Ph.D. student selected to participate in child maltreatment prevention workshop

In October, Eliann Carr will leave her family behind for three days to travel to Jerusalem for a cause she finds herself passionate about — preventing and treating child maltreatment.

A Ph.D. student in Counseling and Psychology in Education at the University of South Dakota, Carr will represent the university, the state and the United States at the second Haruv Institute Ph.D. Workshop on Child Maltreatment.

“It’s just phenomenal that these people, with the nature of the world it is today, put this on their heart as their passion,” Carr said. “It takes a strong-valued person because child maltreatment is not pretty.”

Carr and 11 other Ph.D. students will meet with others of her standing from around the world and connect with professionals on the subject of the prevention and response to child maltreatment.

Carr applied for the workshop in 2013 and was not accepted. This year, she tried again and was selected as one of 12 people from around the world to attend the workshop.

She created her own measure — Parent Proclivity to Apologize Measure — for a pilot study that conducted surveys across the country. Through the surveys, Carr looked at the relationship between parents who are likely to apologize to their children and the well-being of those children.

Carr said she was influenced by her own two sons — Charlie, 3, and Michael, 18 months — to become a better mother due to her research.

“It’s going to drive all my future research because I really want to not just prevent child maltreatment, but overall develop optimal parenting, which is a term that’s kind of being drawn out in research,” she said.

Carr said even if her research does not match up with her hypothesis that there is a relationship between parents who are less likely to apologize and the well-being of children, it still has a story and it is not just black and white. She has set out to explore those realms.

“I would think this approach to research is why I was selected,” Carr said. “I’m not trying to follow trend — it’s not my style. I’m more of a trailblazer. If I can make the way easier for others then more power to it.”

Michael J. Lawler , dean and professor of the School of Health Sciences, has been working with the Children’s Worlds project, a worldwide research survey on children’s subjective well-being, for years.

Carr contributed to the collection of data and development of literature searches for data reports, Lawler said.

“Especially for somebody like Eli Carr, who is really a terrific person, you know she’s going to continue to make major contributions to the community, she has lots of good ideas about how she wants to use her graduate education for the greater good,” Lawler said. “I’m just very pleased we’re able to participate in that development and help her with her career.”

Lisa Newland, professor of human development, has worked with Carr for about three years and is now co-advising her dissertation.

She said Carr is not the typical student, but rather someone who is always setting high standards for herself and pushing herself toward new accomplishments.

“I’ve really seen the growth in her writing skills and her ability to formulate research questions and design a study, beginning to end,” Newland said.

Thirty minutes out of the three-day workshops will be turned over to Carr to give a presentation on the research she has completed so far.

Newland said she has remained proud as Carr has contributed to research, taught an undergraduate child development class and mentored undergraduate and graduate students through their own research processes.

“I have rarely seen someone as passionate as her about supporting positive developmental outcomes in children,” Newland said in an email. “I know that she will take what she learns at the Haruv Institute and use it to improve the lives of children.”

(Charlie Carr, 3, offers his mother, Ellie, some crackers while his brother Michael, 18 months, watches. In October,  Carr will travel to Isreal to participate in the second Haruv Institute Ph.D. Workshop on Child Maltreatment. Malachi Petersen / The Volante)