Overview
Dr. Noll's primary research focus is on the long-term developmental effects of childhood sexual abuse. She is involved in conducting a 20 year longitudinal study of females sexually abused in childhood. This cohort has been followed from childhood through adolescence and into young adulthood. There are four major modules currently operating in Dr. Noll's lab:
- The effects of childhood maltreatment on the development of sexuality, including initiation into sexual activity, STD acquisition, reproductive decisions, and teen pregnancy;
- Rates of revictimization (both sexual and physical) and intimate partner violence of females who were sexually abused in childhood;
- Physiological sequelae of childhood abuse, including hypothalamic pituitary adrenal (HPA) axis dysregulation, obesity, and health care utilization;
- Intergenerational transference of the effects of childhood sexual abuse, including pregnancy and labor complications, offspring involvement in child protective services, and attachment disruptions.
Through Dr. Noll's involvement with the Mayerson Center for Safe and Healthy Children at CCHMC, intervention and prevention programs are being designed to curtail the deleterious effects of child abuse for new cohorts of maltreated children in the Greater Cincinnati Tristate area.
Multivariate statistics, the testing of developmental models (including Latent Growth Curve modeling, dynamic modeling, developmental sequencing, and cross-lag structural models), and the identification of both mediators and moderators of childhood maltreatment are the major analytic techniques employed in Dr. Noll's lab.
