Wellness Lab

Current research centering around wellness includes a joint effort with colleague and friend, Dr. Nakia Gordon, focused on refining a wellness program that they developed for MU undergraduate and graduate students. The wellness program aims to teach students wellness activities and encourage them to use them on a regular basis to prioritize and maintain their personal wellness. A recently completed pilot study suggests positive outcomes for students who participated. In addition to refining this program for students in higher education, Dr. Gerdes also is working on adapting the program to be delivered to middle school and high school students.

Past research centered around childhood ADHD and Latino mental health disparities. Assessment and treatment projects included extending current treatment outcome literature by examining parental functioning and clinically-meaningful change following behavioral treatment, as well as furthering our knowledge related to evidence-based assessment of ADHD and examining potential factors that may predict treatment dropout. Culturally-relevant projects included determining best recruitment practices for Latino families, translating and establishing the psychometric properties of Spanish-versions of commonly-used assessment and treatment outcome measures, examining Latino parental perceptions about ADHD and the role of culture in parental problem recognition and motivation to seek help for ADHD, and developing and validating a culturally-appropriate measure of functional impairment for ADHD. Funding from the Russell and Betty Jane Shaw Fund of the Greater Milwaukee Foundation supported a study aimed at developing and piloting a culturally-adapted, evidence-based ADHD treatment for Latino families. Funding from the National Institutes of Health supported a study aimed at comparing treatment outcomes from the culturally-adapted treatment to standard treatment. Parent-child and peer relationship projects included examining parental functioning in families of children with ADHD, providing a framework for understanding the role of parental factors in child outcomes, and determining treatment outcomes following a friendship-building intervention for teens with ADHD.