Research

Through a partnership with Dr. Sarah Morsbach Honaker (Associate Professor, Clinical Pediatrics, Indiana University School of Medicine) and Dr. Jodi Mindell (Professor, St. Joseph’s University), we have developed an efficacy trial for a commonly used but never studied bedtime intervention. Specifically, we aim to assess parental use of extinction methods at bedtime only. This collaboration has also sparked a Facebook-based study of parental knowledge and use of behavioral sleep interventions.

The goal of this study is to evaluate potential mechanisms between toddler sleep patterns and obesity risk (as indexed by elevated adiposity, toddlers stress, and family risk factors). There are three areas of sleep associated with elevated risk for obesity – short sleep duration, high sleep variability, and high levels of sleep fragmentation. This research study aims to examine within the context of toddler stress and familial risk: (1) explore which toddler sleep behaviors are associated with obesity risk, and (2) delineate the concurrent pathways between family sleep-related behaviors, toddler stress and obesity risk.  Dr. Kameron Moding is also a key investigator for this line of work and in 2024 we will collect data via a partnership with the Eskenazi health system in Indianapolis.

In partnership with Drs. Capal and Shen of the University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill, this study will assess sleep in several ways across a small cohort of infants with Angelman Syndrome.  Using sleep data and several additional signals/markers (e.g., MRI, behavioral phenotypes, etc.) this study will ‘deep’ phenotype infants to inform treatment recommendations.

peaBRAIN-s is an ongoing study on the associations between neurobiological mechanisms of sleep problems and brain development in early life. This study explores secondary data (e.g., infants’ MRI brain images and parent-report questionnaires) from the Baby Connectome Project and data from a small study of school-age children with autism.

The glymphatic system (GS) is a brain-wide system with functions that are enhanced during sleep to (1) clear inflammatory proteins and metabolites and (2) distribute homeostasis-sustaining compounds (e.g., glucose) in the brain. Recent advancements in our understanding of the GS highlight its role in neurodevelopmental disorders and developmental risk. In this joint initiative with several faculty from the Purdue Institute for Integrative Neurosciences, the project will include novel MRI sequences/scans and processing bio-signals. In 2024, we will continue this project with night scans and data processing.

This prospective longitudinal study follows infants at elevated likelihood for autism from 6 to 36 months of age. With developmental assessments at 6, 9, 12, 15, 18, 24, 30 and 36 months of age, this study assesses early autism markers within the domains of self-regulation, dyadic synchrony, and sleep. The project includes assessing several domains of development including effortful control, temperament, language and motor skills, and many more. All data are now collected on this study, and we are in the dissemination stage.

Dr. Schwichtenberg and SLHS department are collaborating on a small intervention trial to support social/communication development in children developing at risk. Within this study, we aim to demonstrate how the proposed parent-mediated intervention (PMI) can be implemented within an existing clinical training program and can positively influence parental behaviors to promote dyadic synchrony and infant/toddler social and communication development within daily routines. Data collection for this project is complete and we are currently working on dissemination.

This project is led by graduate student, Clarie Rosenberger. Adolescents on the autism spectrum are a crucial and underrepresented population; however, they are rarely included in the design, implementation, and evaluation of autism research. Furthermore, there is a lack of literature describing adolescents as advisors in research that pertains to autism. Therefore, there is a need to incorporate adolescents on the autism spectrum opinions and perspectives in autism research because this population is frequently the focus of research aims and a study topic, but they are not involved in the research process. The goal of this study is to create the CARES (Community-based Autism Research, Engagement, & Scholarship) Youth Advisory Board (YAB). The creation of the CARES YAB will provide a platform for youth across the United States on the autism spectrum to contribute to the design and implementation of research aimed at improving autism acceptance and representation. The utilization of the CARES YAB presents a unique opportunity for Purdue researchers to gain multiple perspectives from their target population, which will advance diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging.

This project is led by graduate student, Mehreen Hassan. This comprehensive research will employ a mixed-methods approach to investigate the encounters of parents from South Asia and other ethnic minority communities with coaching, while also examining the potential influence of stress and acculturation into the U.S. culture on their experiences. We aim to identify the positive and challenging components of coaching for intervention, assess the association between parenting stress and acculturation for caregivers, and examine the association between intervention satisfaction and parenting stress.

This project is led by graduate student, Amy Janis. Measures of infant sleep often focus on individual/child sleep behaviors and neglect to consider the larger family context – this is especially true for Black families. For infant sleep, the family sleep context (e.g., chronotype) and norms are driving factors, but are rarely studied in Black families. The project intends to validate the new measure Family Assessment of Sleep Chronotype and Schedule (FACS) in a sample of Black families. This project will send surveys to participants and collect daily sleep diaries to see how chronotype differs between families. The FACS will be used in a study on Black families focused on infant sleep in the context of elevated obesity risk – allowing for a deeper understanding of potential intervention points in family sleep and chronotype. This study is in active data collection, meaning data cleaning, coding, and collection are underway.

This project is led by graduate student, Amy Janis. As part of a policy brief project in the lab, we are collecting the school start times of high schools in Indiana to understand how we as a state compare to the rest of the country. School start times for each year will be used to inform a state focused policy brief around teen sleep health.

This collaboration is with Dr. Maggie O’Haire. Within this randomized control trial, veterans with PTSD symptoms will receive a service dog and changes in their PTSD symptoms (including sleep problems) will be assessed. Dr. Schwichtenberg is serving as a co-investigator and is supervising the sleep assessment protocol, sleep scoring/coding, and ultimately the interpretation and dissemination of all collected sleep data.

The overall goal of this research study is to assess if the Sleep with Me Podcast can assist with sleep onset difficulties in adults. Although there are existing evidence-based methods to improve sleep onset latency (e.g., cognitive behavioral therapy), these treatments are most often sought by those with clinical insomnia due to the time intensive nature and associated health care costs. In recent years, there has been widespread movement toward quick and affordable sleep solutions—including a podcast marketed specifically to ‘put you to sleep’. However, there are currently few studies assessing its efficacy for reducing sleep onset latency among its adult listeners.

The Families Tackling Tough Times Together (FT) program is not a direct element of our lab but we happily support this effort to promote resilience in families. FT is an evidence-informed strength-based program designed to build, strengthen, and support family resilience. The goal of this program/study is to demonstrate the effectiveness of the FT program intervention to promote family communication and well-being with diverse family populations is the necessary next step to developing sustainable strategies for helping at-risk families. Using data from interviews with families that partook in the FT program intervention, we will have a better understanding of how the intervention can help to build family communication and promote child well-being. Graduate student, Claire Rosenberger is supporting this project.