College of Education
Positive Youth Development Lab
Led by John Cooley · Special Education, School Psychology and Early Childhood Studies
What we study
The lab studies how to improve mental health for youth affected by bullying and trauma, using online and school-based interventions. They develop and test new ways to screen, prevent, and treat mental health issues.
What working here is like
- Surveys & interviews
- Human participants
- Projects
- 2
- Papers
- 5
Current projects
Investigating a Brief Positive Parenting Seminar Series as a Universal Intervention
Testing a parenting seminar series to improve mental health outcomes for children.
Suicide Prevention in Primary Care
Evaluating suicide prevention strategies in primary care settings.
Summaries are written by AI in plain language from public symposium abstracts and may be imperfect.
Recent papers, explained
- Evaluating A Brief Telehealth Positive Parenting Intervention: A Randomized Controlled Trial
2026 · Prevention Science
Tested a telehealth version of a parenting intervention, checking if it works and if adding a discussion component helps.
- Peer Victimization and Bullying are Potentially Traumatic Stressors Among Children
2026 · Journal of Clinical Child & Adolescent Psychology
Studied how peer victimization and bullying affect children's trauma symptoms, including cyberbullying and gender differences.
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- Rural and Non-Rural Pediatric Health Care Providers’ Youth Suicide Prevention Beliefs, Attitudes, Training, and Practices
2026 · Evidence-Based Practice in Child and Adolescent Mental Health
Examined pediatric providers' beliefs, training, and practices in youth suicide prevention, comparing rural and non-rural settings.
- Childhood Maltreatment and Internalizing and Externalizing Symptoms among Justice-Involved Youth: The Role of Executive Function
2025 · Child Psychiatry & Human Development
Explored how childhood maltreatment affects behavior problems in justice-involved youth, focusing on executive function.
- Understanding What Characteristics of Peer Victimization and Bullying Predict Posttraumatic Stress Symptoms Among Children
2025 · Journal of Interpersonal Violence
Looked at how different aspects of bullying, like power imbalance and polyvictimization, link to PTSD in kids.
Plain-language summaries are AI-written and reviewed by us; check the paper for details.
How to reach out
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