Three Occupational Science doctoral students, Valerie Fox, Anne V. Kirby, and Adrienne Miao, have been selected to receive $800 research awards from the Society for the Study of Occupation (SSO): USA. The SSO: USA announced the awards in July. Students were selected based on the strength of the grant proposals they submitted.
Fox’s research is focused on exploring participation in social life for young adults following their first psychotic episode. This qualitative study will combine collaborative ethnography and discourse elicitation to fully examine the experience of first episode psychosis as it relates to engagement in social occupations. Dr. Antoine Bailliard is her advisor.
Kirby is taking a multi-method approach to exploring factors that influence occupational participation outcomes for young adults with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The three parts of the project will include a systematic literature review, interviews with families and adolescents with ASD, and analyses of longitudinal predictors using a nationally-representative dataset. Dr. Grace Baranek is her advisor.
Miao’s research is an ethnographic exploration of the everyday occupations of families with children with disabilities. She is also interested in how study design and methods contribute to family-centered research experiences, as well as how investigators access and analyze multiple perspectives. Her advisor is Dr. Ruth Humphry.