Projects & Research

There are many projects currently happening within the Center. Click on the links below to learn more about each project.
Please visit Our Team page to view faculty CVs.

Alcohol and Couples Study (ACS): The purpose of this study is to examine how alcohol consumption may impact competition between young adult men and women who are in a romantic relationship. This project is funded by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA). Recruitment is currently underway, and we are seeking participants.

Beacon: Beacon is an intuitively designed, web-based intervention support system for K-12 schools. Beacon provides educators, intervention specialists, and school-based mental health professionals the tools needed for a wide variety of high quality behavior supports. Funding from the OHIO Innovation Strategy has facilitated the development of this product.

Bridges to Education Success for Teens (BEST): Project is funded by the Institute of Education Sciences (IES). It is an evaluation of the Challenging Horizons Program for high school students with ADHD. We are collaborating with high schools in the South-Western City School district near Columbus and the Logan Hocking School District to conduct this study.

Challenging Horizons Program (CHP): The Challenging Horizons Program (CHP) is a psychosocial intervention program designed to address the academic and social impairments commonly experienced by middle school students with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

Classroom Behavior Support Project (CBS):  The Classroom Behavior Support Project is funded by the Institute of Education Sciences. CIRS faculty and staff are assessing the effectiveness of several professional development and consultation strategies to determine which best help teachers implement high quality Tier 1 and Tier 2 behavioral supports and produce positive outcomes for students. The consultation strategies are designed to maximize the delivery of quality classroom interventions within the realities of a school day. Through this project, school districts in Central and Southeast Ohio can obtain individualized consultation for their teachers at no cost to school districts. If you are interested in having your district participate in this project contact info@oucirs.org.

Computer Assisted Behavior Interventions (CABI): CABI is an intervention development study funded by the Institute for Education Sciences. It is a collaborative project between Dr. Brandon Schultz (PI: East Carolina University), Dr. Evans (Co-PI: CIRS) and John Bowditch (Director of Gridlab at Ohio University). The project involves developing a web-based game to augment the treatments provided in the Challenging Horizons Program for middle school students with ADHD.

Daily Report Card-Online (DRC.O):  This website provides resources for teachers interested in implementing a daily report card (DRC) intervention. The website includes interactive and mobile-accessible features that help teachers select target behaviors, track behaviors, set the initial goals, monitor the student’s progress over time, and modify goals and behaviors. Funding for the DRC.O comes from a variety of sources include the Institute of Education Sciences, Alberta PracticeWise for Children, and the OHIO Innovation Strategy fund.

Early Childhood Screening Project:  The Early Childhood Screening Project is focused on finding ways to better identify children who are at-risk for experiencing behavioral difficulties in pre-k, kindergarten, and beyond. Our goal is to develop an improved understanding of how best to use teacher reports, parent reports, and direct measures of self-regulatory processes to identify at-risk youth.

Individual Formative Assessment of Behavior (IFAB): Development and Validation of a Web-based System for Monitoring Social Behavior: This project is funded by the Institute of Education Sciences (IES). The goals of the project are to conduct a series of studies in which we develop and validate a set of items/rating scales that assess academic enablers (e.g., study skills, interpersonal skills, motivation/engagement) and disruptive behavior (e.g., noncompliance) to evaluate a student’s response to school-based behavioral interventions. The studies focus on item selection, the evaluation of the statistical properties of those items (e.g., reliability, validity, sensitivity to change), and the development of a web-based system for maximizing the utility of the product for school staff.

Making Socially Accepting Inclusive Classrooms (MOSAIC): The MOSAIC Project is funded by the Institute for Education Sciences (IES). MOSAIC stands for Making Socially Accepting Inclusive Classrooms. The purpose is to help children be more inclusive, socially accepting, patient, and tolerant of classmates who may be different from them or who may be dealing with behavioral or learning problems.

Maximize Project: Funded by the Institute of Education Sciences, goal of this project is to develop and evaluate innovative resources that help teachers use positive behavioral supports to meet the diverse needs of their students.

Project to Learn about Youth (PLAY): Funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) through the University of South Carolina’s Disability Research and Dissemination Center. The project, which is being conducted at four sites across the country, is designed to identify the rates of social, emotional and behavioral problems in youth ages 5 through 17, and to understand rates of mental health services use and barrier to care among those seeking services for at-risk youth.

Research Experience for Undergraduates: The program will provide undergraduate students with in-depth hands-on clinical research experience focused on children with social, emotional and behavioral problems.