Overview and Projects

The CHAMP Lab engages in applied research in the field of pediatric psychology, which targets issues at the intersection of pediatric medicine and clinical child psychology. The lab is housed in the Department of Psychology at Georgia State University and most of the studies are conducted with pediatric patients presenting at the three Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta (CHOA) children’s hospitals and clinics. Example topics studied in the CHAMP lab include children’s coping with painful medical procedures, adolescents’ transitioning from pediatric to adult healthcare, parents’ and children’s interactions and relationships around management of children’s chronic illness. Some of the current projects are listed below:

RadWorld (Cohen, PI): This study focuses on the development and evaluation of a virtual world to reduce anxiety and sedation rates in children with cancer undergoing radiation therapy. The project is funded by a U.S. DHHS AHRQ R21 grant and involves collaborators at Georgia Tech, Emory, and Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta.

MartialHearts (Cohen and Rodrigues, PIs): This project seeks to develop and pilot an interactive taekwondo game to improve executive functions in children with congenital heart disease.

CalmCraft (Cohen, PI): Funded by an NIH R21 grant, this project aimed to develop and evaluate a biofeedback computer game designed to reduce anxiety and pain during bone fracture repair.

Peer Support in SCD (Martin, PI): Sarah Martin’s dissertation project examines social support in adolescents hospitalized for sickle cell pain.

Perceived Racial Discrimination in SCD (Mougianis, PI): Effie Mougianis’ dissertation, which is funded by a Greek society grant, explores perceived discrimination and related issues in youth hospitalized for sickle cell pain crises.

Resilience in SCD (Cousins, PI): Laura Cousins’ dissertation focuses on evaluating her recently published resilience-risk model with youth with sickle cell disease.

Nurse Burnout on a Pediatric Chronic Pain Floor (Rodrigues, PI): Nikita Rodrigues’ thesis uses mixed methods to evaluate burnout in nurses working with pediatric patients with chronic abdominal pain.

Stress and Coping in Parents of Infants with CHD (Bishop, PI). Meredith Bishop’s thesis examines stress and coping in the parents of babies and toddler with congenital heart disease.

This highlights only a few of the many areas currently being studied in the CHAMP Lab.