Dr. Porter’s Research Studies
- 2017 – 2019 – Graduate Research Assistant
An Integrated Substance Use, Violence, and HIV/AIDS Syndemic Risk-Reduction Intervention for African American Couples (NIH R03)
Department of Family Science
University of Maryland, College Park
This project was focused on developing and testing a couple-based risk-reduction intervention for high-risk African American heterosexual couples dealing with intimate partner violence and substance use. As the primary graduate research assistant, I worked closely with Dr. Mittal on all aspects of the grant from its inception. My role included developing study protocols, establishing community partnerships, creating recruitment materials, identifying and compiling survey measures, recruiting and screening potential participants, supervising a group of undergraduate research assistants, and submitting IRB reports and amendments. Within my scope as a graduate assistant, I also collaborated with Dr. Mittal on manuscript writing and submissions and presented at local and national conferences on our work. In addition, I assisted Dr. Mittal with writing an NIH R34 grant application which aimed to improve sexual health outcomes for HIV-positive women with PTSD.
Supervisor: Dr. Mona Mittal
- 2017 – 2018 – Research Supervisor
Couples Abuse Prevention Program
Department of Family Science
University of Maryland, College Park
The Couples Abuse Prevention Program included an intervention designed to reduce mild-to-moderate physical and psychological abuse in couple relationships. My primary responsibility for this project was to train and supervise one to two groups of undergraduate student coders each semester. I taught students the basic tenets of couple therapy and trained them in coding and ensuring reliability for the study measure.
Supervisor: Dr. Norman Epstein
- 2017 – Predoctoral Fellow
Child and Family Research Lab
Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development National Institutes of Health
The primary project task was to analyze data from laboratory trials in order to understand how children between 12 months and 8 years play with different types of toys. My duties included manuscript development, data entry and analysis, video coding, and other miscellaneous research tasks. The project was a joint collaboration between NIH and the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC). The findings will be used to create updated CPSC age-appropriateness guidelines for various types of toys.
Supervisors: Dr. Marc Bornstein & Dr. Melissa Richards
- Spring 2017 – Graduate Administrative Assistant
TOGETHER Program
Department of Family Science
University of Maryland, College Park
The TOGETHER Program is a grant-funded research study aimed at promoting healthy communication and financial management skills for couples. I served as a lead team member for the project and maintained a number of responsibilities that included making initial contact with, screening, and enrolling couples, conducting data analyses, and generating weekly, biweekly, and monthly data progress reports. Enrolled participants who were randomly assigned to the intervention group participated in a 20-hour educational workshop series with an emphasis on communication and problem-solving skills, stress management, and financial management.
Supervisor: Dr. Jinhee Kim
- Summer 2016 – Summer Research Fellow
Child and Family Research Lab
Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, National Institutes of Health
The primary project task was to analyze data from laboratory trials in order to understand how children between 12 months and 8 years play with different types of toys. My duties included manuscript development, data entry and analysis, video coding, and other miscellaneous research tasks. The project was a joint collaboration between NIH and the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC). The findings will be used to create updated CPSC age-appropriateness guidelines for various types of toys.
Supervisors: Dr. Marc Bornstein & Dr. Melissa Richards
- 2015 – 2018 – Graduate Research Assistant
Black Families Research Group
Department of Family Science
University of Maryland, College Park
The Black Families Research Group focuses on research specific to African American families (e.g., parenting styles, child and adolescent outcomes, racism, internalizing and externalizing behaviors, and couple relationship processes). Projects in which I served a lead role included cleaning and preparing a database for a parent and child online survey for a study focused on psychosocial development in high-achieving African American boys; creating online advertisement and social media platforms to communicate with participants; designing an online survey focused on attitudes and emotions about prospects for marriage among single, upwardly-mobile African American women; designing recruitment flyers and social media tools to recruit participants; engaging community-based recruitment and enrollment efforts for the project; and monitoring survey enrollments. I also completed a cited literature search as a member of an authorship team engaged in a review of the literature on racism experiences in African American children and adolescents.
Supervisor: Dr. Mia Smith Bynum