Notre Dame

Researchers are evaluating a family-based support program in Palestine to help children and families affected by ongoing political violence. The study aims to improve emotional and behavioral adjustment in adolescents and parents by reducing family conflict and strengthening emotional security. This randomized clinical trial involves 300 families from the West Bank and Gaza and seeks to understand how improving family resilience can positively affect both parents and adolescents over time. The program being tested, Promoting Positive Family Futures (PPFF), is a group-based intervention with eight sessions lasting about 1.5 hours each. It helps parents and adolescents aged 13-16 develop emotional awareness, healthy conflict resolution skills, and stronger family relationships. Families are randomly assigned to either the PPFF program or a usual treatment group, which consists of weekly adolescent-only support groups offered by local organizations. The study is conducted in parallel across two regions, with local partners delivering the programs. Participants will be assessed at four points: before treatment, after treatment, and at 6- and 12-month follow-ups. Researchers will measure various outcomes including parental depression, anxiety, posttraumatic stress, emotional security, adolescent adjustment, family conflict, attachment, emotion regulation, resilience, and overall well-being. Data collection is done by trained staff, and the study aims to provide a brief, culturally grounded program that could be scaled to help families facing chronic violence.

Researchers are evaluating a brief alcohol-focused intervention designed specifically for patients receiving prescribed buprenorphine for opioid use who also consume alcohol. The study aims to determine how feasible and acceptable this tailored intervention is, as well as to gather initial information on whether it can improve alcohol-related outcomes. This proof-of-concept study will help decide if a larger clinical trial is needed in the future. The intervention combines motivational enhancement therapy and cognitive behavioral therapy principles tailored to the unique needs of patients undergoing opioid agonist treatment. Participants will attend weekly in-person sessions for four weeks to receive this brief opioid-informed alcohol treatment. During the study, researchers will assess the acceptability and feasibility of the intervention at the end of the four-week period. Participants will be monitored for changes in alcohol use and related outcomes. The study focuses on patients who have been on prescribed buprenorphine for at least two weeks and regularly consume alcohol. The total participation duration is four weeks, with weekly treatment sessions and assessments at the conclusion.

Researchers are investigating two digital stress reduction programs tailored for first-year college students: a personalized mindfulness program called Equa and a problem-solving based stress management program called Coping Control. The study aims to compare these two approaches, focusing on their effects on student stress levels, mental health, sleep duration, and academic performance over the course of the spring 2026 semester. This randomized controlled trial includes 200 participants from Carnegie Mellon University, the University of Notre Dame, Columbia University, and Pennsylvania State University. Participants will be randomly assigned to complete 14 days of smartphone audio-guided lessons in either the Equa mindfulness program or the Coping Control stress management program. Both are evidence-based behavioral interventions, with Equa focusing on attention monitoring, acceptance, concentration, and clarity, and Coping Control emphasizing problem-solving for cognitive coping. Throughout the semester, participants will wear a Fitbit device to track sleep and physical activity. Before starting the intervention, students will complete baseline assessments of stress, psychological well-being, and health behaviors, as well as daily diaries for 7 days. They will continue daily diaries for 7 days after finishing the 14-day program. Additional online surveys will be completed within 10 days after the intervention and at the semester's end. Researchers will measure adherence to the programs, app engagement, user satisfaction, changes in perceived stress and depressive symptoms, sleep duration, and grade point averages to evaluate the impact of each intervention.

Researchers are investigating how Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Insomnia (CBT-I) affects sleep quality and daytime outcomes by focusing on cortisol and the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis, the body's main stress response system. The study aims to understand if changes in cortisol relate to better sleep consolidation with a 4-week CBT-I program, improved sleep duration with a 10-week CBT-I program, or both. It also compares these effects between people with chronic insomnia who have short sleep duration (less than 6 hours per night) and those with normal sleep duration (6 or more hours per night). Participants will receive either 4 or 10 weeks of weekly CBT-I, a behavioral treatment designed to improve sleep. Before starting treatment, participants undergo several assessments including an in-lab stress test with saliva and hair samples to measure cortisol, a home sleep test to exclude other sleep disorders, and monitoring of sleep patterns with an actigraphy watch and daily diaries over a 4-week baseline period. After completing the CBT-I treatment, participants will have follow-up visits at the end of treatment and three months later to repeat these assessments. Throughout the study, sleep patterns, insomnia symptoms, and HPA-axis functioning will be regularly measured at baseline, before treatment, after treatment, and during follow-up, over a total period of up to 7 months depending on the assigned treatment group. Data collected include sleep diaries, actigraphy, saliva and hair cortisol samples, and stress task responses. This comprehensive monitoring will help researchers understand how CBT-I influences sleep and stress hormone function over time in people with chronic insomnia.

This research aims to evaluate a psychoeducation-based program designed to improve mental health in families by reducing stress and enhancing communication and conflict resolution skills. The study focuses on families with children aged 4 to 17, assessing how these approaches support mental health in both children and their caregivers. The program's effectiveness is also examined in community settings across three cities in Indiana to understand factors affecting implementation and scalability. Families will be randomly assigned to one of two groups. The self-study group receives information in a newsletter format to review independently, along with weekly contact from a communication coach for questions and guidance. The parent-child intervention group engages with four interactive psychoeducation modules on their own, receives weekly coach contact, and participates in two live video sessions with a coach who provides feedback and coaching on communication techniques. The study includes a four-week intervention period. Participants will complete a pre-test assessment, a post-test assessment following the intervention, and a one-year follow-up assessment. Researchers will collect data on mental health outcomes using various questionnaires and scales for children and family interactions. The study will also evaluate organizational factors and perspectives related to program implementation and sustainability, with some measures taken over a four-year period.