Welcome!
My name is Caitlin Rancher, I received my Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from Southern Methodist University in 2021. I completed my pre-doctoral Clinical Psychology Internship at the APA-accredited Charleston Consortium and T32 postdoctoral training in traumatic stress at the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC). Currently, I am a K99 Postdoctoral Fellow at MUSC.
My research examines the consequences of children’s exposure to violence and tests parenting-based interventions for victims of violence and their families.
Project Support
Parenting intervention for Children Exposed to Trauma and Violence
Project Support is a parenting intervention designed to address conduct problems among children exposed to severe intimate partner violence.
My K99/R00 grant (K99HD111677) was funded by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) to examine the feasibility, acceptability, and preliminary efficacy of the telehealth delivery of the positive parenting module in Project Support (Rancher et al., 2021), among families on a waitlist for trauma-focused services. I have found this brief intervention can be delivered by paraprofessionals, improve parenting self-efficacy and emotional support, and increase later trauma-focused treatment attendance (Rancher et al., 2023a; Rancher et al., 2023b).
Read more about our current work with Project Support in my Current Projects
Children's Exposure to Violence
A second major area of my research involves examining predictors of psychological adjustment problems and resilience following exposure to violence. This work is designed to inform theory on the sequelae of violence exposure and improve clinical practice for survivors of violence.
This has included research examining:
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Child adjustment problems following intimate partner violence
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Emotional support from a non-offending caregiver
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Self-blame appraisals following child sexual abuse
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Effects of intimate partner violence on supportive parenting
Ripple Effects of Mass Violence Incidents
Recent collaborations have also begun to explore the ripple effects on the mental health and resilience of communities that have experienced mass violence incidents.
This work examines:
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Prevalence of PTSD and Major Depression after mass violence incidents
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Gun purchase intentions following mass shootings
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Supportive service use among communities that have experienced mass violence