Maternal Health Lab

The research conducted in this lab focuses on maternal child health and maternal mental health, particularly among racial and ethnic minority women.

Lead researcher Kendra Flores-Carter's recent research study, entitled “An Examination of Black Women’s Knowledge of Postpartum Depression and their Attitudes towards Seeking Mental Health services” demonstrates a need for more education, support, and resources in the area of maternal child health and maternal mental health, especially as it relates to women of color.

There is a need for the creation of innovative resources and the development of supportive services to reach women of color to help influence and increase mental health treatment-seeking behaviors.

To address this need, one of the research goals of this lab is to explore and examine whether mindfulness-based interventions increase mental-health-seeking behaviors and influence attitudes among women of color. In addition, Kendra would like to work towards increasing the accessibility of mindfulness-based interventions in populations of color to reduce anxiety and depression. Finally, she'd like to see how collaborating with churches to offer Christian-based mindfulness interventions techniques influence attitudes in seeking mental health services.