Caitlyn Mytelka, LMSW

Email: cmytelka@uh.edu
Curriculum Vitae

Personal Statement

Caitlyn Mytelka, LMSW (she/her/hers) is a PhD Candidate at the Graduate College of Social Work at the University of Houston and a licensed master’s level social worker in Texas. She received her BA in Psychology and Sociology from New York University and her MSSW from The University of Texas at Austin. Caitlyn’s scholarship focuses on positive youth development in diverse school settings. Specifically, her research centers on promoting positive mental health among adolescents by examining mechanisms that may be targeted through school-based preventive interventions to enhance wellbeing. Caitlyn’s dissertation examines the reciprocal relationship between coping style and symptoms of depression and anxiety among early adolescents over time and across diverse youth using multilevel modeling. Her long-term research goals are to inform and develop equitable preventive interventions in schools to improve youth wellbeing and development.

Caitlyn’s research agenda is guided by her clinical practice as a mental health therapist and telepsychiatry case manager in a school-based mental health clinic. The high rates of subthreshold internalizing symptoms in her work with adolescents propelled Caitlyn to pursue research on school-based preventive strategies and models that equip young people with skills to better cope with stressors. Caitlyn has also worked for a school district to integrate social and emotional learning and enhance mental health supports in secondary schools.

Research Interests

• Positive youth development  
• Adolescent coping  
• Adolescent mental health and wellbeing 
• School-based prevention programming 
• Social and emotional learning 

Education

• MSSW, The University of Texas, Austin, TX, 2013 
• BA in Psychology and Sociology, New York University, New York, NY, 2010 

Licenses and Certifications

• Licensed Master Social Worker – State of Texas 

Peer Reviewed Publications

• Gearing, R., Washburn, M., Shavani, S., Mytelka, C, Carr, L. C., Robinson, A., Clark, D., & Robbins, S. P.  (In press). Strengthening social work skills and competency through exposure to diversity. Journal of Social Work Education.   
• Rubin, A. & Mytelka, C. (2021). Social justice emphases on MSW program websites and in curricula?: A mixed-methods study. Journal of Social Work Education. https://doi.org/10.1080/10437797.2021.1943584 
• Narendorf, S. C., Boyd, R. K., Mytelka, C., Vittoria, K., & Green, M. (2019). Bridging the transition: What makes for success in a formal mentoring program for youth exiting foster care? Child Welfare. https://www.jstor.org/stable/48626323 

Representative Conference Presentations 

• Mytelka, C., Lu, Y., Torres, E. D., Legesse-Sinha, P., Sulley, C., Rabideau, D., Busch-Armendariz, N. & Temple, J. R. (2022, March). Adapting a school-based healthy relationship program for college students. Poster presentation at the 2022 Society for Research on Adolescence Biennial Meeting, New Orleans, LA.   
• Narendorf, S., Mytelka, C., & Munson, M. (2022, January). Social networks among young adults transitioning from foster care to adulthood. Oral presentation at the 26th Annual Conference of the Society for Social Work and Research, Washington, D.C 
• Mytelka, C., Gearing, R., Washburn, M., Shavani, S., Robinson, A., Robbins, S., and Carr, L. C. Strengthening social work skills and competency through exposure to diversity. (2021, November). Oral presentation at 67th the Council on Social Work Education 2021 Annual Program Meeting, Orlando, FL.  
• Mytelka, C. & Olson, L. (2020, October). Universal mental health screening in a multi-tiered system of support. Conference session at the 25th Annual Conference for Advancing School Mental Health, online presentation due to COVID-19.  

Current Service Actitivities

• Editor-in-Chief, Perspectives on Social Work, a doctoral student journal published by the Graduate College of Social Work at the University of Houston