FOCUS AREAS
iRT develops assessment tools and software applications to measure social-cognitive and emotion abilities, and screen for mental health disorders or substance misuse risk.
In an effort to better understand the social-emotional and cognitive development of children and adolescents, many researchers and clinicians seek out psychometrically strong assessment tools that can measure these skills in children and adolescents. Researchers and clinicians may also be interested in assessing the impact of an intervention on changing various social-emotional and cognitive skills. However, it may be difficult to locate and administer psychometrically strong assessment tools that are developmentally appropriate for these populations and accessible across different platforms (e.g., computer, mobile). In addition, early screening and detection methods are needed to prevent or treat a mental, emotional, or behavior disorder in order to provide children and adolescents with access to prevention programs, resources, and treatments. Furthermore, accurate screening for risk for substance misuse can provide critical information that can identify youth who could benefit from brief interventions and referral to treatment. There is support for integrating standardized screening tools into well-child visits at pediatric and family health practices. Importantly, easy administration and scoring is needed in these settings with results automatically transmitting to electronic health records to facilitate use by busy health care providers.
iRT is committed to improving the health and well-being of youth, and has developed psychometrically strong assessment tools that can help researchers and clinicians to better measure children’s and adolescents’ abilities to recognize and understand emotions, as well as process information in various social situations.
These assessment tools are web-based and easily accessed on desktops or tablets. They are also created with children and adolescents’ developmental capabilities in mind, including the language, navigation, and design.
Primary care doctors need tools to screen for mental, emotional, and behavior disorders in children and adolescents. iRT has developed a mobile application containing these measures that screen for these types of disorders that can be easily accessed and completed in pediatric waiting rooms by parents. Scored results are automatically available in report format for physicians.
iRT will build on this mobile application by integrating assessments that can also be administered in pediatric practices and screen for substance misuse risk in adolescents. iRT is also dedicated to building upon these tools, so that they integrate seamlessly through API with a range of electronic health records, are accessible, and can be deployed for research, evaluation, and clinical practice through a project management dashboard.
Dr. Alison Parker conducts research on web-based assessment tools to measure children and adolescents’ emotion and social-cognitive abilities. She also leads research projects on use of mobile apps for screening children and adolescents for mental, emotional, and behavioral disorders, as well as screening of children for risk for adolescent substance misuse.
Dr. Rebecca Stelter conducts research on the assessment of social information processing skills in children and adolescents.
Dr. Janis Kupersmidt conducts research on the assessment of social information processing skills and emotional recognition in children and adolescents. She also leads research projects on use of mobile apps for screening children and adolescents for mental, emotional, and behavioral disorders, as well as screening of children for risk for adolescent substance misuse.
RELATED PROJECTS
RELATED PUBLICATIONS
NEWS
RELATED PRESENTATIONS
Kupersmidt, J. (2018, April). The role of social cognitive strengths in buffering the effects of risk exposure on children of incarcerated parents. Paper presented at the 2018 National Conference on Children on Incarcerated Parents, Phoenix, AZ.
Stelter, R.L., McNeil, S., Kupersmidt, J., Cooper, J., Van Horn, R., & Burns, K. (2016, October). Addressing the connectivity challenge in data collection with children and families. Paper presented at the 2016 Society for Research in Child Development Technology and Media in Children’s Development Special Topics Meeting. Irvine, California.
Kupersmidt, J. B., Stelter, R. L., & Parker, A. E. (2016, October). SIP-AP: Web-based assessment of social information processing skills in children and adolescents. Poster presented at the Society for Research in Child Development Special Topics Meeting: Technology and Media in Children’s Development, Irvine, CA.
Kupersmidt, J. B., Stelter, R. L., & Parker, A. E. (2016, March). Social information processing, aggression, and executive functioning in adolescent boys. Poster presented at the Society for Research on Adolescence, Baltimore, MD.
Kupersmidt, J. B., and Parker, A. E. (2012, February). Social information processing assessment with aggressive children and adolescents. Mini-skills workshop presented at the National Association of School Psychologists, Philadelphia, PA.
Warren-Khot, H. K., Parker, A. E., Mathis, E. T., McKown, C. A., Allen, A., & Kupersmidt, J. B. (2012, February). Preliminary validity of a web-based measure of preschoolers’ emotion identification. Poster presented at the National Association of School Psychologists, Philadelphia, PA.
Stelter, R., Kupersmidt, J. B., & Dodge, K. A. (2011, March). Development of the SIP-AP: A web-based measure of social information processing patterns in elementary school-aged boys. Poster presented at the Society for Research in Child Development, Montreal, CA.
Kupersmidt, J. B., Stelter, R. S., Parker, A. E., Parker, K. M., & Dodge, K. A. (2009, March). Elementary school age boys’ social information processing cognitions in ambiguous situations. Poster presented at the Society for Research in Child Development, Denver, CO.
Kupersmidt, J. B., Floyd, F. J., & Asher, S. R. (2003, March). Social tasks analysis of children with mental retardation, Down’s Syndrome and learning disabilities. Poster presented at the Gatlinburg Conference on Research and Theory in Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities, Annapolis, MD.
Kupersmidt, J. B., Shahinfar, A., & Lochman, J. (1999, August). Social information processing among reactive and proactive incarcerated adolescents. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Psychological Association, Boston, MA.
Shahinfar, A., & Kupersmidt, J. B. (1999, April). Social perceptions and goals among incarcerated adolescents exposed to community violence. In A. Shahinfar & J. B. Kupersmidt (Chairs), Community violence and its relation to children’s cognitions about their social worlds. Paper presented at the biennial meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development, Albuquerque, NM.