Active Research Support

National Institute of Health and Human Development (NICHD)

Mediational Intervention for Sensitizing Caregivers: Feasibility and Acceptability for Black and Hispanic Formerly Incarcerated Mothers. This study uses a mixed-methods approach to begin the process of adapting MISC for use with Black and Hispanic formerly incarcerated mothers.

National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)

MISC-CBO: A Cluster Randomized Control Trial to Improve the Mental Health of OVC in South Africa

To evaluate the effectiveness of the Mediational Intervention for Sensitizing Caregivers for Community-based Organizations (MISC-CBO) in reducing mental health problems in orphan and vulnerable children in South Africa

National Institute of Health and Human Development (NICHD)

MISC-IPV: A Community Based Intervention for Children Traumatized By Intimate Partner Violence
To assess feasibility, acceptability and preliminary outcomes of the Mediational Intervention for Sensitizing Caregivers for mothers and children exposed to intimate partner violence

VA Clinical Science Research and Development

Manage Emotions to Reduce Aggression – MERA: A Brief Aggression Treatment for Veterans with PTSD Symptoms
Conduct a 2-site randomized clinical trial to test if Manage Emotions to Reduce Aggression is efficacious at reducing aggression and emotion dysregulation in Veterans with PTSD symptoms compared to 3 sessions of Present Centered Therapy

National Institute of Mental Health

Testing a biosocial model of borderline personality features in youth
A prospective study testing interactions between environmental factors and neural processes in the development of BPD in early adolescent girls.

National Institute of Mental Health

The Feasibility and Acceptability of the Mediational Intervention for Sensitizing Caregivers for Mothers with Borderline Personality Disorder
This project takes an empirical, community-based approach to begin the process of adapting MISC for use with mother’s with BPD.

Manage Emotions to Reduce Aggression – MERA: A Brief Aggression Treatment for Veterans with PTSD Symptoms
This project conducts a 2-site randomized clinical trial to test if Manage Emotions to Reduce Aggression is efficacious at reducing aggression and emotion dysregulation in Veterans with PTSD symptoms compared to 3 sessions of Present Centered Therapy

Cultural consensus modeling to identify culturally relevant risk factors for suicide among Black youth
This project aims to use evidence-based ethnographic method to give direct voice to the risk factors for suicidal behaviors as perceived by Black youth themselves.

National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism

Brief Personalized Feedback Intervention for Hazardous Drinking in an HIV Clinic
This project tests the feasibility and acceptability of a social-cognitive intervention for substance use problems in HIV infected individuals. 

National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)

Neurodevelopment: attachment, social function and borderline personality
To examine the impact of adolescent-caregiver relationships on the development of neural and behavioral indicators of collaboration in trust within adolescent peer relationships, treating both as potential mechanisms in the exacerbation of borderline personality disorder symptoms.

National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA)

Translational Methamphetamine AIDS Research Center (TMARC)
To provide scientific leadership, technical support, and opportunities for training to coalesce the efforts of an interdisciplinary group of investigators to elucidate METH/HIV-induced CNS injury.

Completed Research Support

University of Houston High Priority Area Seed Grant

Mediational Intervention for Sensitizing Caregivers: A formative research study to evaluate feasibility and acceptability for families separated by migration

This project evaluates the feasibility and acceptability of MISC for use in families separated and recently re-united due to migration. 

Provost 50-in-5 Award – University of Houston

A comparison of real-time mentalizing in treatment-seeking and healthy adolescents.
This project will compare real-time mentalizing between healthy and treatment-seeking caregiver-adolescent dyads during a conflict paradigm.

National Institute of Child Health and Development

MISC-CBO: A community-based intervention for HIV affected children
This project develops and tests a mentalization-based treatment approach to improve caregiving of HIV/AIDS affected orphans.

National Institute of Mental Health

The Development and Validation of an Observational Coding System for Real-Time Parent-Adolescent Mentalizing
This project develops and test a real-time observational coding system for parent-adolescent mentalizing.

Telephon Kids, Australia

Development of Performance Measures for Identification of Adolescent Deliberate Self-Harm

This project develops vignettes that may aid teachers in schools to better identify teens with personality disorder and self-harm.

Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

Family Planning Needs of South African Adolescent Girls:
This project aims to employ cultural consensus modeling to elucidate culturally relevant factors associated with contraceptive practices among South African adolescent girls.

VA Clinical Science Research & Development

CAP - Using Emotion Regulation to Decrease Aggression in Veterans with PTSD
This project tests the effectiveness of a novel treatment approach that integrates a focus on emotion regulation to decrease aggression in veterans with PTSD.

University of Houston Research Progress Grant

Mediational Intervention for Sensitizing Caregivers - Houston
The project supports training of graduate students in MISC to facilitate research project development of the use of MISC for mother with psychopathology and their offspring.

American Psychological Foundation Division 49

Group-based Systems Training for Emotional Predictability and Problem Solving (STEPPS) to Address Problems in Emotion Regulations in Adolescents.
This project examines the effectiveness of an emotion regulation based group intervention for adolescents with interpersonal reactivity and emotion dysregulation and their parents.

National Institute of Mental Health

Inadequate Sleep, Emotional Processing, and Childhood Risk for Affective Disorders
This project aims to examine the role of emotion processing and social cognition sleep and affective disorders in children.

National Institute on Drug Abuse

An integrated personalized feedback intervention for tobacco smoking and analgesic medication misuse among older adults with comorbid HIV and chronic pain
This project tests the feasibility and acceptability of a social-cognitive intervention for substance use problems in HIV infected individuals.

McNair Family Foundation

Borderline personality disorder in adolescence: social cognition and treatment response
This project aims to examine the social-cognitive correlates of BPD and its outcomes in adolescents.

McNair Family Foundation

McNair Initiative for Neuroscience Discovery at Menninger and Baylor (MIND-MB)
This project examines the brain correlates of psychiatric disorder in inpatient adolescents and adults.

American Psychoanalytic Association

The effects of exogenous oxytocin on mentalizing and the moderating role of attachment security in adolescents with borderline traits
This project aims to examine the interplay between oxytocin and mentalizing in adolescents with BPD.

National Institute of Health

Cross-training of biological and foster parents in reflective parenting
This project tested a computerized mentalization-based intervention for foster parents.

National Institute of Mental Health

The effects of intranasal oxytocin on social-cognitive functioning in adolescents with borderline personality disorder compared to a sample of non-clinical adolescents
This projects aims to examine the effects of intranasal oxytocin on mentalizing in adolescents with BPD.

National Institute of Mental Health

Oxytocin and social engagement
This projects aims to examine the effects of intranasal oxytocin on trust with mothers in adolescents with psychiatric problems.

University of Houston Small Grants Program

Follow up to Psychological Effects of Exogenous Testosterone on Female-to-Male Transsexuals: A Longitudinal Study
This project examines the long-term social-cognitive and psychological effects of testosterone treatment in FTM transsexuals.

University of Houston CLASS Research Outreach Grant

The developmental relevancy of maternal depression on infants' visual experiences and language development
This project examines the effects of maternal depression on infant cognitive and social-cognitive development.

Grants to Enhance and Advance Research (GEAR) University of Houston

Personalized feedback to reduce HIV+ hazardous drinking in primary care
This project tests the feasibility and acceptability of a social-cognitive intervention for substance use problems in HIV infected individuals.

Luso-American Development Foundation

Post-doctoral research internship grant to study mentalizing under mentorship
This project examines the overlap between mentalization and object-relations theory.

University of Houston CLASS Research Progress Grant

Early markers of suicidal behavior
This project examines the social-cognitive and interpersonal basis of suicidal behaviors in youth.

National Institute of Mental Health

Emotional-behavior disorders in children affected by HIV/AIDS
This project focused on developing tools and determining rates of mental health problems in orhpans.

University of Houston Small Grants Program

The Effect of Oxytocin on Trust between Parents and Adolescents
This projects aims to examine the effects of intranasal oxytocin on trust in adolescents with BPD.

National Alliance for Research on Schizophrenia and Depression (NARSAD) Young Investigator Award

fMRI of reward-related decision-making in adolescents at high risk for depression
This project examines reward-related activity in biological offspring of depressed mothers.

Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ)

US Department of Health and Human Services
This project focused on translating child/adolescent treatment research for consumer understanding.

South African Responsible Gambling Foundation

The neurobiological correlates of reward-related decision making in disordered gambling
This project examined reward activity in problem gambling.

University of Houston Small Grants Program

Trust as a function of attachment security in adolescent borderline personality disorder
This project examined social reward in adolescents with BPD.

National Institute of Health (NIH), CFAR BCM/UT

Emotional-behavior disorders in children affected by AIDS
This project focused on developing tools and determining rates of mental health problems in orhpans.

BCM Competitive Seed Funding Program

Trust and trustworthiness in children with externalizing disorder This project examined reward-related decisionmaking in social context in adolescents.

South African Responsible Gambling Foundation

The psychology and behavioral economics of pathological gamblers
This project took a behavioral and neuroeconomic approach to understanding problem gambling.

O'Shaunnesy Foundation

Neurobiology of social-emotional functioning in Borderline Personality Disorder
This project piloted the methodology for an fMRI study of social cognition in BPD.

Borderline Personality Disorder Research Foundation Quick Action Small Grant

The recruitment of Borderline Personality Disorder in the community
This project piloted the methodology for an fMRI study of social cognition in BPD.

National Health Services Post-doctoral Fellowship Eastern Region, UK

The development of child focused measures to detect the 'hard-to- manage' child in the community
This project was a psychometric study for the development of measurement tools to early detect psychiatric problems in youth.