Notre Dame psychology professors Laura Miller-Graff and Kristin Valentino received a $3.1 million National Institutes of Health grant.
The two professors each developed programs to help prevent or reduce child maltreatment. They study critical points for development — Miller-Graff during pregnancy and Valentino during early childhood. The grant will help bring their programs together.
Over the next five years, they will perform a clinical trial to assess whether their programs work in tandem to prevent child maltreatment.
“This project represents, more broadly, ways that researchers like us could collaborate to really create some exciting synergies around things that have been developed independently,” Miller-Graff said in a press release. “Now, it can be brought together in an interesting way.”
Miller-Graff previously studied a program for mothers and older children exposed to intimate partner violence, abuse stemming from romantic relationships. It can have detrimental long-term effects on child development and is a risk factor for child maltreatment.
“That is really what got me interested in doing work in pregnancy, thinking about,‘OK, how do we set things up better from the start for families?’” she said.
Miller-Graff developed the Pregnant Moms’ Empowerment Program. The five-session program works to reduce intimate partner violence among pregnant women. It aims to improve maternal mental health and support early positive parenting practices with the goal of preventing child maltreatment.
Valentino's research addresses the early childhood years. The risk of child abuse and neglect is elevated during this time period. Valentino developed the Reminiscing and Emotion Training program. The six-session program gives mothers tools to improve their emotional support and response to their child’s needs.
“This is an exciting opportunity to collaborate and be able to test both models together,” Valentino said. “We’re hoping that receiving both interventions sort of has synergistic benefits for both mom and child.”
Miller-Graff and Valentino will start their research by working with families in South Bend and Memphis, Tennessee.
“One of my long-term goals is to be able to develop programs that can truly make a difference in the world and can prevent child maltreatment,” Valentino said. “This represents a really great opportunity for research that can get beyond my lab and into communities nationally.”
