Dorothy O'Brien Professor of Human Ecology
School of Human Ecology l Department of Human Development and Family Studies
Hometown: Madison, WI
Dr. Poehlmann-Tynan is a child clinical psychologist who studies child and family health disparities and well-being from an interdisciplinary perspective. The purpose of her work is to facilitate social justice for young children and their families and to understand and promote resilience processes while decreasing risk and trauma exposure. To do this, Dr. Poehlmann-Tynan studies the health and social, emotional, and cognitive development of high-risk infants and young children and their families, including children with incarcerated parents, children raised by their grandparents, and children born preterm, including examining the intergenerational transmission of risk, trauma, resilience, and healing. She uses both quantitative and qualitative methods in her work, especially observational methods that focus on young children and families in their natural contexts as well as physiological measures. She also designs and evaluates interventions for children and their parents, including interdisciplinary multimodal interventions that can be used in the criminal justice system and contemplative practices aimed at decreasing stress and increasing well-being in children and families.
Talks:
Children with Incarcerated Parents
How mass incarceration affects young children and what we can do to help.
Grandparents Raising Grandchildren
Dr. Poehlmann-Tynan will present recent research on the strengths and challenges for children, grandparents, and other family members. She will also discuss implications of the research for policy and practice.
Risk and Resilience in Children Born Preterm
Children born preterm are at risk for a host of problems, yet some are resilient. Why?
Mindfulness and Compassion Interventions for Young Children and Parents
The presentation focuses on results of two randomized controlled trials exploring effects of mindfulness and compassion interventions with young children and their parents.