Erin Kaufman
University of Utah, UT·Psychology·Early-career
Suicide is the leading cause of death among adolescents. It sits at the extreme end of a spectrum of self-inflicted injury (SII), meaning deliberate self-harm.
- Fields
Psychology
Neuroscience
Medicine & Clinical Research
- Topics
self-inflicted injury
self-harm
suicide prevention
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Mar 2029
What they work on
- Compare an interpersonal skill (GIVE) with an intrapersonal skill (opposite-to-emotion action) for reducing emotion dysregulation in self-injuring adolescents, using a randomized crossover design with parent–teen conflict discussions.
- Assess how strongly each skill affects mood, stress, self-injury and suicidal thoughts in daily life, using ecological momentary assessment (EMA), repeated smartphone surveys over two-week periods.
- Measure whether skill use persists or fades after first exposure and after a booster call, with a six-month follow-up of self-injury, symptoms and life stress.
- Examine brain processes underlying perspective taking, empathy and approach/avoidance before and after skills training, using functional MRI (fMRI) in 56 adolescents.
More about the research
Effective treatments exist, such as Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), a skills-based therapy for managing intense emotions. But DBT is intensive, expensive and needs highly trained therapists, so many teens cannot get it, and suicide rates have not clearly dropped. Little is known about which therapy skills actually drive improvement, or whether teens use and keep these skills in daily life. This project asks how individual skills work, across brain, body and behavior.
Why it matters
Teens who self-harm face a high risk of suicide, yet the best current treatments are costly and hard to access. By identifying which specific skills change emotional regulation, and whether teens actually use and retain them, this work could guide shorter, more targeted interventions. Such interventions could reach more at-risk youth and their families.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Kevin Kuehn
University of California-San Diego, CA·Psychology·Early-career
Refine the personalized suicide prevention intervention PRECISE using a user-centered design approach and a case series with high-risk adults.
Andrea Baldelli
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, NC·Psychology·Early-career
Refine questionnaires, interviews and behavioral tasks that measure social motivation and suicidal thoughts and behaviors so they are valid for a diverse group of preteen girls aged 8 to 11.
Ligia Antezana
University of Pittsburgh, PA·Psychology·Early-career
Test whether behavioral markers of compulsivity during decision-making are associated with nonsuicidal self-injury in 90 autistic adults, using self-reports, clinical interviews and a decision-making task.
The school
University of Utah: 58 labs on PI Pages, $789M a year on research, 366 research doctorates a year.
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