Suniya S. Luthar, Ph.D.

Conducted within a developmental psychopathology framework, research by our group revolves around the construct of resilience and positive youth development (Luthar, 2003; Luthar, 2006; Luthar & Brown, 2007; Luthar, Cicchetti, & Becker, 2000; Luthar & Eisenberg, 2017). Core questions of interest are: What are the processes that help some children and adults do well in spite of diverse stressors in their lives? Across various spheres of development — psychological, emotional, interpersonal, and academic -- how can we help to maximize their potentials and achieve competent, productive trajectories over time?

Currently, we are focused on four major programs of research, each described more in detail below. The first involves middle- and high-school students at highly achieving schools; across diverse samples, these youth have shown greater substance use and distress relative to national norms. The second area encompasses prevention trials to foster resilience among adults in high stress settings via a manualized group intervention, Authentic Connections Groups. In the third group of studies, we are attempting to understand what the experience of motherhood means from a developmental perspective. The final area of our work involves longitudinal follow-up of children of women with major psychiatric illnesses, to understand salient pathways to resilience and vulnerability.

Research has shown that students growing up in highly achieving schools represent an "at-risk" group: Across diverse samples, they have shown significantly greater substance use and distress relative to national norms. These findings have been replicated across diverse settings -- in public and private schools, in cities and in suburbs, and in different parts of the country. Over time, these high levels of stress and distress can have serious consequences, including self-harm and addiction (Luthar, Barkin, & Crossman, 2013; Luthar & Latendresse, 2005; Luthar, Small, & Ciciolla, 2017).

Currently, this programmatic research is focused on understanding how salient aspects of school climate, and of parent-child relationships, can best be modified in order to maximize the well-being of youth and of the adults who care for them. This work involves ongoing collaborations with high-achieving day and boarding schools across the country.

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Recommendations from the 2016

Annual Independent Secondary School Health and Wellness Summit

Report Out & Key Recommendations (p. 9).

Phillips Academy and the Independent School Health Association, Andover, MA

Assessments based in rigorous developmental science

Various data gathering resources exist to measure school climate; ideally, schools should use assessments that:

• Are developmentally appropriate.
• Go beyond identifying rates of problems (e.g. risk behaviors, symptoms, substance use)
• Go beyond “lists of protective factors”, to identify those most influential
• Investigate context-specific risk & protective factors (e.g. assessing which makes   parents unhappier: if their child failed a test or if the child became intoxicated).
• Lead to concrete, research-informed, measurable steps for prevention programs
• Incorporate perspectives of school personnel, families, and students.
• Involve collaboration with school leadership, with a shared commitment to maximizing student academic potential and the well-being of the 'whole child'

In collaboration with the Mayo Clinic, AZ , we examined the effectiveness of a relationally-based intervention for a group of mothers at high risk: Medical care providers with young children. Between 30% and 40% of US physicians reportedly experience professional burnout, with women at significantly greater risk than their male counterparts. The Authentic Connections Groups (ACG) intervention is aimed at the development and crystallization of close, supportive, and dependable relationships for these women, both at work and in their everyday lives.

Results of the intervention were positive at several levels. Across the 12 weeks of the groups, there were zero dropouts. After the program, analyses of covariance showed significantly greater improvements for mothers in the Authentic Connections Groups than control condition for depression and global symptoms. By 3 months follow-up, significant differences were seen for these two dimensions and almost all other central variables, including self-compassion, feeling loved, physical affection received, and parenting stress, with moderate effect sizes; participants also showed significant reductions in cortisol levels at both after the intervention and follow-up.

Since completion of this project, we have successfully completed groups for various other groups experiencing high everyday stress, including military mothers, graduate students, and women in STEM disciplines. Most recent efforts involve counselors, advisors, and administrators at high-achieving schools, such as those in the programmatic work described earlier.

If you would like to donate funds to support this program of research,

please email Suniya Luthar at AC@AuthenticConnectionsGroups.org

In developmental research, women are typically considered in terms of their behaviors as mothers - rarely in terms of their own personhood. In an internet-based survey we have explored how women feel about their different roles -- not only as mothers, but also as spouses, friends, workers (in and out of the home), individuals with various hopes and fears -- and how they cope with the challenge of balancing multiple roles. We obtained data from over 2,200 mothers, with excellent completion rates and high reliability and validity of the data. These data reveal significant risk and protective processes among well-educated, upper-middle class mothers as compared to others.

Early findings based on these data have shown that, as for children, supportive close relationships are critical for the well-being of their mothers (Luthar & Ciciolla, 2015). Analyses showed that four constructs had particularly robust links with mothers’ personal adjustment: their feeling unconditionally loved, feeling comforted when in distress, authenticity in relationships, and satisfaction with friendships. Partner satisfaction had some associations with personal adjustment outcomes, but being married in itself had negligible effects (Luthar & Ciciolla, 2015). In a second study, we examined mothers’ well-being as a function of children’s ages (Luthar & Ciciolla, 2016). In this case, our findings uniformly showed curvilinear patterns by children’s ages, with mothers of middle-schoolers faring the most poorly, and mothers of adult children and infants faring the best.

Another area long-term, longitudinal study involves resilience and vulnerability among children of mothers with major psychiatric disorders such as drug abuse, and depressive or anxiety disorders (Luthar & Sexton, 2007; McMahon & Luthar, 2007; Yoo, Brown, & Luthar, 2009). At baseline (Time 1), we assessed maladjustment, competence, and risk and protective factors in a sample of 360 eight to eighteen year old children and their mothers; about half of the mothers had diagnoses of cocaine/opioid dependence or abuse. At the first and second follow-ups (T2, T3), offspring were 12-22 and 16-26 years old respectively. Sample retention has been high, at about 80% across three waves. In current longitudinal analyses, we are examining risk and protective indices based on multiple informants and methods, including not only behavioral assessments but also biological and genetic ones (e.g., Barbot, Hunt, Grigororenko, & Luthar, 2012; Bick et al., 2013).

As mentioned above, another extension of our work with at-risk mothers is psychotherapy research. In the mid 1990's, we developed a parenting group intervention for low-income, substance abusing mothers, the Relational Psychotherapy Parenting Group (RPMG). This intervention was based on insight-oriented therapy and reflected specific recognition of the challenges unique to women and mothers. Randomized trials showed that mothers who received RPMG fared significantly better post- intervention than did those who received treatment as usual in their methadone clinics and those who received drug counseling (Luthar & Suchman, 2000; Luthar, Suchman, & Altomare, 2007). While confirming the importance of the supportive interventions for these mothers, findings highlighted the crucial need for continued support for these extremely vulnerable mothers following the active phases of the intervention program.