Mueller, D., Bacalso, E., Ortega‐Williams, A., Pate Jr, D. J., & Topitzes, J. (2021). Journal of Community Psychology.
Residents of urban American neighborhoods facing economic hardship often experience individual and collective adversities at high levels. This study explores how racially diverse adults experience stress, adversity, and trauma, and how they cope and heal in the context of their environment.
Gilbert, R., Mersky, J. P., & Plummer Lee, C. (2021). Preventive Medicine Reports.
The US is facing a rise in vaccine hesitancy, delay, and refusal, though little is known about these outcomes in socio-economically disadvantaged populations. This study examines the prevalence and correlates of vaccine attitudes and behaviors in a diverse cohort of low-income mothers receiving home visiting services.
Mersky, J. P., Plummer Lee, C., & Janczewski, C. E. (2020). Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, Practice, and Policy.
The current investigation is a validation study of the Adult Experiences Survey, a seminal assessment of adverse adult experiences. Data were collected between July 2015 and June 2019 from a sample of 1,747 low-income women as part of a longitudinal study in Wisconsin, United States. Analyses of 10 adversities were conducted to assess item prevalence and internal consistency in the full sample and test-retest reliability in a subsample of 90 participants.
Choi, C., Mersky, J. P., Janczewski, C. E., Plummer Lee, C., Davies, W. H., & Lang, A. C. (2020). Research has shown unequivocally that adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) are prevalent and consequential, but the field lacks consensus around how they should be measured. This replication study reexamined the construct and concurrent validity of the Childhood Experiences Survey (CES), an expanded assessment of 10 conventional ACEs and seven novel childhood adversities.
Zhang, L., Mersky, J. P., & Topitzes, J. (2020). International interest in adverse childhood experiences (ACE) is on the rise. In China, recent research has explored the effects of ACEs on health-related outcomes, but little is known about how ACEs impact the psychological functioning of rural Chinese youth as they make transition to adulthood. This study is aimed to assess the prevalence and psychological consequences of ACEs among a group of rural Chinese young adults.
Zhang, L., & Mersky, J. P. (2020). Research has shown that adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) increase the risk of poor health and well-being, yet less is known about the pathways through which these life outcomes emerge….Therefore, the main purpose of this study is to explore bidirectional relations between adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and children’s behavioral problems in a sample of low-income children.
Plummer Lee, C., Mersky, J. P., Marsee, I., & Fuemmeler, B. (2020). Despite public sentiment to the contrary, recreational marijuana use is deleterious to adolescent health and development. Prospective studies of marijuana use trajectories and their predictors are needed to differentiate risk profiles and inform intervention strategies. Using data on 15,960 participants in the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health, variable-centered approaches were used to examine the impact of childhood polyvictimization on marijuana onset, marijuana use from age 15 to 24 years, and marijuana dependence symptoms.
Mersky, J. P., Janczewski, C.E., Plummer Lee, C., Gilbert, R.M., McAtee, C., and Yasin, T. (2020). Research suggests that home visiting interventions can promote breastfeeding initiation, though their effects on breastfeeding continuation are unclear. No known studies have assessed the impact of home visiting on bedsharing. This study aims to test the effects of home visiting on breastfeeding and bedsharing in a low-income, urban sample in the United States.
Blair, K. H., Topitzes, J., Winkler, E. N., McNeil, C. B. (2020). This exploratory study examines practitioners’ and foster parents’ perceptions on use of Parent–Child Interaction Therapy in child welfare. Focus groups were completed with Parent–Child Interaction Therapy practitioners and foster parents.
Mersky, J. P., Lee, C. P., Gilbert, R. M., and Goyal, D. (2020). This study examined the prevalence and correlates of maternal and infant sleep problems among low-income families receiving home visiting services.
Voith, L. A., Topitzes, J., and Berg, K. A. (2020). Research has established a relation between ecological contexts and intimate partner violence (IPV), but little is known about how environmental factors affect childhood development over time and culminate in IPV perpetration from the perspective of men who perpetrated IPV…
Mersky, J.P., Topitzes, J., Janczewski, C.E., Plummer Lee, C., McGaughey, G., & McNeil, C.B. (2020). Children in the child welfare system with mental health difficulties seldom receive evidence-based treatment (EBT) despite the abundance of validated interventions that exist. This manuscript describes two projects aimed at increasing access to EBTs. The first is a completed field trial of an adapted parent–child interaction therapy intervention with foster-parent child dyads…
Topitzes, J., Grove, T., Pangratz, S, Meyer, E. E., & Sprague, C. M. (2019). Trauma-informed or trauma-responsive programming has spread across many service sectors including child welfare. However, only a few evaluations of such child welfare programs have been published. The current mixed methods study assessed a trauma-responsive child welfare program implemented within a private agency located in the Midwest region of the U.S. The intervention combined specialized training, assessment, case planning, and case consultation into a trauma-responsive case management model…
Blair, K., Topitzes, J., & Mersky, J. P. (2019). Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT) has been shown to reduce challenging child behavior and improve parenting skills, yet treatment attrition, non-adherence and non-response remain matters of concern. This study analyzes rates and factors associated with attrition, non-adherence, and non-response using data from a randomized controlled trial of foster parent-child dyads who received brief, group-based PCIT…
Topitzes, J., Mersky, J. P., Mueller, D. J., Bacalso, E., & Williams, C. (2019). Implementing Trauma Screening, Brief Intervention, and Referral to Treatment (T‐SBIRT) within employment services: A feasibility trial. Research suggests that low‐income adults accessing employment services have experienced high levels of trauma exposure and associated consequences. Moreover, the health‐related effects of trauma undermine employment and employability. A trauma‐informed protocol—trauma screening, brief intervention, and referral to treatment or T‐SBIRT—was therefore implemented within employment service programs serving low‐income urban residents…
Herrenkohl, T. I., Mersky, J. P., & Topitzes, J. (2019). Applied and translational research on trauma-responsive programs and policy: Introduction to a special issue of the American Journal of Community Psychology. The special issue highlights work across systems that include child welfare, education, juvenile justice and health, as well as agencies serving adults who are at‐risk for high levels of childhood and adult trauma exposure. While articles appearing in the special issue are not divided equally across these systems, they cover important and overlapping concepts within each…
Mersky, J. P., & Plummer Lee, C. (2019). Adverse childhood experiences (ACE) are associated with an array of health consequences in later life, but few studies have examined the effects of ACEs on women’s birth outcomes. We analyzed data gathered from a sample of 1848 low-income women who received services from home visiting programs in Wisconsin…
Mersky, J. P., Topitzes, J., & Britz, L. (2019). Given the human costs of psychological trauma, social workers should be well versed in trauma-informed care (TIC). This framework helps guide the efforts of systems, organizations, and practitioners toward reducing trauma or mitigating its effects…
Mersky, J. P., Plummer Lee, C., & Gilbert, R. M. (2019). Many service providers report concerns that questions about adverse events may upset clients. Studies indicate that most survey respondents answer sensitive questions without experiencing distress, although little is known about the prevalence or correlates of clients’ discomfort when they are asked similar questions by direct care providers, such as home visitors…
Blair, K., Topitzes, J., & Mersky, J. P. (2019). This exploratory study of 23 parent–child dyads receiving child welfare services examined the association between the number of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) parents reported and their children’s externalizing behaviors. We also assessed whether the effects of Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT) on externalizing behaviors varied by parents’ ACE histories…
Janczewski, C. E., Mersky, J. P., & Brondino, M. J. (2019). Most evidence-based home visiting models are designed to support families from pregnancy through a child’s second birthday, though programs often struggle to retain families for this long. Previous research on client and program factors that predict attrition has produced mixed results, which may be partly because attrition is typically conceptualized as a homogeneous phenomenon…
Mersky, J. P., & Janczewski, C. E. (2018). Adverse childhood experiences and postpartum depression in home visiting programs: Prevalence, association, and mediating mechanisms. Maternal and Child Health Journal. Objectives In this study, we examined the prevalence of postpartum depression (PPD) and its association with select demographic factors and antenatal conditions. We also investigated whether greater exposure to adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) is associated with PPD, and if antenatal conditions mediate the ACE-PPD relationship…
Mersky, J. P., Janczewski, C. E., & Nitkowski, J. C. (2018). Poor mental health among low-income women in the U.S.: The roles of adverse childhood and adult experiences. Social Science and Medicine. Rationale It is well established that exposure to a greater number of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs)increases the risk of poor physical and mental health outcomes…
Goldstein E, Topitzes J, Brown RL, et al. (2018). This study investigated the effects of mindfulness and exercise training on indicators of mental health and stress by examining shared mediators of program effects. Community-recruited adults, (N = 413), were randomized into one of three conditions: (a) mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR), (b) moderate intensity exercise, or (c) wait-list control.
Mersky, J. P., Janczewski, C. E. (2018). Racial and Ethnic Differences in the Prevalence of Adverse Childhood Experiences: Findings from a Low-Income Sample of U.S. Women. Child Abuse and Neglect.
Despite great interest in adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), there has been limited research on racial and ethnic differences in their prevalence. Prior research in the United States suggests that the prevalence of ACEs varies along socioeconomic lines, but it is …
Mersky, J. P., Topitzes, J., & Blair, K. (2017). Children served by the child welfare system count among society’s most vulnerable members given their history of abuse, neglect, and other potentially traumatic experiences. Once they enter the system, however, these children seldom receive empirically validated interventions to mitigate the effects of trauma. This article highlights the promise of parent-child interaction therapy (PCIT), an evidence-based treatment (EBT) for trauma-exposed children in the child welfare system…
Topitzes, J., Berger, L., Otto-Salaj, L., Mersky, J.P., Weeks, F., Ford, J. (2017). Reducing alcohol misuse is a priority for U.S. health officials considering that misuse of alcohol is a leading preventable cause of morbidity and mortality. Consequently, health centers are routinely integrating Screening, Brief Intervention, and Referral to Treatment (SBIRT) for alcohol misuse within usual care. Although SBIRT is well validated among general patient samples, results have not generalized to drinkers …
Mersky, J. P., Janczewski, C. E., & Topitzes, J. (2017). Research on adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) has unified the study of interrelated risks and generated insights into the origins of disorder and disease. Ten indicators of child maltreatment and household dysfunction are widely accepted as ACEs, but further progress requires …
Topitzes, J., Pate, D., Berman, N., Medina-Kirchner, C. (2016). The present study explored factors associated with barriers to current employment among 199 low-income, primarily Black American men seeking job services. The study took place in an urban setting …
Janczewski, C.E., Mersky, J.P. (2016). Differential response (DR) is a system reform that allows child protective services (CPS) agencies to divert low-to-moderate risk families from an investigative track to an alternate track that does not require a maltreatment disposition or identification of an alleged perpetrator …
Mersky, J.P., Topitzes J., Janczewski, C.E., McNeil, C. (2015). Research indicates that foster parents often do not receive sufficient training and support to help them meet the demands of caring for foster children with emotional and behavioral disturbances. Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT) is a clinicall…
Janczewski, C.E. (2015). Differential response (DR) profoundly changes the decision pathways of public child welfare systems, yet little is known about how DR shapes the experiences of children whose reports receive an investigation rather than an alternate response…
Topitzes, J., Mersky, J.P., McNeil, C. (2015). This article describes an implementation project in which parent-child interaction therapy was adapted for and tested within foster parent training services. The authors recount multiple steps involved in translating an evidence-based interventi…
Mersky, J.P., Topitzes, J., Grant-Savela, S., Brondino, M., McNeil, C. (2014). This study presents outcomes from a randomized trial of a novel Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT) model for foster families. Differential effects of two intervention doses on child externalizing and internalizing symptoms are examine…
Mersky, J.P., Topitzes, J., Reynolds, A. (2013). Research has shown that adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) increase the risk of poor health-related outcomes in later life. Less is known about the consequences of ACEs in early adulthood or among diverse samples. Therefore, we investigated…
Topitzes, J., Mersky, J.P., Dezen, K., Reynolds, A. (2013). Adult resilience among maltreated children: A prospective investigation of main effect and mediating models. Children and Youth Services Review.
Studies examining resilience to child maltreatment reveal that maltreatment victims can achieve adaptive functioning in several areas of development; however, few of these individuals persistently demonstrate resilience across multiple domains. The…
Mersky, J.P., Janczewski, C.E. (2013). Research has shown that children placed in foster care fall below population norms on many indicators of well-being. Yet few studies have been designed to distill the effects of foster care from conditions that precede foster care. Based on the availa…
Topitzes, J., Mersky, J.P., Reynolds, A. (2012). From child maltreatment to violent offending: An examination of mixed-gender and gender-specific models. Journal of Interpersonal Violence.
Research suggests that child maltreatment predicts juvenile violence, but it is uncertain whether the effects of victimization persist into adulthood or differ across gender. Furthermore, we know little about the mechanisms underlying the victim…
Mersky, J.P., Topitzes, J., Reynolds, A. (2011). Unsafe at any age: linking childhood and adolescent maltreatment to delinquency and crime. Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency.
This study compares the effects of childhood maltreatment and adolescent maltreatment on delinquency and crime, including violent and nonviolent offending. Data were derived from the Chicago Longitudinal Study, a prospective investigatio…
Mersky, J.P., Topitzes, J., Reynolds, A. (2011). Increased recognition of the consequences associated with child maltreatment has led to greater emphasis on its prevention. Promising maltreatment prevention strategies have been identified, but research continues to suffer from methodologi…