Supporting Our Valued Adolescents (SOVA)

Supervising Faculty: Ana Radovic, MD, MSc

To Apply: Complete the application form located at: https://pitt.co1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_e3Y4kwIgUbZiE2q. If you have not heard back in two weeks, contact Kayla Odenthal at the email address below.

Contact: Kayla Odenthal, KRO20@pitt.edu

Area of Research: Psychology, Psychiatry, Social Work, Pediatrics, Adolescent Medicine

Description of Research: The SOVA Lab focuses on how to use technology to improve mental health services for adolescents with symptoms of depression or anxiety. We have studied primary care provider attitudes toward approaching shared decision making with parents; the use of electronic order sets and screening decision aids to improve the integration of behavioral health services in primary care settings; and the impacts of social media and technology use in depressed adolescents and their parents. Our team has developed a website intervention for teens with symptoms of depression or anxiety - sova.pitt.edu – which aims to allow adolescents to anonymously share their stories in a safe space, counteract negative attitudes toward treatment, and provide opportunities for social support. Also, there is an accompanying parent website - wisesova.pitt.edu - which aims to enhance parent and adolescent communication around issues of mental health. Our team has partnered with a small business NuRelm and the University of Virginia to investigate the use of passive sensing to understand whether this method may be used in future interventions to predict symptoms of depression in adolescents. This year we are testing this intervention in depressed adolescents. We have two other ongoing projects, one which is developing interventions for sexual and gender minority youth, recruited through social media, to enhance help-seeking, and the other is to work with low-income mostly youth of color in a workforce development setting to understand potential benefit of the SOVA intervention.

Requirements:

  • Overall GPA of 3.0 or higher
  • 12 credits of Psychology (including current term)
  • STAT 0200/1000/1100 Statistics
  • PSY 0036 Research Methods Lecture
  • PSY 0037 Research Methods Lab
  • Prefer students who can enroll in 2 or 3 credits of PSY 1903
  • Prefer students who can commit to two semesters of PSY 1903
  • Prior experience with children is preferred.

Recruitment Process: Students should contact Dr. Ana Radovic (ana.radovic@chp.edu) and Ms. Kayla Odenthal (kayla.odenthal2@chp.edu) via email with their CVs or resumes. After receiving their CVs, Ms. Odenthal, the research coordinator, will reach out and conduct a brief initial phone interview to discuss the project, potential tasks, and ask the student about their goals, and how many credit hours they plan to take for the coming semester(s). Selected students will be invited to do a Zoom interview with PI and RA. Students will be selected on a number of hours to be committed, flexible availability, prior experience with adolescents or children, communication skills, professionalism, leadership skills, computer proficiency, student interest in the projects, student’s research goals, and leadership skills.

Terms offered: Fall, Spring, Summer

Number of Students: 3

Lab website: sova.pitt.edu, sovaproject.pitt.edu, on Twitter see @aradstak and @sovaproject, on Instagram see @sova_project