My Research

I study the link between parent-child separation and health risk behavior in both parents and children. An abundance of research suggests that children who are separated from a parent (e.g., through foster placement, adoption, or parental divorce, death, or incarceration) are at heightened risk for health risk behaviors, such as substance use and unprotected sex. Importantly, parent-child separation is often also related to parent health risk behavior. For example, risk factors such as parental substance use disorders and teen parenthood increase the likelihood of a parent being separated from their child. As such, it is difficult to understand whether parent-child separation truly causes increases in child health risk behavior, or whether these increases are simply the result of related parental risk factors that are passed down to children through genetic or environmental mechanisms. Moreover, in some instances, separation from a parent with these risk factors may, in fact, be protective against child health risk behaviors.

I aim to understand the short-and long-term effects of parent-child separation on both parents and children in order to promote resilience in vulnerable families. My career goal is to become a clinical scientist with a research program that uses rigorous research methods (e.g., causal inference methods; large, multigenerational, longitudinal datasets) and interdisciplinary partnerships (e.g., collaboration with healthcare and child welfare systems) to study the association between parent-child separation and parent and child health risk behaviors. I hope to use these findings to inform child welfare policy and evidence-based interventions.