Megumi J Okumura
University of California-San Francisco, CA·Medicine & Clinical Research
Young adults with autism lose many of the supports provided by school once they finish secondary education. Their social skills can decline over time, which raises the risk of poor social, educational, job and health outcomes.
- Fields
Medicine & Clinical Research
Psychology
Public Health & Epidemiology
- Topics
autism spectrum disorder
young adults
transition to adulthood
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Nov 2030
What they work on
- Test whether the Resilience in Action (RiA) curriculum improves self-determination, self-efficacy, social confidence and emotional regulation in a randomized waitlist-control trial of 288 young adults with autism aged 19 to 26.
- Examine whether gains in resilience are associated with improved mental health, and explore effects on emotional regulation, vocational outcomes and quality of life over 12 months of follow-up.
- Study how the RiA curriculum is implemented across San Francisco, Boston and Baltimore community and academic sites using an expanded RE-AIM implementation framework.
More about the research
Programs exist for children and teens, but few target this young adult stage or focus on building resilience, the ability to cope and adapt to challenges.
Why it matters
Young adults with autism often lose support after leaving school and face higher risks of poor mental health, unemployment and social isolation. If the curriculum builds resilience and resilience improves mental health, community programs could adopt it to help these young adults in the transition to adulthood.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Sasha Gorrell
University of California-San Francisco, CA·Psychology
Engage youth, caregivers and clinician stakeholders during a preparatory phase to adapt a single-session consultation protocol for families waiting for specialty eating disorder treatment.
Alexandra Terrill
University of Utah, UT·Psychology
Test whether the 8-week online ReStoreD couples program reduces emotional distress in both stroke survivors and their carepartners, using a randomized waitlist-control trial of 200 couples.
Alice Carter
University of Massachusetts-Boston, MA·Psychology
Test in a randomized trial across 20 Early Intervention agencies whether training providers in Reciprocal Imitation Training (a play-based therapy) improves language and social communication in toddlers with early autism signs, compared with usual care.
The school
University of California-San Francisco: 89 labs on PI Pages, $2.1B a year on research, 164 research doctorates a year.
Reach out
A start for your email. Fill in the brackets.