A new study from FPG Faculty Fellow, Samantha Schilling, MD, MSHP, and colleagues in the Department of Pediatrics Division of General Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, titled “COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy among low-income, racially and ethnically diverse US parents," examines parent hesitancy toward COVID-19 vaccines for children.

Hannah Spitzer’s tenacity and determination have guided her educational journey--and this month, she was named the winner of this year’s Barbara Davis Goldman Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Research for the research she conducts as an integral team member of Project EXPRESS.

Just one year after reaching 200,000 users, the Autism Focused Intervention Resources and Modules (AFIRM) project at the UNC Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute has reached another milestone―250,000 users now rely on AFIRM for evidence-based practices that can help learners with autism.

Over the years, people from more than 180 countries have relied on our publications and resources to support their work on behalf of children and families. In this publications roundup, we've gathered a few of our most recent (published in 2021) autism-related publications.

Knowing the power of self-compassion, Karen Bluth, PhD, a Faculty Fellow at FPG, focuses her research on the relationship between mindfulness, self-compassion, and mental health in adolescents. Her most recent study, “Improving Mental Health Among Transgender Adolescents: Implementing Mindful Self-Compassion for Teens,” was published in Journal of Adolescent Research in December 2021.

New research findings from FPG Advanced Research Scientist Cathi Propper indicate that the ways in which infants at six months of age are parented exerts an influence on the children’s sleep quality at 18 months which, in turn, is associated with aggressive behavior in early childhood.

A recent joint effort by FPG’s ECTA Center and DaSy has resulted in indicators for nine established effective TA practices to embed equity in each practice. The practices are based on more than 50 years of stellar TA provision, ongoing collection and use of evaluation data, and existing literature.

Ronald Seifer, PhD, joined FPG as associate director for research in December 2019, just months before Covid-19 upended the world. As a developmental psychologist, Seifer focuses his research on studying individuals in person, something that has been difficult during the pandemic. Yet Seifer and his colleagues have adapted and continued their research to improve the lives of young children and their families.

Autism intervention researchers often do not report the race and ethnicity of study participants. When data is reported, there is a lack of representation across historically minoritized racial and ethnic groups. These key findings were reported in, “Patterns in reporting and participant inclusion related to race and ethnicity in autism intervention literature: Data from a large-scale systematic review of evidence-based practices” published in the journal, Autism, in January 2022.