Clayton Cook, John W. and Nancy E. Peyton Faculty Fellow in Child and Adolescent Wellbeing and associate professor in the Department of Educational Psychology, will be working with school psychology graduate students to conduct two research studies at the Minnesota State Fair. Cook’s projects are two of the 57 ongoing research studies happening in the Driven to Discover building at the fair this year.

Knock, Knock Who’s There?

August 27, 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.
September 3, 9 a.m. to 9 p.m.

School psychology PhD students: Madeline Larson, James Merle, Jenna McGinnis, Jordan Thayer

This study will focus on examining different approaches to obtaining parental consent for their child to receive school-based mental health services. Specifically, parents will be randomly assigned to one of two conditions: a consent-as-usual condition and a non-stigmatizing consent condition. The latter condition will use specific non-stigmatizing, strength-based language to prevent mental health stigma that decreases the likelihood that parents will grant consent for their child to receive school-based mental health services.

Name that Emotion

August 26 and 29
9 a.m. to 2 p.m.

School psychology MA + specialist certificate students: Heather Taylor, Annie Goerdt, Sydney Pauling, Sydney Mccaslin

This study has two parts: a parent component and a child component. The parent component will examine parental mental health literacy, stigma, and beliefs about the role of schools to integrate supports that promote children’s mental health. The child component will examine different performance-based indicators of emotional competence, such as emotion expression, verbal and auditory emotion recognition, and emotion problem-solving. The aim is to examine which performance indicators are best predictive of children’s social and academic functioning.

Visit the Driven to Discover Research Facility website for more information on studies happening throughout the fair.