- Overview
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My research integrates methodology and theory from child clinical and school psychology, health psychology, and public health to evaluate biological, psychological, and social factors that influence family welling and child development. Using mixed-methods and patient-oriented approaches, this research informs the creation of scalable prevention and intervention programs to promote child development and family wellbeing. Specific emphases of my work include caregiver wellbeing and parenting across child developmental stages and neurodiversity, with a particular focus on family-centred care and non-birther caregivers. A key value of this work is creating accessible and affordable evidence-based programming for all families, which has led to the development of digital mental health and parenting interventions to reduce barriers to service access.
My research is based on a foundation of interdisciplinary, collaborative perspectives across domains of child development to promote a comprehensive understanding of child and family wellbeing. At every research stage, this work is informed by caregiver partners with lived experience of mental health concerns to ensure the accurate representation of caregiver concerns in the evolving programs. Further, community-engaged research ensures the resulting programs are integrated into current systems to support families in a timely manner. A key goal of my work is to shift the conversation around perinatal and early childhood care to be family-centered, encompassing all primary caregivers, to better support the wellbeing and health of the whole family. The ultimate goal is to empower all caregivers to raise happy and healthy children.
- Publications
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Families First Home-Visiting Program: Impact on Child and Adolescent Education, Mental Disorders, and Service Use
Emily E Cameron and Kayla Joyce and Sandra Hunter and Marni Brownell and Mariette Chartier and Tracie Afifi and Nathan Nickel and Leslie Roos
DOI: 10.31234/osf.io/823zw
01/2025Paternal Depression and Anxiety During the COVID-19 Pandemic
International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
Emily E. Cameron and Kayla M. Joyce and Kathryn Hatherly and Leslie E. Roos
DOI: 10.3390/ijerph22010124
01/2025A Qualitative Forum Analysis of Fathers’ Stressors and Support Seeking Behaviour During the COVID-19 Pandemic
Journal of Family Issues
DOI: 10.1177/0192513X241237609
2025Comparing the efficacy of standard telehealth and psychoeducation-enhanced treatment groups in a Dialectical Behaviour Therapy and Parenting intervention: The Building Regulation in Dual-GEnerations [BRIDGE] program
Leslie Roos and Lindsay Berard and Shaelyn Stienwandt and Emily E Cameron and Sandra Hunter and Ashley Pharazyn and Kayley Leurquin and Lauren Kaminski and Laurence Katz and Natalie Mota and Ryan Giuliano and Maureen Zalewski
DOI: 10.31219/osf.io/4ze8y
10/2024Parent and Caregiver Preferences for eHealth Programs
Nicole Tongol and Robert John Wilfred McHardy and Kaeley M. Simpson and Kailey Elena Penner and Charlie Rioux and Emily E Cameron and Ryan Giuliano and Lianne Tomfohr-Madsen and Ashley Stewart-Tufescu and Tracie Afifi and Tasmia Hai and Leslie Roos
DOI: 10.31219/osf.io/vaw3d
09/2024e-Health Programming Preferences for Parents of Children Diagnosed with Neurodevelopmental Disorders and/or Mental Illnesses
Tasmia Hai and Kailey Elena Penner and Kaitlin Loran and Houria Fida and Nicole Tongol and Emily E Cameron and Ryan Jeffrey Giuliano and Leslie E Roos
DOI: 10.31234/osf.io/3c72a
02/2024“Bottom of My Own List:” Barriers and Facilitators to Mental Health Support Use in Caregivers of Children with Neurodevelopmental Support Needs
Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders
DOI: 10.1007/s10803-024-06409-z
2024Parent eHealth preferences: Perceived credibility and personal reactions to AbilitiCBT, BEAM, and Triple P Online
Charlie Rioux and Avaline Konkin and Lianne Tomfohr-Madsen and Anna L. MacKinnon and Emily E Cameron and Dana Watts and Elisabeth Bailin Xie and Leslie E Roos
DOI: 10.31234/osf.io/p43zh
11/2023Parent preferences for peer connection in virtual mental health and parenting support platforms
Charlie Rioux and Zoe A. Childers-Rockey and Avaline Konkin and Emily E Cameron and Lianne Tomfohr-Madsen and Anna L. MacKinnon and Dana Watts and Julie Murray and Ashley Pharazyn and Leslie E Roos
DOI: 10.31234/osf.io/nf3kd
11/2023Virtual assessment of stress reactivity in young children: Practical guidelines & lessons learned
Kaeley M. Simpson and Kailey Elena Penner and Lara Penner-Goeke and Shaelyn Stienwandt and Emily E Cameron and Ryan Jeffrey Giuliano and Leslie E Roos
DOI: 10.31234/osf.io/7wqxn
08/2023Protocol for a randomized control trial of the Building Regulation in Dual Generations Program (BRIDGE); Preventing the intergenerational transmission of mental illness in at-risk preschool children
Research Square
DOI: 10.21203/rs.3.rs-3200761
2023COVID-19 and indigenous youth wellbeing: A review
Current Opinion in Psychology
DOI: 10.1016/j.copsyc.2023.101659
2023Effect of Remote Peer-Counsellor- delivered Behavioral Activation and Peer-support for Antenatal Depression on Gestational Age at Delivery: a single-blind, randomized control trial
Trials
DOI: 10.1186/s13063-023-07077-7
2023Protocol for a randomized control trial of the Building Regulation in Dual Generations Program (BRIDGE): preventing the intergenerational transmission of mental illness in at-risk preschool children
Trials
DOI: 10.1186/s13063-023-07591-8
2023Feasibility of Using Research Electronic Data Capture (REDCap) to Collect Daily Experiences of Parent-Child Dyads: Ecological Momentary Assessment Study
JMIR Formative Research
DOI: 10.2196/42916
2023Paternal Perinatal Experiences during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Framework Analysis of the Reddit Forum Predaddit
International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
DOI: 10.3390/ijerph20054408
2023Cohort profile: investigating SARS-CoV-2 infection and the health and psychosocial impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in the Canadian CHILD Cohort
Epidemiology and Health
DOI: 10.4178/epih.e2023091
2023Ecological Momentary Assessment with REDCap: Methods, Feasibility, and User Behaviour in a Parent and Child Study
Yola El Dahr and Florence Perquier and Madison Moloney and Roksana Dobrin De Grace and Guyyunge Woo and Daniela Carvalho and Nicole Addario and Emily E Cameron and Leslie Roos and peter szatmari and Madison Aitken
DOI: 10.31234/osf.io/cmkt2
11/2022"Bottom of my own list:" Barriers and facilitators to mental health support use in caregivers of children with neurodevelopmental support needs
Kailey Elena Penner and Rachel Roy and Ana C. Hanlon-Dearman and Kristene Cheung and Cara Katz and Jessica L. Schleider and Leslie E Roos and Emily E Cameron
DOI: 10.31234/osf.io/j4uvm
10/2022Feasibility of Using Research Electronic Data Capture (REDCap) to Collect Daily Experiences of Parent-Child Dyads: Ecological Momentary Assessment Study (Preprint)
Yola El Dahr and Florence Perquier and Madison Moloney and Guyyunge Woo and Roksana Dobrin-De Grace and Daniela Carvalho and Nicole Addario and Emily E Cameron and Leslie E Roos and Peter Szatmari and Madison Aitken
DOI: 10.2196/preprints.42916
09/2022Socioeconomic Status and Childhood Sleep: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis
Emily E Cameron and Dana Watts and Katherine Silang and Ashley Dhillon and Pooja Sohal and Anna MacKinnon and Leslie E Roos and Lianne Tomfohr-Madsen
DOI: 10.31234/osf.io/u2tbh
06/2022Changes in Maternal Substance Use During the COVID-19 Pandemic
Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs
DOI: 10.15288/jsad.2022.83.352
2022Investigating SARS-CoV-2 infection and the health and psychosocial impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in the Canadian CHILD Cohort: study methodology and cohort profile
medRxiv
DOI: 10.1101/2022.10.19.22281242
2022Parental socioeconomic status and childhood sleep: A systematic review and meta-analysis
Sleep Epidemiology
DOI: 10.1016/j.sleepe.2022.100047
2022Effect of a Remote Peer-administered Behavioral Activation and Peer-support intervention for Antenatal Depression on Gestational Age at Delivery: A single-blind, randomized control trial
Research Square
DOI: 10.21203/rs.3.rs-2277958/v1
2022Family Factors Associated with Hands-On Play and Screen Time During the COVID-19 Pandemic
Child and Youth Care Forum
DOI: 10.1007/s10566-021-09668-4
2022Pregnancy during the COVID-19 pandemic: a qualitative examination of ways of coping
Archives of Women's Mental Health
DOI: 10.1007/s00737-022-01277-x
2022“Any advice for a pre-dad who is freaking out?”: A qualitative analysis of paternal perinatal experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic using the reddit forum predaddit
Emily E Cameron and Kaeley M. Simpson and Shayna Pierce and Kailey Penner and Alanna Beyak and Irlanda Gomez and John-Michael Bowes and Kristin Reynolds and Lianne Tomfohr-Madsen and Leslie Roos
DOI: 10.31234/osf.io/fdh7k
10/2021Psychometric properties of the Pregnancy-Related Anxiety Scale for use with fathers during pregnancy.
Psychology of Men and Masculinity
DOI: 10.1037/men0000260
2021Supporting families to protect child health: Parenting quality and household needs during the COVID-19 pandemic
PLoS ONE
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0251720
2021Keeping Kids Busy: Family Factors Associated with Hands-on Play and Screen Time During the COVID-19 Pandemic
Shaelyn Stienwandt and Emily E Cameron and Melanie Soderstrom and Mercedes Julianna Casar and Cindy Le and Leslie E Roos
DOI: 10.31234/osf.io/prtyf
11/2020Paternal Depression & Anxiety During the COVID-19 Pandemic
Emily E Cameron and Kayla M. Joyce and Kathryn Rollins and Leslie E Roos
DOI: 10.31234/osf.io/drs9u
11/2020Maternal Psychological Distress & Mental Health Service Use during the COVID-19 Pandemic
Emily E Cameron and Kayla M. Joyce and Chantal P Delaquis and Kristin Reynolds and Jennifer Protudjer and Leslie E Roos
DOI: 10.31234/osf.io/a53zb
05/2020Neighborhood socioeconomic status and child sleep duration: A systematic review and meta-analysis
Sleep Health
DOI: 10.1016/j.sleh.2020.02.012
2020Pregnancy Anxiety and Preterm Birth: The Moderating Role of Sleep
Health Psychology
DOI: 10.1037/hea0000792
2019Recruitment and retention of fathers with young children in early childhood health intervention research: A systematic review and meta-analysis protocol
Systematic Reviews
DOI: 10.1186/s13643-019-1215-1
2019Sleep quality during pregnancy: A meta-analysis
Sleep Medicine Reviews
DOI: 10.1016/j.smrv.2017.06.005
2018What do dads want? Treatment preferences for paternal postpartum depression
Journal of Affective Disorders
DOI: 10.1016/j.jad.2017.03.031
2017Prevalence of paternal depression in pregnancy and the postpartum: An updated meta-analysis
Journal of Affective Disorders
DOI: 10.1016/j.jad.2016.07.044
2016 - Research
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Supporting Mental Health and Parenting Through Interventions for Caregivers of Young Children
The transition to parenthood and early years of parenting can be a challenging time for birthing parents. The first 1000 days of a child’s life offer a unique period of sensitivity for making the greatest long-term impact on child development. Parenting stress or mental illness in birthing parents during this time can lead to harsh and punitive parenting, affecting the emotional development of children and creating the potential for negative lifelong impacts. To address this issue, I work with a team of psychologists and researchers to develop programs for birthing parents that meet the unique needs of birthing parents in the early years. Two such programs, SPACE (Supporting Parenting and Child Emotions) and SPYKids (Single-Session Psychotherapy for Young Kids), are targeted to parents experiencing emotional and behavioural challenges in their children. SPACE invites parents to come together in group therapy to learn about managing challenging emotions in themselves and their children. SPYKids offers solution-focused and skills-based single session coaching for families on the waitlists for neurodevelopmental services, with the ultimate goal of providing parents on lengthy waitlists support earlier in the process. This line of work serves to investigate the unique needs of birthing parents across facets of child functioning and create patient-oriented programming to fill service gaps. Read more about SPACE and SPYKids here: https://www.fullheartprograms.ca/our-programs.Striving For Wellness in Partnerhood (SWell): A mental health and parenting program for non-birthing partners
The transition to parenthood is a time of increased risk for mental illness in non-birthing parents (often, but not always, fathers), with 1 in 10 Canadian non-birthing parents likely to develop depression or anxiety. Experience any parent (birthing or non-birthing) with mental illness can impact early child development and health, including putting children at greater risk for later mental illness and chronic health conditions. This exposure has the potential for those adverse outcomes to persist throughout the child’s life. Supporting the mental health of all individuals in a primary caregiver role is critical for promoting child health and development. Yet, non-birthing parents often report that their mental health is overlooked and there are no programs tailored specifically to their unique needs. The SWell program is intended to meet this need by co-developing a partner-focused intervention with partners with lived experience of mental health and parenting. SWell consists of best practices in emotion-focused mental health and parenting through a user-friendly digital platform. Future steps include trialing the program with non-birthing partners.Mental Health and Health Behaviours in Adolescents At-Risk for or Diagnosed with Chronic Health Conditions
Adolescents at risk for or diagnosed with type 2 diabetes may face additional mental health challenges due to underlying additional stressors that may impact higher body weight. Research from our team suggests that programs to prevent or treat type 2 diabetes that focus on health behaviour change alone show only modest impacts on improving health for teenagers. Our team is working to improve treatment adherence, management, and ultimately outcomes for youth at risk for or diagnosed with type 2 diabetes through integrating health behaviour change with evidence-based treatments to support emotion regulation and distress tolerance. The Dialectical behavioural therapy (DBT) to enhance health behaviour change for adolescents living with obesity study offers DBT skills group therapy to teens and their families supervised by registered psychologists alongside more traditional lifestyles groups for managing health behaviours. With this integration, we are aiming to improve the Canadian health landscape for preventing type 2 diabetes through increasing healthy behaviours and successfully treating type 2 diabetes. Read more about this work here: https://www.teenhealthstudy.ca/GrantsCo-Principal Investigator. Behavioural therapy to enhance health behaviour change for adolescents living with obesity. Funding Source: CIHR
Co-Applicant. Towards Sleep Equity: Understanding and Addressing Intersectional Risk and Resilience Factors in the Promotion of Healthy Sleep. Funding Source: CIHR Sleep Health Research Consortium
Co-Applicant. Advancing Family Wellbeing through a Massive Open Online Intervention: The LightBEAM Program. Funding Source: SSHRC
Principal Investigator. SWell program: Striving for wellness in fatherhood. Funding Source: SSHRC Insight Development Grant
Co-Investigator. Building Regulation in Dual Generations: BRIDGE – Preventing the Intergenerational Transmission of Mental Illness in At-Risk Children. Funding Source: CIHR Operating Grant: ECIs in Maternal, Reproductive, Child & Youth Health
Co-Investigator. Promoting Children’s Emotional Well-Being in the Aftermath of COVID-19: The SPACE Family Program. Funding Source: SSHRC Insight Development Grant
Co-Investigator. Understanding dynamics of risk and protective factors and children’s mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic. Funding Source: CIHR
Co-Applicant. SPYKids: The Development and Evaluation of Single-Session Psychotherapy for Young Kids through Patient Engagement Techniques. Funding Source: The Children’s Hospital Research Institute of Manitoba, Operative Grant
Principal Investigator. Building BRIDGEs: Adapting parent wellness supports for families of children with developmental and mental health needs at KIDTHINK Inc. Funding Source: SSHRC Partnership Engage Grant
Honours & Awards2024 – 2026 - Trainee Award, Michael Smith Health Research BC Research (Declined due to faculty position)
2023 – 2024 - Health Research Postdoctoral Fellowship, Research Manitoba
2023 - Lab2Market Launch Program
2020 – 2023 - Postdoctoral Fellowship, Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC)
2020 - Graduate Student Research Excellence Award, Clinical Psychology Graduate Program, Department of Psychology, University of Calgary
2017 – 2020 - Joseph-Armand Bombardier Canada Graduate Scholarship - Doctoral, Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC)
2018 - Certificate of Achievement, Canadian Child Health Clinician Scientist Program (CCHCSP)
2017 – 2018 - Graduate Research Grant, International Honor Society in Psychology (Psi Chi)
2017 Rising Researcher Award, 15th Annual National Canadian Child Health Clinical Scientist Program National Symposium, Calgary, Alberta
Advancing understanding of the developing brain in preterm babies to help inform therapies
BCCHR research found new evidence that the younger a baby is born, the slower their brain development will be. Scientists are investigating how the brain functions at an early gestational age so they can identify potential therapies.
