Behavioral Medicine and Clinical Psychology

Faculty Labs

The Ammerman Lab focuses on preventing problems in at-risk children and families by improving home visiting programs and related supports for maternal mental health, father engagement, and program retention.

The Beebe Lab studies how insufficient or poorly timed sleep affects adolescents’ health, behavior, learning, and safety, and tests whether improving sleep can reduce those problems.

The Bejarano Lab studies eating behavior and health equity for youth and families, examining intraindividual, intergenerational, and environmental factors to inform prevention and intervention efforts for physical and psychosocial health.

The Child Welfare Research Lab explore factors that influence health and psychosocial outcomes, and how we can deliver more effective care and interventions to help young people achieve their full potential.

The Coghill Lab investigates the brain's central nervous system mechanisms underlying the conscious experience of pain, using neuroimaging, psychophysics, and psychological assessments to understand individual differences, cognitive modulation, expectations, and attention effects for better clinical pain diagnosis and treatment.

The Crosby Lab focuses on improving quality of life and psychosocial and physical health outcomes for youth with chronic conditions, particularly sickle cell disease, by addressing stigma, health disparities, and barriers to care through patient-engaged research that integrates technology, design-thinking, quality improvement, and qualitative methods, while also working on broader community health projects in the Cincinnati area.

The Duncan Lab focuses on developing and evaluating interventions to improve daily living skills (such as personal hygiene, cooking, laundry, and financial management) and academic executive functioning skills in autistic adolescents, with the goal of facilitating successful transitions to work, college, and independent living.

Our lab develops and uses innovative technologies to improve chronic condition management, treatment adherence, and remote monitoring to enhance outcomes and quality of life for patients and families.

The Behavioral Pain Management Research Laboratory focuses on studying chronic pain in children and adolescents—including its assessment, impact on physical and psychosocial functioning, coping mechanisms, and the development and dissemination of evidence-based behavioral treatments such as cognitive-behavioral therapy and biofeedback—to improve pediatric pain management through multidisciplinary research and training.

The Kasparian Lab investigates how early life experiences shape emotional, neurobiological, and cognitive development in individuals with congenital heart disease (CHD), with a focus on the heart-mind-body connection, to understand underlying mechanisms and develop interventions that improve mental and physical health and wellbeing across the lifespan.

The King Lab focuses on understanding the biopsychosocial mechanisms—particularly altered nociceptive processing (via quantitative sensory testing), inflammation, and sleep disturbances—that contribute to the development and persistence of chronic pain conditions (such as migraine, abdominal pain, low back pain, and widespread pain) in youth and young adults, and their impact on emotional, psychosocial, and functional outcomes.

Dr. Klages’ research focuses on promoting health-related quality of life and symptom management in children with cancer by examining biopsychosocial predictors of pain and fatigue during active treatment to inform the development of interdisciplinary behavioral interventions that improve functional outcomes in survivorship.

The McGrady Lab focuses on promoting health behavior change, particularly medication adherence and other complex treatment-related behaviors, among adolescents and young adults with cancer by developing and testing interventions designed to improve adherence and ultimately lead to better health outcomes.

The Mitchell Lab focuses on health disparities, sickle cell disease, obesity, early childhood health and social/emotional functioning, school-based mental health, and community-based research, using qualitative methods, program evaluation, technology, and public policy approaches to improve outcomes, particularly through studies examining nutritional intake, mealtime behaviors, depression, and behavioral functioning in children with sickle cell disease.

Our lab studies pediatric treatment adherence by identifying barriers, measuring adherence, and developing innovative interventions, including mHealth tools, to improve health outcomes.

The Powers Lab conducts clinical trials and translational research to improve treatment for youth with migraines and chronic illnesses, especially by testing behavioral, mind-body, medication, dietary, and mobile health interventions.

Our lab develops and tests digital health and telehealth interventions to improve asthma management, treatment adherence, and long-term outcomes in children and adolescents.

The Rybak Lab focuses on early obesity prevention and integrated behavioral health in pediatric primary care, with a special emphasis on supporting children and families from marginalized backgrounds.

The Shaffer Lab studies emotion dysregulation in autism, fragile X syndrome and intellectual disability, with the goal of developing treatments, improving inclusion in research, and advancing understanding of ASD through large genetic studies.

The Williford Lab studies health equity in diabetes self-management for youth and families, using community-engaged, strengths-based interventions to address social drivers of health and improve physical and psychosocial well-being.

Dr. Zeller’s lab focuses on pediatric obesity, adolescent bariatric surgery, and measuring obesity-related quality of life to improve care and outcomes for children and families.