Amy Drahota

Amy Drahota
Michigan State University | MSU · Department of Psychology

PhD

About

54
Publications
10,878
Reads
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1,888
Citations
Citations since 2017
31 Research Items
1280 Citations
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2017201820192020202120222023050100150200250
2017201820192020202120222023050100150200250

Publications

Publications (54)
Article
Full-text available
Background Implementation strategies are purported to facilitate adoption and use of evidence-based practices (EBPs) across settings. The use of tailored implementation strategies may be particularly effective, as they are selected with the explicit purpose of addressing setting-specific implementation determinants. However, methods to select and t...
Preprint
Background: Although evidence-based practices (EBPs) have been shown to improve a variety of outcomes for autistic children, they are often inconsistently implemented or not implemented in community settings where many autistic children receive usual care services. One blended multi-phased implementation strategy developed to support the adoption a...
Article
Full-text available
Background The field of dissemination and implementation science has the potential to narrow the translational research-to-practice gap and improve the use of evidence-based practices (EBPs) within community-based settings. Yet, foundational research related to dissemination efforts, such as understanding researcher attitudes, practices, and the de...
Article
Full-text available
Objective To examine patterns and predictors of familiarity with transdisciplinary psychosocial (e.g., non-pharmacologic) practices for practitioners treating youths with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in the United States.Method Practitioners (n = 701) from behavioral, education, medical, and mental health backgrounds who worked with youth (ages 7...
Article
Lay abstract: School-age children, adolescents, and young adults with autism spectrum disorder encounter many different types of providers in their pursuit of treatment for anxiety, behavior problems, and social difficulties. These providers may all be familiar with different types of intervention practices. However, research has not yet investiga...
Article
Background: Evidence-based practice (EBP) use is varied in autism spectrum disorder community-based organizations (ASD-CBOs) in the United States. Aim: The ACT SMART Implementation Toolkit—a multi-faceted implementation strategy guiding teams through implementation phases—was pilot tested to assess its preliminary effectiveness in increasing EBP...
Article
Over the last few decades, there has been an increase in the number of large federally funded transdisciplinary programs and initiatives. Scholars have identified a need to develop frameworks, methodologies, and tools to evaluate the effectiveness of these large collaborative initiatives, providing precise ways to understand and assess the operatio...
Article
Lay abstract: Interventions that support social communication include several "components," or parts (e.g. strategies for working with children and families, targeting specific skills). Some of these components may be essential for the intervention to work, while others may be recommended or viewed as helpful but not necessary for the intervention...
Article
Full-text available
As the rates of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) increase and early screening efforts intensify, more toddlers with high likelihood of ASD are entering the United States' (US') publicly funded early intervention system. Early intervention service delivery for toddlers with ASD varies greatly based on state resources and regulations. Research recommen...
Article
Full-text available
Online survey research has significantly increased in popularity in recent years. With its use, researchers have a new set of concerns about data collection and analysis to consider, including the possibility of fraudulent survey submissions. The purpose of this article is to demonstrate to survey researchers an innovative and systematized process...
Article
Full-text available
Background Evidence-based practices (EBPs) have been shown to improve behavioral and mental health outcomes for children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Research suggests that the use of these practices in community-based organizations is varied; however, the utilization of implementation guides may bridge the gap between research an...
Article
Full-text available
Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a highly prevalent neurodevelopmental disorder. ASD community-based organizations (ASD-CBOs) underutilize or inconsistently utilize evidence-based practices (ASD-EBPs) despite numerous available EBPs to treat ASD. Nonetheless, ASD-CBOs implement changes to practices regularly. Understanding ASD-CBO's implementation...
Article
Full-text available
Background Despite efforts to use standardized taxonomy and research reporting, documenting implementation strategies utilized in community settings remains challenging. This case study demonstrates a practical approach to gather use of and satisfaction with implementation strategies utilized within community-based sites to understand community pro...
Article
Introduction Autism evidence-based practices (EBPs), including early intensive behavioral interventions (EIBIs), are associated with improved and sustained positive outcomes for children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). However, little is known about the quality of EIBIs delivered within community-based behavioral health systems, where many chi...
Preprint
Full-text available
Background: More than 20 million Americans ages 12 and older have a past-year substance use disorder. Majority-minority cities, including Flint, MI, suffer disproportionately from higher rates of substance use and are less likely to have access to evidence-based prevention and treatment interventions relative to predominately White and wealthier ci...
Preprint
Full-text available
Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a highly prevalent neurodevelopmental disorder. ASD community-based organizations (ASD-CBOs) underutilize or inconsistently utilize evidence-based practices (ASD-EBPs) despite numerous available EBPs to treat ASD. Despite this, ASD-CBOs implement changes to practices regularly. Understanding ASD-CBO's implementatio...
Preprint
UNSTRUCTURED Background Focused dissemination and implementation (D&I) of research results is a key strategy for improving public health. While federally-funded research centers are required to have a dissemination core, these efforts are typically directed toward academics (e.g., manuscripts, academic presentations) with limited focus on broader d...
Article
Lay abstract: Autism spectrum disorder and co-occurring symptoms often require lifelong services. However, access to autism spectrum disorder services is hindered by a lack of available autism spectrum disorder providers. We utilized geographic information systems methods to map autism spectrum disorder provider locations in Michigan. We hypothesi...
Article
Full-text available
Evidence-based weight-loss treatments for children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are lacking. Therefore, a parent-based weight-loss treatment for children with ASD (PBT-ASD) was developed. A pilot study was conducted to test the initial efficacy, feasibility, and acceptability of this intervention. Parents of 20 children with ASD and overweig...
Article
Using a cross-sectional survey of 673 multidisciplinary autism spectrum disorder providers recruited from five different sites in the United States, we examined the frequency with which community-based providers inquire about, screen, and treat trauma-related symptoms in their patients/students and assessed their perceptions regarding the need for...
Article
Full-text available
Background: Sustainability of evidence-based interventions (EBI) remains a challenge for public health community-based institutions. The conceptual definition of sustainment is not universally agreed upon by researchers and practitioners, and strategies utilized to facilitate sustainment of EBI are not consistently reported in published literature...
Article
Parental variables likely have important and bidirectional influences on the etiology of child anxiety. Although some child-focused cognitive-behavioral therapy (CCBT) anxiety trials have found vicarious improvements among parents who participated in their children's treatment, this is an understudied area. We hypothesized that parental variables (...
Article
Community–academic partnerships are believed to increase the effectiveness and feasibility of action research. While factors facilitating and hindering community–academic partnerships have been identified, their influence on the collaborative process is unknown, especially during community–academic partnership initiation and development. This expla...
Article
Full-text available
Understanding usual care is important to reduce health disparities and improve the dissemination of evidence-based practices for youth (ages 7–22 years) with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). A barrier to describing “usual ASD care” is the lack of a common vocabulary and inventory of the practices used by a diverse provider field. To address this bar...
Chapter
Anxiety is a common co-occurring condition in ASD that contributes to the complexity of a youth’s clinical presentation, functioning, and service needs. Although there is a rapidly growing body of evidence for the efficacy of cognitive behavioral therapy for anxiety in ASD, there is a well-documented gap between research-based interventions and rou...
Article
Full-text available
This brief article examines the community services delivered to youth with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in a Southern Californian city as a way to better understand ASD service provision and service attitudes. Specific goals of the study were to identify the services being delivered within the area, and how the use, perceived evidence, and value...
Article
Background Stigma has been frequently cited as a barrier to service use for various mental health problems. Studies suggest that stigma may be greater for childhood mental health problems that are perceived as more atypical. Aims This study utilized a mixed methods research design (qual + QUAN) to examine parental endorsement of stigma and its imp...
Article
Full-text available
Introduction: There is a significant gap between research and practice for mental health services for youth with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Despite increased numbers of individuals with ASD treated in community settings, little is known about the array of practices used with this population and the extent to which providers are aware of and us...
Article
Full-text available
Table of contents Introduction to the 3rd Biennial Conference of the Society for Implementation Research Collaboration: advancing efficient methodologies through team science and community partnerships Cara Lewis, Doyanne Darnell, Suzanne Kerns, Maria Monroe-DeVita, Sara J. Landes, Aaron R. Lyon, Cameo Stanick, Shannon Dorsey, Jill Locke, Brigid Ma...
Article
Policy points: Communities, funding agencies, and institutions are increasingly involving community stakeholders as partners in research, to provide firsthand knowledge and insight. Based on our systematic review of major literature databases, we recommend using a single term, community-academic partnership (CAP), and a conceptual definition to un...
Article
Community-academic partnerships (CAPs) improve the research process, outcomes, and yield benefits for the community and researchers. This exploratory study examined factors important in community stakeholders' decision to participate in CAPs. Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) community stakeholders, previously contacted to participate in a CAP (n = 18...
Article
In this study, we examine the feasibility of cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) for children with anxiety in primary care, using two modes of treatment delivery. A total of 48 parents and youth (8-13) with anxiety disorders were randomly assigned to receive 10-sessions of CBT either delivered by a child anxiety specialist in the primary care clinic o...
Article
Most randomized controlled trials of cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) for children with anxiety disorders have evaluated treatment efficacy using recruited samples treated in research settings. Clinical trials in school settings are needed to determine if CBT can be effective when delivered in real world settings. This study evaluated a modular C...
Article
Full-text available
Research suggests that improvements to community mental health (CMH) care for children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) are needed. Recent research examining the feasibility of training CMH therapists to deliver a package of evidence-based practice intervention strategies (EBPs) targeting challenging behaviors for school-age children with ASD o...
Article
Full-text available
Anxiety may interfere with school-age children's independent behaviour and hence, their daily living skills (DLS). Nonetheless, this has not been tested in previous studies of children with clinical anxiety. This study compared two groups of age-, gender-, and ethnicity-matched children with and without anxiety disorders (N = 60), testing the assoc...
Article
Therapist perspectives regarding delivery of evidence-based practice (EBP) strategies are needed to understand the feasibility of implementation in routine service settings. This qualitative study examined the perspectives of 13 therapists receiving training and delivering a package of EBPs to children with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) in commu...
Article
Full-text available
Background Currently, 1 out of 88 children are diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD), and the estimated cost for treatment services is $126 billion annually. Typically, ASD community providers (ASD-CPs) provide services to children with any severity of ASD symptoms using a combination of various treatment paradigms, some with an evidence...
Article
Full-text available
Research on moving evidence-based practice (EBP) intervention strategies to community service settings for children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) is urgently needed. The current pilot study addresses this need by examining the feasibility, acceptability and preliminary outcomes of training therapists practicing in community mental health (CM...
Article
This mixed methods study examined therapist perspectives on serving children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) in community mental health (CMH) clinics. One hundred therapists completed a survey about their experiences with this population and 17 participated in subsequent focus groups to clarify and expand survey results. Results indicate that...
Article
Full-text available
CBT is a promising treatment for children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and focuses, in part, on children's independence and self-help skills. In a trial of CBT for anxiety in ASD (Wood et al. in J Child Psychol Psychiatry 50:224-234, 2009), children's daily living skills and related parental intrusiveness were assessed. Forty children with...
Conference Paper
Background: Children with autism spectrum disorders are served in community-based mental health (CMH) settings for behavioral and psychiatric problems commonly associated with ASD. Previous research suggests that many CMH providers have limited training in ASD and that discrepancies exist between community care and research-based practices. Trainin...
Article
Case: A 7(1/2)-year-old boy is brought to a new primary care pediatrician because his grandparents, who have legal custody, want a "fresh look" at his behavior. Ian's grandmother begins the history with the comment, "He started out kind of rough." He was exposed to methamphetamine and marijuana throughout gestation and his mother had bipolar disea...
Article
Full-text available
The Author(s) 2009. This article is published with open access at Springerlink.com There is a long history of specialty self-help books regarding love and relationships for adults; however, few books target adults with Asperger Syndrome as the intended audience. Sarah Hendrickx’s book, Love, Sex & LongTerm Relationships: What People with Asperger S...
Article
Full-text available
This pilot study tested the effect of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) on parent-reported autism symptoms. Nineteen children with autism spectrum disorders and an anxiety disorder (7-11 years old) were randomly assigned to 16 sessions of CBT or a waitlist condition. The CBT program emphasized in vivo exposure supported by parent training and scho...
Conference Paper
Background: Adolescents with high functioning autism (HFA) are at heightened risk for anxiety disorders (Bellini, 2004), which can interfere with adaptive functioning in academic, family, and social settings. Literature suggests that excessive anxiety is associated with adolescents’ increased negative thoughts, behavioral problems, and adaptive fun...
Article
Children with autism spectrum disorders often present with comorbid anxiety disorders that cause significant functional impairment. This study tested a modular cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) program for children with this profile. A standard CBT program was augmented with multiple treatment components designed to accommodate or remediate the so...
Article
Case: A 7(1/2)-year-old boy is brought to a new primary care pediatrician because his grandparents, who have legal custody, want a "fresh look" at his behavior. Ian's grandmother begins the history with the comment, "He started out kind of rough." He was exposed to methamphetamine and marijuana throughout gestation and his mother had bipolar disea...
Article
The present study explored concepts of illness held by children with intellectual disability (ID) and compared them with the beliefs of two comparison groups of typically developing children who were matched for cognitive developmental level and chronological age (ns = 11). Content of responses to questions regarding illness causation, symptoms, tr...
Article
Health-related locus of control (HLC) beliefs are important predictors of health behaviors, but few studies have focused on children, and rarely have ethnicity, gender, or income been considered. Caucasian American, Latino American, and African American children (N = 167) completed the children's Multidimensional HLC scales, measuring internal, pow...
Chapter
A number of parent training programs for parents of children with ASD have been developed. An overview and rationale for why parent training for ASD differs from other childhood groups will be described. An overview of the major parent training methods used for ASD, the research to support them, and the effects achieved will be discussed.

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