Our Work

A brief introduction to some of our ongoing and past projects

CODA: Culturally Optimized DBT for Adolescents

Given the alarming suicide rates in youth, particularly BIPOC youth, the proposed project seeks to adapt and enhance Dialectical Behavior Therapy for Adolescents (DBT-A) for BIPOC youth who are at risk for suicide. While DBT-A is the intervention with the most empirical support for treatment of suicide and self-harm behaviors, this intervention has had limited evidence among BIPOC youth. We plan to adapt DBT-A to include antiracist principles and elements, attending to multiple levels of racism (e.g., patient level, provider level, structural level) and intersectionality, and target issues that disproportionately affect BIPOC youth (e.g., disparities in treatment engagement, enhancing caregiver involvement). Specifically, the goals of the proposed project are 1) to incorporate explicit and implicit content to address racism into the DBT-A model and 2) to investigate multiple avenues to enhance the accessibility of DBT-A for BIPOC youth and families. We are excited to implement this project at Montefiore Medical Center’s Adolescent DBT (MMC A-DBT) program, located in the Bronx, NY, where DBT-A was initially developed. Montefiore’s A-DBT program has already done a great deal of work to increase the relevance and accessibility of DBT-A for BIPOC youth while remaining adherent to the DBT-A model. The proposed project builds on the prior work at MMC A-DBT and will inform the use of DBT-A for BIPOC youth at risk for suicide throughout NYC and in the mental health field.

INVEST: Identify Negative Violence Exposure on Social Media in Teens

Youth are exposed to an alarming amount of gun violence in their homes, schools, communities, and through the media. Exposure to violence, particularly gun violence, has been demonstrated to have negative effects on youth behavioral and mental health, including depression, violence, and self-injurious thoughts and behaviors (SITB). Exposure to gun violence and mental health problems are not equitably distributed with SITB increasing at faster rates among Black and Latinx adolescents, who are also more likely to be the victims of and exposed to gun violence than other racial/ethnic groups in the US. This highlights the critical need to understand the frequency and impact of gun violence exposure and youth mental health, especially for Black and Latinx youth. With over 45% of youth “constantly online” and the growing popularity of visual social media (SM) platforms (e.g., YouTube, TikTok), youth are now exposed to images and videos of gun violence when they use SM. Research indicates that exposure to online traumatic events (e.g., community violence, mass shootings,) can confer risk for poor mental health outcomes, particularly when victims of gun violence share the viewer’s identity. The effects of violence might be pronounced among youth who are exposed to multiple types of gun violence, including suicide, domestic violence, gang and community violence, police violence, and mass shootings. Yet, no known studies have examined the frequency and impact of exposure to gun-related violence on SM among youth with diverse backgrounds and identities in the US, especially among Black and Latinx youth. This study done in collaboration with Dr. Jessica Hamilton at the Hamilton Lab Rutgers aims to 1) Assess the nature of exposure to gun violence on social media among adolescents; 2) Examine the frequency of gun violence exposure on social media, and whether it is associated with mental health problems at baseline and over 3 months and on a daily basis using a mixed methods approach ) that includes focus groups, online longitudinal surveys, and intensive monitoring with smartphone sensing and ecological momentary assessment (EMA).

Individual and Cultural Moderators of College Student Mental Health Treatment Engagement

The goal of this study is to understand the extent to which beliefs about one’s racial/ethnic group and emotion regulation influence attitudes toward engaging in mental health treatment among college students. As suicide ideation and behavior are particularly a concern among college students (Nam et al., 2018), the proposed study will also examine beliefs/attitudes about engaging in treatment when suicide ideation is present.

The specific aims of the proposed research are to 1) Examine public regard and emotion regulation as potential moderators of treatment engagement attitudes among college students of color and 2) Examine attitudes about seeking mental health services for suicide ideation among college students of color

EPiC- DBT: Examining Payment Choices in DBT

The goal of this study is to understand factors related to payment for services among clinicians who have been trained or certified in Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT).

The specific aims of the study are to 1) examine the payment options that DBT clinicians offer and 2) to explore the attitudes and barriers that these clinicians have toward expanding payment options for DBT.