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Kate Guastaferro

Kate Guastaferro

Kate Guastaferro

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Assistant Professor of Social and Behavioral Sciences

Co-Director of the Center for the Advancement and Dissemination of Intervention Optimization

Director of the Doctor of Public Health (DrPH) Program

Professional overview

Kate Guastaferro, PhD is an intervention scientist by training, her work is devoted to the development, optimization, implementation and evaluation of effective, efficient, affordable and scalable interventions with high public health impact. She is an expert in the multiphase optimization (MOST) strategy and her expertise is in parent-focused, multicomponent behavioral interventions to prevent child maltreatment. Dr. Guastaferro co-led a statewide trial focused on the coordinated implementation of three evidence-base child sexual abuse prevention programs; included in this trial was the parent-focused child sexual abuse program that she developed, piloted and evaluated. Her current work is focused on the integration of intervention optimization into the prevention of child maltreatment.

Prior to joining NYU, Dr. Guastaferro was an assistant research professor in human development and family studies at the Pennsylvania State University, and an affiliate of its Prevention Research Center and Child Maltreatment Solutions Network. In 2020, she was awarded the Victoria S. Levin Award for Early Career Success in Young Children’s Mental Health Research from the Society for Research in Child Development. She has been published in Child Maltreatment, Translational Behavioral Medicine, and the American Journal of Public Health.

Dr. Guastaferro received her PhD and MPH from Georgia State University’s School of Public Health, and her BA in anthropology from Boston University. She also completed a year of postdoctoral training at the Pennsylvania State University.

Education

Postdoctoral Fellow, Prevention and Methodology Training Program (T32 DA017629), The Pennsylvania State University
PhD Public Health, Georgia State University
MPH Health Promotion, Georgia State University
BA Anthropology, Boston University

Honors and awards

Victoria S. Levin Award, Society for Research on Child Development (2020)
NIH Loan Repayment Program Award: Toward the Optimization of Behavioral Interventions to Prevent Child Maltreatment (201820192020)
Public Health Achievement Award, Georgia State University (2016)
Scarlet Key Honor Society, Boston University (2008)

Publications

Publications

Sexual sensation seeking, hookups, and alcohol consumption among first-year college students

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The multiphase optimization strategy (MOST) in child maltreatment prevention research

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When home is not safe: Media coverage and issue salience of child maltreatment during the COVID-19 pandemic

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A parent-focused child sexual abuse prevention module added to PAT: Results of a cluster randomized trial. 

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An introduction to MOST: How to build more effective, efficient, economical, and scalable interventions.

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Black first-year college students’ alcohol outcome expectancies

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Drug court as an intervention point to affect the well-being of families of parents with substance use disorders

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Engagement in home visiting services during the transition from pregnancy to postpartum: A prospective mixed methods pilot study

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Engagement in home visiting: An overview of the problem and how a coalition of researchers worked to address this cross-model concern 

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From ideas to interventions: A review of frameworks for designing and optimizing health-related behavioral interventions. 

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Introduction to the Multiphase Optimization Strategy for Behavioral Intervention Research.

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Iterative optimization and decision-making using the multiphase optimization strategy (MOST) to optimize an online behavioral intervention.

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itMatters: Optimization of an online intervention to prevent sexually transmitted infections in college students

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Lessons learned recruiting and retaining first-year college students in an evaluation of an online STI prevention intervention.

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Mental health research agenda-setting paper

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Optimizing Multicomponent Interventions: The Multiphase Optimization Strategy (MOST).

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Parent-focused child sexual abuse prevention: An additive approach.

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Parent-focused child sexual abuse prevention: Results of a cluster randomized trial. 

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Running an optimization trial during COVID-19: Adaptations and Considerations from the field

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Substance use and mental health outcomes during emerging adulthood among individuals with different patterns of child maltreatment

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The Behaviour Change Taxonomy and the Multiphase Optimization Strategy: How do they work together?

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The multiphase optimization strategy for developing and evaluating behavioral interventions

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The multiphase optimization strategy for developing and evaluating psychological interventions

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Using the Multiphase Optimization Strategy for Developing, Optimizing, and Evaluating Multicomponent Interventions.

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Validating the Hurricane Related Traumatic Experiences Measures: Understanding disaster exposure among children.

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Contact

kate.guastaferro@nyu.edu 708 Broadway New York, NY, 10003