Reducing Maternal Delay Discounting as a Target Mechanism to Improve Child Mental Health Outcomes in a Traditionally Underserved Community
Focus on Their Future story time event at Comma Bookstore located in Flint, Michigan
(R34 MH123602; PI: Felton)
Mothers who are exposed to trauma or instability in their environments may be more likely to use harsh physical discipline, which can impact the parent-child relationship and lead to poor child outcomes. One mechanism linking low resource environments and maladaptive parenting strategies is maternal delay discounting, or the tendency to value smaller, immediate rewards (such as stopping children's misbehavior via physical means) relative to larger, but delayed rewards (like improving the parent-child relationship). This study examines the efficacy of implementing a peer-delivered, low-cost, brief intervention targeting the reduction of maternal delay discounting to inform broader public health efforts aimed at improving child mental health outcomes.
We welcome you to find out more about enrolling in our study! We are looking for mothers who:
Live in Flint or the surrounding communities
Be the mother of a child (any gender) between ages 5-10 that lives with them at least 50% of the time
Report that their child has clinically significant behavior problems
Has access to a working cell phone that can receive text messages and willing to send/receive text messages as part of the study
Have a phone or device that's able to use video conferencing software
Meet the team!
Julia Felton, Project Director
Ashley Kucera, Project Manager
Tessa Hampton, Lead Research Assistant
Mackenzie Sprecher, Intern
Gabrielle Brakoniecki and Jamarius Harris, Research Support
Jessica Gutierrez, Christina Sutherland, Shearese Stapleton, Peer Mom Interventionists