Anna Maria Ros
Training Track: Clinical
Lab: CASA Lab
Advisor: Catherine DeCarlo Santiago, Ph.D.
Office: Coffey Hall 406
Email: aros@luc.edu
Webpage: LinkedIn
Interests
Moderators of treatment efficacy for youth who have experienced trauma, implementation of evidence based practices in schools, and interventions that build resilience in families affected by poverty-related stress, acculturative stress, and discrimination.
Masters Thesis Title
The Effects of Parental Functioning and Socioeconomic Status on Initial Child Psychopathology Symptoms and Treatment Outcomes Following a Brief Trauma Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Group
Masters Thesis Abstract
The current study investigated the impacts of parent psychopathology and family socioeconomic status on symptom reduction for children participating in Bounce Back, a school-based intervention for elementary students exposed to trauma. Participants in this study were 52 first through fourth graders (Mage = 7.76; 65% male) who were predominately Latinx (82%). Schools were randomly assigned to immediate treatment or waitlist control. Children whose parents reported higher socioeconomic status showed steeper declines in symptoms compared to lower socioeconomic status. Further, children of parents who endorsed high PTSD symptoms reported attenuated treatment effects, whereas children of parents who endorsed high hostility reported enhanced treatment effects. Although Bounce Back is an effective intervention for reducing PTSD symptoms and improving coping skills among children exposed to trauma and other ongoing stressors, treatment gains are attenuated for children from families with low socioeconomic status, and parent psychopathology also impacts treatment effects. The effectiveness of Bounce Back may vary based on socioeconomic status and parent psychopathology. Future research should examine methods of tailoring Bounce Back for children coping with economic stress and parent psychopathology.
Masters Thesis Committee
Catherine DeCarlo Santiago, PhD and Maryse Richards, PhD
Dissertation Title
An Ecological Model of Transmission of Depression: Risk and Protective Factors for Mexican Immigrant Mothers and Children Living in Poverty
Dissertation Abstract Family poverty has been found to predict a number of negative outcomes across a multitude of domains of child development, including health, education, language and cognitive development (Yoshikawa, Aber & Beardslee, 2012; Reiss, 2013). Family poverty has been found to predict internalizing psychopathology risk across childhood and adolescence, and this relation is thought to operate multi-dimensionally through a number of factors associated with the experience of childhood poverty (Gilman, Kawachi, Fitzmaurice, & Buka, 2003). One factor that has been identified linking family poverty to child outcomes is maternal depression (Barker et al., 2012; Raposa, Hammen, Brennan & Najman, 2014). Maternal depression has repeatedly been implicated in negative outcomes for youth living in the context of poverty (Goodman, Rouse, Connell, Broth, Hall & Heyward, 2011; Kiernan & Huerta, 2008; Wachs, Black & Engle, 2009), and several studies have demonstrated that poverty’s effects on children are mediated by maternal depressive symptoms (Beeber & Miles, 2003; Mistry et al., 2004; Petterson & Albers, 2001). The current study seeks to examine whether maternal depressive symptoms mediate the effect of family poverty on child depressive symptoms in a sample of 104 low-income Mexican immigrant families. In addition to understanding mechanisms that transmit risk, researchers have underscored the need to look into factors that might protect against negative mental outcomes for children living in poverty in order to inform prevention and intervention efforts (Yoshikawa et al., 2012). One area that may be fruitful in this pursuit is the identification of internal and external resources that increase the likelihood that individuals will experience positive outcomes in adverse contexts, termed developmental assets. The current study will test whether such assets (community mental health centers, available high-quality after-school programming, cultural centers, etc.) at the community level serve to buffer the impact of family poverty on maternal depression. Further, the moderating impact of these community assets on the relation between maternal depression and child internalizing symptoms will also be examined.
Dissertation Committee
Cate DeCarlo Santiago, PhD, Maryse Richards, PhD, Noni Gaylord-Harden, PhD, Jim Garbarino, PhD