About Karen Karen Roberts is a post-doctoral fellow in the
Social Aetiology of Mental Illness (SAMI) Program at the Centre for
Addiction and Mental Health. She completed her Doctorate degree in
clinical psychology at York University. Her doctoral thesis looked
at the validity and reliability of a new measure of anxiety.
Karen’s interest in an academic career emerged during her
undergraduate studies at the University of Toronto, where she
engaged in experimental research in the field of cognitive
psychology. Her research aims included bridging the fields of
cognitive and clinical psychology. After working as a project
coordinator and research assistant in an HIV Prevention lab,
Karen’s research interests broadened. One of the projects she
worked on examined the role of social anxiety in predicting sexual
transmission risk among gay men. This experience led to her
interest in developing and testing interventions to help people who
identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) manage
anxiety and depression.
A passionate clinician, researcher, and post-doctoral student,
Karen is a recipient of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research
(CIHR) Doctoral Award. Karen’s other scholarships include the
doctoral Ontario Graduate Scholarship and the Child/Youth Violence
Research Award from the LaMarsh Centre for Research on Violence and
Conflict Resolution. Karen’s research has been
April 8, 2014
Karen Roberts: How to treat the long-lasting effects of bullying
in the LGBT population?
What you need to
know Karen Roberts is developing a therapy for adults from LGBT communities, which focuses specifically on the emotional processing of past bullying experiences.
published in a variety of academic journals and she has
presented at conferences nationally and internationally.
What is Karen’s research about? Bullying is repeated, aggressive
behaviour with the intention to hurt another person physically or
emotionally. Despite effective bullying prevention programs in
schools, children and adolescents still commonly report being
bullied. Individuals who identify as LGBT report even more
instances of being bullied during childhood/adolescence (including
bullying based on sexual orientation) than their non-LGBT peers.
Being bullied as a child or adolescent is strongly connected to
anxiety and depression in adulthood.
There are therapies that have been developed for the general
population that could be adapted to focus on past bullying
experiences (such as trauma-focused therapies). However, there are
no specific treatment guidelines or therapy for distressed adults
who identify as LGBT and were bullied as children. Karen’s current
research study has two aims: (1) to develop a therapy for adults
from LGBT communities, which focuses specifically on the emotional
processing of past bullying experiences, and (2) to pilot test this
therapy in a small sample of individuals from Toronto, Ontario.
Karen’s unique approach to research Karen’s research will use a
“Community-based Research” (CBR) design. CBR involves collaborating
with community partners to identify important research questions
and to conduct research aimed at answering these questions. Karen’s
research will include members of the LGBT community and mental
health practitioners as consultants in developing the intervention
and recruiting participants for testing its effectiveness. Karen’s
aim is to ensure that her research results come from and go
directly back to the people who need them most and can make the
best use of them. Karen hopes to inspire other clinical researchers
to use the CBR model to develop and test new tailored treatments
for the LGBT community.
What’s next for Karen? After completing the SAMI program, Karen
plans to spend one year obtaining her clinical hours so that she
can become licensed as a clinical psychologist. Karen’s career goal
is to become an independent academic investigator and educator for
future psychology professionals. Her motivation and commitment to
an academic career in psychology is upheld by her passion for
teaching and answering new questions that will make meaningful
contributions to the mental well-being of all Canadians. For more
information about Karen’s study, please contact her at
[email protected].
Author: Skye Barbic
Page 2 of 2
/ColorImageDict > /JPEG2000ColorACSImageDict >
/JPEG2000ColorImageDict > /AntiAliasGrayImages false
/CropGrayImages true /GrayImageMinResolution 300
/GrayImageMinResolutionPolicy /OK /DownsampleGrayImages true
/GrayImageDownsampleType /Bicubic /GrayImageResolution 300
/GrayImageDepth -1 /GrayImageMinDownsampleDepth 2
/GrayImageDownsampleThreshold 1.50000 /EncodeGrayImages true
/GrayImageFilter /DCTEncode /AutoFilterGrayImages true
/GrayImageAutoFilterStrategy /JPEG /GrayACSImageDict >
/GrayImageDict > /JPEG2000GrayACSImageDict >
/JPEG2000GrayImageDict > /AntiAliasMonoImages false
/CropMonoImages true /MonoImageMinResolution 1200
/MonoImageMinResolutionPolicy /OK /DownsampleMonoImages true
/MonoImageDownsampleType /Bicubic /MonoImageResolution 1200
/MonoImageDepth -1 /MonoImageDownsampleThreshold 1.50000
/EncodeMonoImages true /MonoImageFilter /CCITTFaxEncode
/MonoImageDict > /AllowPSXObjects false /CheckCompliance [ /None
] /PDFX1aCheck false /PDFX3Check false /PDFXCompliantPDFOnly false
/PDFXNoTrimBoxError true /PDFXTrimBoxToMediaBoxOffset [ 0.00000
0.00000 0.00000 0.00000 ] /PDFXSetBleedBoxToMediaBox true
/PDFXBleedBoxToTrimBoxOffset [ 0.00000 0.00000 0.00000 0.00000 ]
/PDFXOutputIntentProfile () /PDFXOutputConditionIdentifier ()
/PDFXOutputCondition () /PDFXRegistryName () /PDFXTrapped
/False
/CreateJDFFile false /Description > /Namespace [ (Adobe)
(Common) (1.0) ] /OtherNamespaces [ > /FormElements false
/GenerateStructure false /IncludeBookmarks false /IncludeHyperlinks
false /IncludeInteractive false /IncludeLayers false
/IncludeProfiles false /MultimediaHandling /UseObjectSettings
/Namespace [ (Adobe) (CreativeSuite) (2.0) ]
/PDFXOutputIntentProfileSelector /DocumentCMYK /PreserveEditing
true /UntaggedCMYKHandling /LeaveUntagged /UntaggedRGBHandling
/UseDocumentProfile /UseDocumentBleed false >> ]>>
setdistillerparams> setpagedevice
