ADAPT

Keywords

stress, military, children stress, parenting, family wellness

Lab Area

Clinical Psychology

Developmental Psychology

Actively Recruiting Undergraduate Researchers

The ADAPT™ program is an evidence-based parenting model giving parents tools to be their children’s best teachers, reduce stressors, and improve family and individual wellness.

To learn more about Adapt, visit:

https://adaptparenting.org/

ADAPT is an opportunity for parents to learn, practice, use, and retain positive parenting techniques and tools. The program includes a focus on mindfulness and emotional coaching, designed especially for families who have experienced stress and/or trauma. Our goal is to strengthen stressed parents’ capacities to regulate their emotions and be more effective with their children.

Our studies to date have involved active-duty military, Guard, and Reserve members and veterans across all branches of service. Recently our work has expanded to focus on healthcare professionals whose parenting roles have been affected by their challenging work during the COVID-19 pandemic. Each study evaluates parenting tools with the goal of addressing families’ unique stressors and creating positive outcomes.

Abigail Gewirtz

Ph.D., LP – ADAPT Director and Developer

Abi’s research interests are in trauma, resilience, parenting, and promoting children’s healthy development. Her team is involved in multiple research and implementation projects throughout the United States that all aim to help parents be their children’s best teachers during times of stress and trauma. Dr. Gewirtz has published more than 100 articles, chapters, and books and is the recipient of several grant and career awards.

Research results show that ADAPT significantly improves parenting and parents’ confidence. Children show improved behavior and emotional adjustment. Parents also report reduced depression, PTSD, and suicidal tendencies.

The ADAPT team's research work has been published in the following:

Brockman, C., Snyder, J., Gewirtz, A., Gird, S. R., Quattlebaum, J., Schmidt, N., … DeGarmo, D. (2016). Relationship of service members’ deployment trauma, PTSD symptoms, and experiential avoidance to postdeployment family reengagement. Journal of Family Psychology, 30, 52–62. doi: 10.1037/fam0000152
Chesmore, A., He, Y., Zhang, N., & Gewirtz, A. H. (2018). Parent discrepancies in ratings of child behaviors following wartime deployment. Journal of Traumatic Stress. Advance online publication. doi: 10.1002/jts.22257
Chesmore, A. A., Piehler, T. F., & Gewirtz, A. H. (2017). PTSD as a Moderator of a Parenting Intervention for Military Families. Journal of Family Psychology. Advance online publication. doi: 10.1037/fam0000366
Davis, L., Hanson, S. K., Zamir, O., Gewirtz, A. H., & DeGarmo, D. S. (2015). Associations of contextual risk and protective factors with fathers’ parenting practices in the postdeployment environment. Psychological Services, 12, 250–260.
DeGarmo, D. S., & Gewirtz, A. H. (2018). A Recovery Capital and Stress Buffering Model for Post-Deployed Military Parents. Frontiers in Psychology, 9, 1832. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2018.01832
Doty, J. L., Rudi, J. H., Pinna, K. L. M., Hanson, S. K., & Gewirtz, A. H. (2016). If You Build It, Will They Come? Patterns of Internet-Based and Face-To-Face Participation in a Parenting Program for Military Families. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 18, e169.
Gewirtz, A. H. (2018). A call for theoretically informed and empirically validated military family interventions. Journal of Family Theory & Review, 10, 587-601. doi: 10.1111/jftr.12278
Gewirtz, A. H., & Davis, L. (2014). Parenting practices and emotion regulation in National Guard and Reserve families: Early findings from the After Deployment Adaptive Parenting Tools/ADAPT Study. In S. M. Wadsworth & D. S. Riggs (Eds.), Military Deployment and its Consequences for Families (pp. 111–131). New York: Springer.
Gewirtz, A. H., DeGarmo, D. S., & Zamir, O. (2016). Effects of a military parenting program on parental distress and suicide ideation: After Deployment Adaptive Parenting Tools. Suicide and Life Threatening Behavior, 46, S23-S31. doi: 10.1111/sltb.12255
Gewirtz, A. H., DeGarmo, D. S., & Zamir, O. (2018). After Deployment, Adaptive Parenting Tools: One year outcomes of an evidence-based parenting program for military families. Prevention Science, 19, 589-599. doi: 10.1007/s11121-017-0839-4
Gewirtz, A. H., DeGarmo, D. S., & Zamir, O. (2018). Correction to: After Deployment, Adaptive Parenting Tools: One year outcomes of an evidence-based parenting program for military families. Prevention Science, 19, 600-601. doi: 10.1007/s11121-017-0849-2
Gewirtz, A. H., DeGarmo D. S., & Zamir, O. (2017). Testing a military family stress model. Family Process. Advance online publication. doi: 10.1111/famp.12282
Gewirtz, A. H., Erbes, C. R., Polusny, M. A., Forgatch, M. S., & DeGarmo, D. S. (2011). Helping military families through the deployment process: Strategies to support parenting. Professional Psychology: Research and Practice, 42, 56-62.
Gewirtz, A. H., McMorris, B. J., Hanson, S., & Davis, L. (2014). Family adjustment of deployed and non-deployed mothers in families with a parent deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan. Professional Psychology: Research and Practice, 45, 465–477. doi: 10.1037/a0036235
Gewirtz, A. H., Pinna, K. L. M., Hanson, S. K., & Brockberg, D. (2014). Promoting parenting to support reintegrating military families: After Deployment, Adaptive Parenting Tools. Psychological Services, 11, 31–40. doi: 10.1037/a0034134
Gewirtz, A. H., Polusny, M. A., DeGarmo, D. S., Khalyis, A., & Erbes, C. R. (2010). Posttraumatic stress symptoms among National Guard soldiers deployed to Iraq: Associations with parenting behaviors and couple adjustment. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 78, 599–610.
Gewirtz, A. H., & Youssef, A. (2016). Deployment and Parenting. In The Sage Encyclopedia of Contemporary Early Childhood Education. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications.
Gewirtz, A. H., & Youssef, A. M. (2016). Parenting and Children’s Resilience in Military Families: A Twenty-First Century Perspective. In A. H. Gewirtz and A. M. Youssef (Eds.), Parenting and Children’s Resilience in Military Families (pp. 1–9). New York: Springer.
Gewirtz, A. H., Snyder, J., Zamir, O., Zhang, J., & Zhang, N. (2019). Effects of the After Deployment: Adaptive Parenting Tools (ADAPT) intervention on fathers and their children: A moderated mediation model. Development and psychopathology, 31(5), 1837-1849.
Gewirtz, A. H., & Zamir, O. (2014). The impact of parental deployment to war on children: The crucial role of parenting. Advances in Child Development and Behavior, 46, 89–112.
Gewirtz, A. H., & Zhang, N.* (2018). The impact of parental military deployment on children. In: J. Osofsky and B. Groves (Eds.), Violence and trauma in the lives of children (pp. 169-187) ABC-CLIO.
He, Y., Gewirtz, A., & Dworkin, J. (2015). Parental Emotion Socialization in Military Families. Child Studies in Asia-Pacific Contexts, 5, 1–19.
Khaylis, A., Polusny, M. A., Erbes, C. R., Gewirtz, A., & Rath, M. (2011). Posttraumatic stress, family adjustment, and treatment preferences among National Guard soldiers deployed to OEF/OIF. Military Medicine, 176, 126–131.
Monn, A. R., Zhang, N., & Gewirtz, A. H. (2018). Deficits in inhibitory control may place service members at risk for posttraumatic stress disorder and negative parenting behavior following deployment-related trauma. Journal of Traumatic Stress, 31, 866-875. doi: 10.1002/jts.22351
Piehler, T. F., Ausherbauer, K., Gewirtz, A., & Gliske, K. (2018). Improving child peer adjustment in military families through parent training: The mediational role of parental locus of control. The Journal of early adolescence, 38, 1322-1343. doi: 10.1177/0272431616678990
Pinna, K. L. M., Hanson, S., Zhang, N., & Gewirtz, A. H. (2017). Fostering resilience in National Guard and Reserve families: A contextual adaptation of an evidence-based parenting program. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 87, 185-193. doi: 10.1037/ort0000221
Snyder, J., Gewirtz, A., Schrepferman, L., Gird, S. R., Quattlebaum, J., Pauldine, M. R., … Hayes, C. (2016). Parent–child relationship quality and family transmission of parent posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms and child externalizing and internalizing symptoms following fathers’ exposure to combat trauma. Development and Psychopathology, 28, 947–969.
Youssef, A. M., Garr, A. S., & Gewirtz, A. H. (2016). Evidence-Based Parenting Programs for School-Aged Children. In A. H. Gewirtz & A. M. Youssef (Eds.), Parenting and Children’s Resilience in Military Families (pp. 229–250). New York: Springer.
Zamir, O., Gewirtz, A.H., Labella, M., DeGarmo, D.S., & Snyder, J. (2018). Experiential Avoidance, Dyadic Interaction and Relationship Quality in the Lives of Veterans and their Partners. Journal of Family Issues, 39, 1191-1212. DOI: 10.1177/0192513X17698182
Zamir, O., Gewirtz, A. H., & Zhang, N. (2017). Actor–Partner Associations of Mindfulness and Marital Quality After Military Deployment. Family Relations. Advance online publication. doi: 10.1111/fare.12266
Zamir, O., Cheng, B., Lavee, Y., Gewirtz, A. H., & Zhang, N. (in press) Trauma-related Distress and Communication Quality in Military Couples after Deployment to War. Journal of Family Psychology.
Zhang, N., Piehler, T., Gewirtz, A. H., Zamir, O., & Snyder, J. (in press). Trait mindfulness and anger in the family: A dyadic analysis of male service members and their female partners. Journal of Marital and Family Therapy.
Zhang, N., Rudi, J. H., Zamir, O., & Gewirtz, A. H. (2018). Parent engagement in online mindfulness exercises within a parent training program for post-deployed military families. Mindfulness, 9, 725–736. doi: 10.1007/s12671-017-0810-2
Zhang, N., Zhang, J., Gewirtz, A. H., & Piehler, T. F. (2018). Improving Parental Emotion Socialization in Military Families: Results of a Randomized Controlled Trial. Journal of Family Psychology. Advance online publication. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/fam0000461
Zhang, N., Zhang, J., Gewirtz, A. H. (in press). Growth trajectories of parental emotion socialization and child adjustment following a military parenting intervention: A randomized controlled trial. Developmental Psychology.
Zhang, N., Zhang, J., Gewirtz, A. H (in press). Do less mindful mothers show better parenting via improvements in trait mindfulness following a military parent training program? Frontiers in Psychology.
Zhang, N., Zhang, J., Gewirtz, A. H (in press). Vagal Flexibility Moderates the Effects of a Military Parenting Intervention on Father Involvement: Findings from a Randomized Trial. Prevention Science.
Zamir, O., Cheng, B., Lavee, Y., Gewirtz, A. H., & Zhang, N. (in press) Trauma-related Distress and Communication Quality in Military Couples after Deployment to War. Journal of Family Psychology.
Zhang, N., Piehler, T., Gewirtz, A. H., Zamir, O., & Snyder, J. (in press). Trait mindfulness and anger in the family: A dyadic analysis of male service members and their female partners. Journal of Marital and Family Therapy.

Helping children, families manage the stress of parent returning from deployment

How to talk to your kids about the war in Ukraine

Video with Arizona PBS

Contact Us

To apply, please send your Resume/CV, a cover letter, and an unofficial transcript to Sydni Basha (sabasha@asu.edu).

Contact Sydni Basha for RA opportunities

Research Opportunity Description

**Update** Our undergraduate recruitment is full!
We are recruiting responsible undergraduates in psychology, or with related experience, for the behavioral coding team in the After Deployment, Adaptive Parenting Tools (ADAPT) Lab! Behavioral codes are a vital part of our research team.

In this position, you will watch videos of family members interacting and rate the behaviors according to our coding manual. You will gain extensive experience learning about and assessing healthy family interactions from evidence-based practices, which supports professional development toward research and direct service career goals. You will have the opportunity to work closely with a graduate student mentor, and get course credit for your experience!