Sharlene A. Wolchik’s research while affiliated with Arizona State University and other places

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Publications (218)


Trajectories of children's intrusive grief and association with baseline family and child factors and long-term outcomes in young adulthood
  • Article

December 2024

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11 Reads

Development and Psychopathology

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Jenn-Yun Tein

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[...]

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Sharlene Wolchik

This study reports on the description of children’s distinct trajectories of intrusive grief, baseline predictors of grief trajectories, and the association of grief trajectories with mental health, substantive abuse and disordered grief six and fifteen years following baseline assessment. The study uses data on 244 parentally-bereaved children ages 8–16 at baseline. Four distinct trajectories were identified using Growth Mixture Modeling over four waves of assessment across 6 years. The trajectories were labeled high chronic grief, moderate chronic grief, grief recovery (starts high but decreases over 6 years of assessment) and grief resilience (chronic low grief). Baseline factors associated with chronic high or moderate chronic levels of grief included depression, traumatic cause of death (homicide or suicide), active inhibition of emotional expression, active coping, child age and gender. At the six-year assessment, trajectories were associated with internalizing mental health problems, higher level of traumatic grief, and aversive views of the self. At the fifteen-year assessment, trajectories were associated with intrusive grief. The results are interpreted in terms of consistency with prior evidence of children’s long-term grief, theoretical processes that may account for chronic grief and implications for the development of preventive and treatment interventions.




Figure 1. Cascade effects of adolescent mental health problems, substance use, and competencies on perception of health problems in emerging adulthood.
Figure 2. Cascade effects of adolescent mental health problems, substance use, and competencies on BMI in emerging adulthood.
Figure 3. Cascade effects of adolescent mental health problems, substance use, and competencies on smoking cigarettes in emerging adulthood.
Correlations and descriptive statistics of study variables
Cascade effects of a parenting-focused program for divorced families on three health-related outcomes in emerging adulthood
  • Article
  • Full-text available

October 2024

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40 Reads

Development and Psychopathology

Using data from a 15-year longitudinal follow-up of a randomized controlled trial of a parenting-focused preventive intervention for divorced families ( N = 240) with children aged 9–12, the current study examined alternative cascading pathways through which the intervention led to improvements in offspring’s perceived health problems, BMI, and cigarette smoking in emerging adulthood. It was hypothesized that the program would lead to improvements in these health-related outcomes during emerging adulthood through progressive associations between program-induced changes in parenting and offspring outcomes, including mental health problems, substance use, and competencies. Intervention-induced improvements in positive parenting at posttest led to improvements in mental health problems in late childhood/early adolescence, which led to lower levels of mental health and substance use problems as well as higher levels of competencies in adolescence, which led to improvements in the health-related outcomes. Academic performance predicted all three health-related outcomes and other aspects of adolescent functioning showed different relations across outcomes. Results highlight the potential for intervention effects of preventive parenting interventions in childhood to cascade over time to affect health-related outcomes in emerging adulthood.

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Figure 1 An Integrated Model of Community-Engaged Methods and Experimental Designs Across MOST Phases
Figure 2 An Illustration of Conditions Included in a Full Factorial and Corresponding Fractional Factorial Experiment With Aliasing
Full Factorial Experiment (Factors: 3, Experimental Conditions: 8)
Applying the resource management principle to achieve community engagement and experimental rigor in the multiphase optimization strategy framework

July 2024

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22 Reads

Implementation Research and Practice

Preventing and treating mental health and substance use problems requires effective, affordable, scalable, and efficient interventions. The multiphase optimization strategy (MOST) framework guides researchers through a phased and systematic process of developing optimized interventions. However, new methods of systematically incorporating information about implementation constraints across MOST phases are needed. We propose that early and sustained integration of community-engaged methods within MOST is a promising strategy for enhancing an optimized intervention's potential for implementation. In this article, we outline the advantages of using community-engaged methods throughout the intervention optimization process, with a focus on the Preparation and Optimization Phases of MOST. We discuss the role of experimental designs in optimization research and highlight potential challenges in conducting rigorous experiments in community settings. We then demonstrate how relying on the resource management principle to select experimental designs across MOST phases is a promising strategy for maintaining both experimental rigor and community responsiveness. We end with an applied example illustrating a community-engaged approach to optimize an intervention to reduce the risk for mental health problems and substance use problems among children with incarcerated parents.


Implementation Determinants of a Digital Program for Children Coping with High Conflict Separation/Divorce

March 2024

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107 Reads

Global Implementation Research and Applications

Interparental conflict (IPC) is the most documented risk factor for the development of child mental health problems when parents separate or divorce. This study represents the first step in a multi-phase project to strengthen adaptive coping and reduce mental health problems in children exposed to high IPC after separation/divorce. Our overarching goal is to develop a scalable digital coping program that can reach its intended audience should it show positive effects in effectiveness trials. This study identified key implementation determinants before program development to ensure its design supports successful implementation. We interviewed 20 family law professionals and 15 separating/divorcing parents. The Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research (CFIR) guided our inductive coding process to examine three research questions: (1) Is a digital coping program needed and wanted by the family law community?; (2) How do we design and structure a program that courts will adopt, providers will recommend, parents will support, and children will enjoy?; (3) How do we support the widespread use of a program for children facing high-IPC separation/divorce? Participants unequivocally expressed that a digital coping program is needed and wanted. They advised us to design and structure a program that is acceptable to parents and aligned with court procedures. To support widespread use, participants stated it must be affordable with a sliding scale option. The themes derived from the qualitative data provided a roadmap for addressing anticipated barriers and facilitators to implementation in the early stages of program design and development.



Estimated Regression Coefficients of the Five Mediation Models
Developmental Pathways of the Family Bereavement Program to Promote Growth 15 Years After Parental Death

January 2024

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21 Reads

Journal of Family Psychology

Although parental death increases the risks of negative developmental outcomes, some individuals report personal growth, an outcome that has received little attention. We tested a developmental cascade model of postloss growth in 244 parentally bereaved youth (ages 8–16 at baseline) from 156 families who participated in a randomized controlled trial of a family-based intervention, the Family Bereavement Program (FBP). Using five waves of data, the present study examined the prospective associations between the quality of parenting immediately following the FBP and postloss growth 6 and 15 years later, and whether these associations were mediated by changes in intra- and interpersonal factors (mediators) during the initial 11 months following the FBP. The mediators were selected based on the theoretical and empirical literature on postloss growth in youth. Results showed that improved quality of parenting immediately following the FBP was associated with increased support-seeking behaviors and higher perceived parental warmth at the 11-month follow-up, both of which were related to postloss growth at the 6-year follow-up and 15-year follow-up. No support was found for the other hypothesized mediators that were tested: internalizing problems, intrusive grief thoughts, and coping efficacy. To promote postloss growth for parentally bereaved youth, bereavement services should target parent–child relationships that help youth feel a sense of parental warmth and acceptance and encourage youth to seek parental support.


Enhancing the Focus: How Does Parental Incarceration Fit into the Overall Picture of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) and Positive Childhood Experiences (PCEs)?

October 2023

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68 Reads

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6 Citations

Research on Child and Adolescent Psychopathology

Despite the five million children in the U.S. with an incarcerated parent, there is limited research on risk and protective factors for this population. We analyzed data from the National Survey for Children’s Health (2018) to: (1) examine associations among parental incarceration and other adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), (2) characterize the association between parental incarceration and youth mental health outcomes, (3) examine differences in positive childhood experiences (PCEs; collective socialization, community engagement, neighborhood amenities, and family problem solving) by parental incarceration status, (4) examine whether PCEs were protective against mental health problems and if there was an interaction with parental incarceration status, and (5) examine the interaction between PCEs, parental incarceration, and ACEs on mental health problems. Results revealed that children with incarcerated parents had higher odds of experiencing other ACEs, higher odds of having mental health problems, and experienced fewer PCEs compared to children without incarcerated parents. Further, although PCEs were associated with a lower odds of mental health problems for both children with and without incarcerated parents, they did not mitigate the negative impact of parental incarceration on mental health outcomes. While PCEs attenuated the association between ACEs and mental health, parental incarceration status did not significantly moderate the interaction. These results highlight vulnerabilities and potential protective factors for children with incarcerated parents and have important implications for the development of multilevel intervention strategies that seek to promote resilience and reduce risk for this population.



Citations (76)


... Because outcome evaluation of the NBP found that children with higher baseline risk for adjustment problems benefited more from the intervention than those with lower baseline risk (Dawson-McClure, Sandler, Wolchik, & Millsap, 2004;, the study also tested whether the mediators of interven-tion effects differed for high-risk versus low-risk families. Mediation analyses of preventive interventions can make contributions to advancing theory about developmental processes and to improving our understanding of how interventions bring about changes in children's psychosocial outcomes (Sandler, Wolchik, Winslow, & Schenck, 2006). We first briefly review the theoretical model on which the NBP was designed and discuss how mediation analyses of a randomized intervention trial provide a unique opportunity to test the theoretical propositions on which the program was based. ...

Reference:

Mother-Child Relationship Quality and Effective Discipline as Mediators of the 6-Year Effects of the New Beginnings Program for Children From Divorced Families
Chapter 12. Prevention as the Promotion of Healthy Parenting Following Parental Divorce
  • Citing Chapter
  • December 2024

... Sample Characteristics. The studies varied in sample size, from 10 participants (Matos et al., 2023) to 19,120 (Rhodes et al., 2023), and in mean age, from 19.80 years (Guo & Wang, 2023; to 65 years (Yoon et al., 2024). Most samples included both men and women (n = 60), with the exception of 11 studies with only female participants and 3 with only male participants. ...

Enhancing the Focus: How Does Parental Incarceration Fit into the Overall Picture of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) and Positive Childhood Experiences (PCEs)?
  • Citing Article
  • October 2023

Research on Child and Adolescent Psychopathology

... This foundational work is pivotal in designing a scalable program. With the insights gained here and the ongoing optimization clinical trial (O'Hara et al., 2023), we plan to merge implementation feedback with trial results to enhance the program's reach and effectiveness in supporting at-risk children's mental health on a public health scale. ...

Preventing Mental Health Problems in Children After High Conflict Parental Separation/Divorce Study: An Optimization Randomized Controlled Trial Protocol
  • Citing Article
  • September 2023

Mental Health & Prevention

... Fisher and colleagues (2007) demonstrated through an RCT that a family-based therapeutic foster care intervention (in comparison with routine foster care) showed protective effects against dysregulated diurnal cortisol patterns of activity associated with stress. Sandler, Wolchik, and their colleagues have demonstrated in another RCT (with multiple follow-ups) the short-and long-term effects of a preventive parenting intervention for bereaved families (loss of a parent), providing evidence of intergenerational effects on parenting attitudes as well as shorter-term effects on parenting and youth behavior (Rhodes et al., 2023). Such RCTs offer compelling evidence that parent-child relationships central to theories of psychopathology and resilience in DP and DRS are malleable, with potentially cascading effects (Masten & Cicchetti, 2016). ...

Effects of a preventive parenting intervention for bereaved families on the intergenerational transmission of parenting attitudes: Mediating processes

Development and Psychopathology

... Studies from all over the world speak of the risks of the negative impact on a child of the imprisonment of one or both of their parents. 7 In the list of 10 adverse childhood experiences, one concerns the parent's ...

The Prospective Effects of Caregiver Parenting on Behavioral Health Outcomes for Children with Incarcerated Parents: a Family Resilience Perspective
  • Citing Article
  • July 2023

Prevention Science

... The common humanity aspect of self-compassion enhances an individual's interpersonal skills (Bistricky et al., 2017), increasing individuals' sense of social connection and potentially alleviating relationship difficulties associated with CPTSD. As a balanced and healthy approach to self-relating, self-compassion aids in improving negative selfconcepts, which could decrease feelings of failure and worthlessness (Zhang et al., 2023). Hence, the more comprehensive self-compassion-based intervention might exhibit greater effectiveness in comparison to mindfulness-based interventions when treating CPTSD symptoms. ...

Self-Compassion for Caregivers of Children in Parentally Bereaved Families: A Theoretical Model and Intervention Example

Clinical Child and Family Psychology Review

... Although children with higher exposure to PCEs were less likely to have a mental health problem, PCEs did not mitigate the impact of parental incarceration on mental health problems. This suggests the need for multilevel interventions for this population, including strategies to prevent exposure to parental incarceration and associated ACEs, selective prevention programs to increase resilience resources in multiple contexts in children's lives, including in their families, schools, and neighborhoods, and indicated prevention (also referred to as treatment interventions) for those with existing mental health problems (Berkel et al., 2023). Future research should examine how modifiable protective factors promote resilience and reduce risk for adverse mental health outcomes in children with incarcerated parents. ...

Building Resilience in All Children: A Public Health Equity Approach
  • Citing Chapter
  • March 2023

... In a seminal article, Kazdin (2007) outlined several criteria for establishing evidence of mediators of intervention effects including as follows: (a) conduct randomized clinical trials that include a comparison condition, (b) use valid and reliable measures for mediators that are sensitive to change, (c) apply a process design in which changes of the mediator temporally precede changes in therapeutic outcome and the mediator variable is measured repeatedly, (d) establish strong effects of the intervention on the mediators and of the mediators on outcomes, and (e) compare mediators that are theory-driven with nonspecific mediators. Further, it is important to determine if mediators account for the effects of intervention on dimensional measures of psychopathology as well as categorical diagnoses as outcomes (Sandler et al., 2023). ...

Developmental Pathways of the Family Bereavement Program to Prevent Major Depression 15 Years Later
  • Citing Article
  • March 2023

Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry

... Targeting children's adaptive coping is a promising approach to mitigating risk for mental health problems. Prior evidence shows that adaptive coping is a malleable protective factor for children who face a wide range of divorce-related stressors (Grych, 2005;Sandler et al., 1994;Stathakos & Roehrle, 2003;Wolchik et al., 2015). One study found that certain coping strategies, such as problem-focused coping, may be especially protective for children experiencing high levels of post-separation/divorce IPC (O'Hara et al., 2019). ...

Moderators and Mediators of Treatments for Youth in Divorced or Separated Families
  • Citing Chapter
  • August 2015