Ammerman Research Lab

The Ammerman Lab focuses on early prevention programs for at-risk children and their families. Recent research has explored implementation and improving impacts of home visiting programs, part of the lab’s close collaboration with Every Child Succeeds. The lab investigates a range of topics important to enhancing the impact of home visiting programs, such as development and evaluation of treatment for postpartum depression in mothers in home visitation, promotion of co-parenting to engage fathers and foster optimal child development, use of motivational interviewing to improve program adherence and retention, prevalence and impact of mental health problems and trauma experiences in mothers, and application of quality improvement science to prevention programs.

Robert Ammerman has also conducted research in other areas, including maltreatment of children with disabilities, psychological adjustment of children and adolescents with spina bifida, etiology of adolescent substance abuse, social adjustment in children and adolescents with visual impairments, and treatment of children and adolescents with social anxiety disorder. He is the recipient of grants from the National Institute of Mental Health, National Institute of Child Health and Development, National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research, Maternal and Child Health Bureau, and the Vira I. Heinz Foundation.

The Ammerman Lab is part of the Division of Behavioral Medicine and Clinical Psychology at Cincinnati Children’s.