opportunities for intervention and prevention.
Our research uses a range of methods, including innovative technology (e.g., smartphone sensing, ecological momentary assessment, actigraphy), and qualitative approaches (e.g., focus groups) to examine these risk and protective factors in the real world. We also leverage technology to modify sleep and social media into accessible and scalable programs to reach and engage youth in their daily lives.
Teens are critical in research about their lives. We center teens' perspectives through active collaboration with our youth advisory board to conduct research that is co-designed with and informed by adolescents with diverse backgrounds. We also aim to communicate our research with teens, families, educators, and policy-makers through community engagement and media to promote adolescent mental health.
Our goal is to promote adolescent mental health by improving identification of suicide risk and developing scalable programs that help teens (and adults!) use social media in healthy ways and get better sleep.
What
drives the increase in mental health problems during adolescence?
Our research focuses on developmental factors that also change during the adolescent period, including social and environmental stressors, social media, and sleep and circadian processes. We often evaluate these processes in concert with other risk factors, such as puberty, cognitive-affective vulnerabilities, and the biological stress response.
Who
is most at risk for suicidal thoughts and self-injurious behaviors during adolescence?
Our research examines which adolescents are most at risk and through what mechanisms (across individual, familial, and systemic levels), particularly focused on disparities that emerge during adolescence.
When
are adolescents most at risk for worsening mood and suicidal thoughts?
Our research focuses on understanding what predicts when risk is escalating in real time. By understanding factors that increase mood and suicide risk in real time, we may be able to prevent the transition to suicidal behavior.
How
can we improve our understanding, detection, & prevention of mental health problems and suicide risk?
Our lab uses innovative methods to capture risk processes in real time (smartphone sensing, actigraphy, ecological momentary assessment).
We conduct clinical interviews, surveys, and focus groups to learn from our participants to better understand individuals’ unique experiences and how broader systemic issues affect mental health and suicide risk in different communities.
Our lab aims to ensure research reaches the public and community around us. To this end, we seek teen input in our research (e.g., focus groups, Youth Advisory Board) and engage our participants as citizen scientists to ensure our research is relevant and accessible across different communities.
Our lab is actively involved in disseminating research in academic outlets, such as peer-reviewed journals and at conferences, which are important scientific endeavors. We also recognize that the research pipeline often ends there. Our goal is to disseminate our work and its potential impact more broadly by writing articles for popular press media, creating accessible media (e.g., infographics, social media), and connecting with local and national organizations, schools, and community organizations to share our research and to provide mental health education and resources.