This week, six current graduate students and a recent alum from the Department of Family Social Science will join five faculty and staff members at the Society for Prevention Research conference in Washington D.C.

Kadie Ausherbauer, Gretchen Buchanan, Sarah Burcher, Cheuk Hei Bosco Cheng, SunKyung Lee, Jingchen Zhang and Na Zhang will present posters or papers and are supported by Ruth E. Hall Funds for Graduate Professional Development.

They join Professors Abigail Gewirtz and Gerry August, Assistant Professors Timothy Piehler and Lindsey Weiler and Prevention Science Program Coordinator Kristen Johnson who are all presenting research at the conference.

Students present research

Gretchen Buchanan will present the poster, “The Process of Engaging with a Community Partner to Integrate Evidence based practices in a Juvenile Diversion program.”

Sarah Burcher will deliver the presentation: “Parents’ sense of community, social support, and shared parenting beliefs: The role of neighborhood characteristics.”

Cheuk Hei Bosco Cheng will be presenting the poster, “Gender Differences in the association between post-deployed service members’ depressive symptoms, combat experiences, and non-combat related stress.”

SunKyung Lee will present the poster, “Meaningful differences in discrepancy patterns between self report and observed parenting in a sample of homeless families.”

Jingchen Zhang will present the paper, “The Moderating Effect of Combat Exposure on the Relationship Between Trait Mindfulness and Observed Parenting in Deployed Fathers.”

Na Zhang (who is currently a post-doctoral fellow at Arizona State University) will present the poster, “Respiratory sinus arrhythmia reactivity moderates post-deployed military fathers’ parenting outcomes at one year in a randomized controlled trial of a parent training program.”

U of M alumni

In addition, three alumni of the University of Minnesota and Department of Family Social Science will be presenting papers, posters or moderating panels:  Jennifer Doty and Damir Utrzan are both currently post-doctoral fellows in pediatrics at the University of Minnesota, and Diego Garcia-Huidobro is an assistant professor at the Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile, Macul, Chile.