Faculty Directory

Catherine Taylor

Professor

Director, Child and Behavioral Health Research Innovations (CABHRI) Lab

Faculty Affiliate, Boston College Institute of Early Childhood Policy (IECP)

Photo of Catherine Taylor

Catherine Taylor

Contact

Office: McGuinn Hall 315

Email: catherine.taylor.2@bc.edu

ORCID 0000-0003-1153-9039

Education

  • B.A., Cornell University
  • M.S.W., Boston University
  • M.P.H., Boston University
  • Ph.D., University of California, Los Angeles

Courses

SCWK9951: Survey of Research Methods in Social and Behavioral Science

SCWK7747: Research Methods

Research Interests

Preventing and reducing childhood trauma and exposure to violence

Promoting children's health and health equity

Social norms and evidence-based interventions  

 

JOB OPENING: 
Senior Research Associate, Child & Behavioral Health Research Innovations (CABHRI) lab

Expertise

  • Macro Practice
  • Social Determinants of Health
  • Trauma

IN THE NEWS

Media Interviews and Press Coverage (for full list)

 

The Lowell Sun: Working to end spanking

 

The Heights: Connecting public health with positive parenting

 

Boston College Magazine: Breaking the cycle

 

BCSSW News: Reducing childhood trauma and corporal punishment

 

The Washington Post: Most Americans still think spanking is fine. It’s not.

 

WWL TV: Doctors: Nothing good comes from spanking your children

Google Scholar CV or Resume

Profile

Catherine Taylor, PhD, LCSW, MPH, is a Professor with dual experience and training in social work and public health, with a foundation in biological sciences. She completed her MSW/MPH at Boston University and then trained at the UCLA School of Public Health in community health sciences, epidemiology, and media studies. She went on to be a post-doctoral scholar at Columbia University School of Social Work, focused on the development and assessment of preventive interventions to prevent child abuse. She then joined Tulane University School of Public Health & Tropical Medicine in New Orleans (2005-2020) as faculty, where she became the Founding Director of their Violence Prevention Institute and Pincus Violence Prevention Scholarship program and developed their first course on “violence as a public health problem.”

Dr. Taylor joined Boston College in 2020 and directs the Child and Behavioral Health Research Innovations (CABHRI) lab, which conducts and translates research to enhance the social and behavioral health of children and families. The lab’s work emphasizes preventive interventions and dissemination strategies to improve overall well-being and disrupt intergenerational cycles of childhood trauma, violence, and abuse.  Prospective doctoral applicants are encouraged to apply for a spot in the lab.

Dr. Taylor co-leads a longitudinal, mixed methods, randomized controlled trial (RCT) funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The RCT (n=823) was designed to assess the short- and long-term efficacy of two brief, relatively low-resource preventive intervention parenting programs with potential for wide dissemination. The qualitative aim is assessing the key social ecological contexts that impact parenting via in-depth interviews with primary caregivers as well as focus groups with pediatric care providers. Extensive data have been collected to assess individual, dyadic, and social-ecological constructs relevant to parenting, including three forms of quantitative data: 1) dyadic (mother-child) observational data, which assessed the quality and synchrony of the relationship such as parent sensitivity, child involvement, and dyadic reciprocity using the Coding Interactive Behavior (CIB) rating system; 2) dyadic (mother-child) Respiratory Sinus Arrhythmia (RSA) readings representative of autonomic nervous system emotional and behavioral self-regulation; and 3) parent self-report via telephone or face-to-face interviews of constructs such as: parenting discipline behaviors and attitudes, stress, and mental health; exposure to intimate partner and/or neighborhood violence in adulthood, and adverse experiences in childhood (ACEs); perceived social norms relevant to parenting; and COVID-related experiences. 

Dr. Taylor welcomes interest from prospective and current students as well as postdoctoral researchers in a variety of fields (e.g.,social work, public health, neuroscience, psychology, sociology, or other related fields in social behavioral and mental health sciences), who are interested in working with data from this project either directly in her lab or collaborating with her team. To learn more, please reach out to Dr. Taylor (taylorcw@bc.edu) directly.

JOB OPENING: 
Senior Research Associate, Child & Behavioral Health Research Innovations (CABHRI) lab

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS

Gershoff, E. T., Lee, S. J., Lee, J. Y., Chang, O. D., & Taylor, C. A. (2024). Spare the dog, hit the child: Preliminary findings regarding parents’ beliefs about spanking and hitting children. Psychology of Violence.

Heller, S. S., Covert, H. H., Drnach-Bonaventura, G., Gilkerson, L., Kallemeyen, L., Lichtveld, M. Y., ... & Taylor, C. A. (2024). Preventative intervention home visitation programme for mothers with fussy infants: a mixed methods, pilot assessment of maternal self-efficacy, mental health, infant-bonding, and programme experiences. Early Child Development and Care, 1-16.

Fleckman, J. M., Taylor, C. A., Gershoff, E., Finkelhor, D., Holden, G. W., & Klika, B. (2023). Levels of support for legislative bans to end physical punishment in schools and homes in a national sample. Public health, 222, 60-65.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.puhe.2023.06.026

Bai, R.*, Fleckman, J. M., Ruiz, R.* L., LeBlanc, S., Gilbert, H., & Taylor, C. A. (2023). EVALUATION OF A MEDICAL CENTER STAFF BYSTANDER INTERVENTION TRAINING FOR NO-HIT-ZONES: AN INNOVATIVE STRATEGY TO CHANGE SOCIAL NORMS REGARDING PHYSICAL PUNISHMENT. Research in Human Development, 20(1-2), 65-79. https://doi.org/10.1080/15427609.2023.2232715

Fleckman, JM, Scholer, SJ, Branco. N, and Taylor, CA.  (2021) U.S. Pediatricians’ Training Needs and Motivations to Change Norms Regarding Effective Child Discipline.  Academic Pediatrics. doi.org/10.1016/j.acap.2020.05.028

Fleckman, JM* Taylor, CA, Theall, KP, Andrinopoulous, K. (2019) The Association between Perceived Injunctive Norms toward Corporal Punishment, Parenting Support, and Risk for Child Physical Abuse. Child Abuse and Neglect. 88, 246-255. doi.org/10.1016/j.chiabu.2018.11.023

Fleckman, JM*, Storer, H, Rubin-Miller, L, Taylor, CA, Andrinopoulous, K, Weil, L, Theall, KP.  (2018) Breaking the mold: Socio-ecologic factors to influence the development of non-harsh parenting strategies to reduce risk for child physical abuse. Children and Youth Services Review. 94, 274-283. doi.org/10.1016/j.childyouth.2018.10.019

Gershoff, E. T., Font, S. A., Taylor, CA, Garza, A. B., Olson-Dorff, D., and Foster, R. H. (2018) A Short-Term Evaluation of a Hospital No Hit Zone Policy to Increase Bystander Intervention in Cases of Parent-to-Child Violence. Children and Youth Services Review. 94, 155-162. doi.org/10.1016/j.childyouth.2018.09.040

Taylor CA, Fleckman, JM*, Scholer, SJ, and Branco. N. (2018) U.S. Pediatricians’ Attitudes, Beliefs, and Perceived Injunctive Norms about Spanking. Journal of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics. 39, 564–572.doi: 10.1097/DBP.0000000000000592

Taylor CA, Fleckman, JM*, Lee SJ. (2017) Attitudes, beliefs, and perceived norms about corporal punishment and related training needs among members of the "American Professional Society on the Abuse of Children." Child Abuse and Neglect. 71:56-68. doi: 10.1016/j.chiabu.2017.04.009. (Special issue: “Moving beyond the spanking debate: A call to action”)

Afifi TO, Ford D, Gershoff ET, Merrick M, Ports K, Grogan-Kaylor A, MacMillan HL, Holden G, Taylor CA, Lee SJ, Bennett RP. (2017) Spanking and Adult Mental Health Impairment: The Case for the Designation of Spanking as an Adverse Childhood Experience. Child Abuse and Neglect. 71:24-31. doi: 10.1016/j.chiabu.2017.01.014. (Special issue: “Moving beyond the spanking debate: A call to action”; Named 2017 “Article of the Year” in Child Abuse and Neglect)

* trainee at time of research

SELECTED GRANTS AND AWARDS

R01 HD093665                       Taylor & Fleckman (Multi PI)                        9/10/2018 – 6/30/2025 
NIH / National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD)
Longitudinal follow-up of brief parenting interventions to reduce risk of child physical maltreatment in a selected population: Our long-term goal is to reduce rates of child physical maltreatment and use of corporal punishment by strengthening the evidence base for brief, widely adaptable, and sustainable interventions deliverable in broad selected and universal populations. The objective is to test the sustained effects of two such interventions, Triple P-Level 2 and Play Nicely, and to examine how social contexts influence their adoption and sustained effects.

R01 HD095609                               Theall/Branas (Co-PIs)                         8/1/2018–7/31/2025 
NIH / National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD)
Place matters - Adaptable Solutions to Violence at the Community Level
The goal of this research is to assess the impact of greening and blight remediation on youth and adult violence.

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