PhD Student Tia McGill Defends Dissertation

2016 Apr 5

Tia McGill of Atlanta, a PhD candidate in the School of Public Health at Georgia State University, successfully defended her dissertation this semester on the link between caregivers' mental health and parenting behavior.

Through her research, titled "The Influence of Caregiver Mental Health On Parenting Focused Intervention Service Utilization and Parenting Behavior Change," McGill found a strong relationship between depression and drug and alcohol use among caregivers and their use of child abuse prevention services.

"Parents enrolled in home visiting, which is a common tool for the prevention/intervention of child maltreatment, often contend with common mental health problems," McGill noted. "Those parents may benefit from multiple services: one to address mental health problems and one to address parenting deficits. Data suggest that active enrollment in fewer services can be a more effective strategy for increasing parenting program effect and possibly keeping parents enrolled in services until completion."