Profile

Dr. Skowron's research focuses on clarifying the individual and joint contributions of neurobiology and environment to the development of self-regulation and school readiness in young children. Her research also focuses on understanding the neurobiology of positive, responsive parenting and mechanisms of action in effective family interventions. Her core interests lie in discovering the neurobiological bases of behavioral change in family interventions, and translating findings into behavioral interventions that support healthy child development and family preservation. In the Family Biobehavioral Health Lab, Dr. Skowron and her research team use neural, physiological, behavioral, and micro-analytic coding approaches to model data streams in individual and dyadic parent-child processes associated with healthy development, and intervention outcomes. Her lab has completed a clinical trial of Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT) to investigate the behavioral, neural, and physiological mechanisms of action in PCIT that support positive changes in parenting, improve parent and child self-regulation and social perceptions, and reduce child abuse and neglect in child welfare-involved families. New research is investigating the effectiveness of a trauma-informed adaptation to PCIT for children and their parents.