Current Projects
The Prevention & Intervention lab is currently providing free positive parenting seminars for families with children ages 2-12 living in Texas:
Positive Parenting
Ensuring a safe, engaging environment
Creating a positive learning environment
Using assertive discipline
Having reasonable expectation
Looking after yourself as a parent
Raising Confident, Competent Children (six core building blocks for children)
Showing respect to others
Being considerate
Having good communication and social skills
Having healthy self-esteem
Being a good problem solver
Becoming independent
Raising Resilient Children (six core building blocks for children)
Recognizing and accepting feelings
Expressing feelings appropriately
Building a positive outlook
Developing coping skills
Dealing with negative feelings
Dealing with stressful life events
These seminars will last 60-90 minutes and be provided online by two master’s-level clinicians who are supervised by Dr. John Cooley. They are designed so that parents/caregivers will leave with some great ideas to take home and try out with their families! For more information, click here.
The Prevention & Intervention Lab is currently providing free cognitive behavioral skills groups for children in grades 3-5 who are experiencing peer difficulties and/or struggling to manage their emotions. Each group is run by two graduate students from the Clinical Psychology Ph.D. Program at Texas Tech, who are supervised by Dr. John Cooley. Skills groups are designed to teach children how to solve problems more effectively, manage their emotions, change negative thought patterns, and use healthy coping strategies. The goal of this project is to evaluate the effectiveness of the groups in improving peer relations and reducing negative emotions.
The Prevention & Intervention Lab recently provided free therapy services for children and adolescents in grades 3-8 who had been negatively impacted by bullying. Youth were matched with an individual therapist—a graduate student in the Clinical Psychology Ph.D. Program at Texas Tech who worked under the supervision of Dr. John Cooley—and received weekly cognitive behavioral therapy. Services were tailored to each family’s goals and designed to meet each youth’s individual mental health needs (e.g., anxiety, depression, trauma, aggression, behavioral problems). We are currently evaluating the effects of this intervention.
The Prevention & Intervention Lab recently partnered with two local elementary schools on a 2-year project to learn more about factors that promote positive youth development. We are currently using data from this project to examine how children’s social relationships, emotion regulation, coping strategies, thinking patterns, and health behaviors influence their adjustment over time.
The Prevention & Intervention Lab is currently collaborating with the Suicide Risk and Prevention Research Laboratory on a youth suicide prevention project. Funded through a state contract, this project involves two phases. For the first phase, we are conducting a survey to understand primary care providers’ beliefs, training, and practices when working with patients at elevated risk for suicide. For the second phase, we are training providers across the West Texas region on evidence-based risk screening and intervention methods to a) improve the management of suicidality among child and adolescent patients, b) create developmentally informed safety plans, and c) facilitate healthy communication between parents/caregivers and youth to support safety in the home environment.
In Fall 2024, the Prevention & Intervention Lab will begin collaborating with the Pediatric Health, Affect, and Biobehavioral Research Lab on a project to better understand the transition into adolescence. Youth in the sixth grade and their parents/caregivers will participate in a lab visit and then complete electronic surveys over the course of 1 week while wearing sensors that measure heart rate, physical activity, and sleep. The goal of this project will be to examine connections between adolescents’ social interactions, stress, coping strategies, and health behaviors.