PhD student Freddie Corcoran on risk and resilience, and translating research into practice
Frederique (Freddie) Corcoran is a fourth-year PhD student in developmental psychology at ICD. In this Q & A, she shares why it’s important for researchers to collaborate with practitioners. She also discusses her research on the impact of parental incarceration on children, as well as what we know about children’s capacity for resilience.
Advantages of doctoral studies at ICD
Describe the educational journey that brought you to the doctoral program at ICD.
FC: I studied psychological and brain sciences at UC Santa Barbara for my undergraduate degree. I always thought I wanted to be a clinical psychologist, because I’m a people person, and I always loved working with kids. I did a lot of clinical experiences while in college, but I noticed that the clinical setting maybe wasn’t for me. I also saw a lot of issues with the mental health system that I wanted to fix, and that’s what got me interested in research and wanting to bridge the gaps between research and practice.
Freddie Corcoran
I wanted to go to the University of Minnesota because it is an amazing school, and I liked the community mentorship model at ICD. Usually in PhD programs you apply to work with one faculty member for the entire program. But at ICD you can work with multiple advisors, collaborate within ICD, and build interdisciplinary partnerships outside. My primary advisor is Dr. Canan Karatekin, and I’ve also worked with Dr. Ann Masten at ICD as well as Dr. Rebecca Shlafer in the Department of Pediatrics in the Medical School.
What is the focus of your research?
I am interested in risk and resilience, specifically in the context of parental incarceration. I’m looking at strengths-based research and protective factors, including factors in schools and communities, that support children and adolescents with incarcerated parents.
How does parental incarceration affect children?
First, it’s super prevalent. In Minnesota, one in six children report that their parent has been incarcerated at some point, and there are huge racial-ethnic inequities in who is incarcerated because of structural policies and systemic racism. Also, the justice system affects families long-term: it’s hard to find employment and housing when you’ve been incarcerated, so just because a child’s parent was incarcerated in the past doesn’t mean it won’t still impact them and their family long term.
In terms of the direct impact on kids, being separated from a parent is in itself stressful, and it stresses the family system. It impacts attachment, and family bonds, and puts stress on caregivers. Also, parental incarceration is often happening next to other adversities like poverty and domestic violence, which all interact to impact kids and their development.
As for protective factors, it is helpful to look in different areas and contexts of a child’s life. So within the family, strong parent-child relationships with incarcerated and non-incarcerated caregivers can provide important support. You always want to think about how you can support safe interactions between the child and the incarcerated parent, while lifting up the youth’s or the child’s voice by asking them, “Do you want to maintain this relationship?”
Within the school system, opportunities for parental involvement, teacher support, mental health services, and restorative justice policies can also be protective factors. Within the community, access to quality housing and education, green space, healthy grocery stores, and extracurricular activities–so in other words, well-rounded, comprehensive support for youth–are all protective factors. These might seem obvious, but it's important to provide evidence to policymakers and decision-makers so they can understand why these environmental conditions support child well-being, when these supports are most beneficial, and which children they benefit the most.
The importance of collaborating with practitioners
Talk about your work as a research assistant with the Center for Early Education and Development (CEED).
I’ve been working with Dr. Ann Bailey, director of CEED, since the second year of my PhD. First I worked on a project for the Minnesota Departments of Education and Human Services. They asked CEED to look at barriers and facilitators to participation in early childhood education for children in foster care. They wanted to know how to increase participation for this population, and so we put together a mixed-methods policy brief for them. I wanted to keep working with Ann and with CEED, so after that I was brought onto the revision of Minnesota’s Early Childhood Indicators of Progress (ECIPs). The overarching goal was to make the ECIPs more inclusive for all youth in Minnesota and to update them with the latest evidence. One of my roles was to put together research briefs for the working groups that revised the ECIPs.
Were there any surprises for you working on that project?
One surprise was that the language used in the previous version of the ECIPs didn’t fully reflect the diverse experiences of children in Minnesota. We worked to include more culturally relevant or inclusive examples, like different family structures, languages spoken at home, or ways that children might express emotions or play, depending on their cultural context. We also had to unpack some assumptions in language that all children could see, hear, talk, and walk. I think our updates made the developmental expectations more relevant and inclusive for more Minnesota children.
One challenge of this project from my point of view was that the research side of things is so separated from the practice side. My role was to find new evidence to support the revised indicators. There are a ton of studies on executive function, for example, but it’s hard to apply that to specific observable skills at each age range, like one to two, two to three, and so on. That’s why you need partnerships between researchers and the practitioners who actually work with kids every day. The parents and practitioners in my work group and on my team were so knowledgeable, and it was really amazing to work with them. It showed how important it is to partner with all kinds of people from different backgrounds and perspectives.
Do you have any thoughts about your future career?
I’m not 100% sure yet, but I’m really interested in applied research positions and in the nonprofit sector. I really like applied translational work that relates to policy and practice. I co-taught my first class last semester, and I also love teaching and mentoring, so I would like to see where that fits in too. My dream eventually would be to be a leader in a nonprofit organization that uses research to create resources and programs for children and families.