PhD Student & Alum Join Prof. Paris in Finland to Present at World Association for Infant Mental Health’s World Congress 

CORRECTION [9/16/24]: ECCT was previously misattributed to Prof. Ruth Paris due to author error. ECCT was developed by Jewish Family and Children’s Service.

Boston University School of Social Work (BUSSW) doctoral candidate Yibin Yang joined Prof. Ruth Paris and PhD alum Mihoko Maru (PhD’20) in Tampere, Finland to present posters at the 2024 Interim World Congress for the World Association for Infant Mental Health. Their work was featured among an international array of leading researchers and practitioners spearheading innovative solutions to improve mental health services for infants, young children, and their families. 

Paris, Yang and Maru had the opportunity to meet with Finnish and other Nordic professionals working in the early childhood field and attend a robust program of presentations from international experts highlighting developments in infant mental health in the region and around the world. 

The three BUSSW researchers presented three posters in total, including one on providers’ perceived benefits and challenges in providing a culturally sensitive intervention to Latinx immigrant families with young children. The community-based intervention – Early Connections/Conexiones Tempranas (EC/CT) – was developed by collaborators at Jewish Family and Children’s Service in Waltham, Mass. for families coping with traumatic stress and evaluated by Prof. Paris and her team.

Prof. Paris also presented “A BRIGHT Approach to Early Childhood, Parenting, and Substance Use in Pediatrics,” showcasing the dyadic attachment-based therapeutic intervention, BRIGHT (Building Recovery through Intervention: Growing Together). The intervention meets the challenges experienced by young children in families coping with parental addiction by promoting pleasure in the parent-child relationship, while increasing children’s strengths and decreasing child traumatic symptoms. The poster was created in collaboration with colleagues from Boston Medical Center and the Institute for Health and Recovery. 

Ruth Paris, PhD, LICSW is a professor of clinical practice at BUSSW and associate director for research at the Institute for Early Childhood Well-Being at BU Wheelock College of Education & Human Development. An internationally recognized researcher in trauma and early childhood mental health, her work focuses on families struggling with substance use and is supported by SAMSHA, DOD, NIH, HRSA and private foundations.

Yibin Yang, MSW, is a doctoral candidate whose research interests center on the prevention of mental health challenges and promotion of psychological well-being for school-aged children and youth living in socially disadvantaged situations. Before joining BUSSW’s doctoral program, he worked as a preschool educator and social and emotional learning (SEL) curriculum developer in the United States and China.  

Mihoko Maru, PhD, is a 2020 doctoral program graduate, a research consultant at the Center for Innovation in Social Work & Health at BUSSW. Her research focuses on promoting mental health equity in both domestic and international contexts and enhancing trauma-informed mental healthcare in under-resourced communities. Her current research explores the impact of trauma on maternal mental health, parenting, and psychotic disorders in young adults.

Read More: BUSSW Research News