Psychologists Launch Program to Support Families, Improve Children's Mental Health

Photo Submitted

Ellen Leen-Feldner

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – Ellen Leen-Feldner and Matthew Feldner, associate professors in the department of psychological science in the J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences, have launched a new program to help families cope with stressful situations.

The Equipping Families to Work on Relationships for Kids Program (the Families W.O.R.K. Program) is designed to gain a better understanding of how families function following stressful or difficult experiences. With funding from the Arkansas Biosciences Institute and the Arkansas Department of Higher Education, the research team intends to help parents who struggle with day-to-day stressors and mental health problems following difficult experiences. Other members of the team include Nathan Parks, assistant professor in the department of psychological science at the University of Arkansas, and Joshua Cisler, assistant professor in the Psychiatric Research Institute at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences.

“The main goal of our program is to improve our understanding of how families function following challenging experiences so we can help these families in the best way possible,” said Leen-Feldner. “We want to understand how parents’ emotional struggles affect the psychological health of their children and create tools to help families communicate and function better, particularly in times of stress or conflict.”

The Families W.O.R.K. Program is currently running a study to learn more about how parental stress and parental smoking affect adolescents. The researchers are seeking participants, including children between the ages of 10 and 17 years and their parents. Whether or not parents have recently experienced severe stress or are smoking is not a prerequisite for participation. All participants will be compensated for their time. For more information about the study, contact Sarah Bilsky at 479-575-5329.

Leen-Feldner, a developmental psychopathologist, chairs the Experimental Graduate Training Committee and directs the Arkansas Interdisciplinary Sciences (ArKIDS) Laboratory at the University of Arkansas. She is also on the board of directors for the Family Network Agency.

Feldner, a licensed clinical psychologist, is an adjunct associate professor at the Laureate Institute for Brain Research and directs the Intervention Sciences Laboratory (ISL) at the University of Arkansas.

More information about Families W.O.R.K. may be found at the program’s website.