Dr. Zalewski studies how child development and parenting is impacted by having a parent who struggles with mental health issues. Her work has included studies of parents who struggle with disorders rooted in emotion dysregulation (ex. borderline personality disorder, substance use).
Furthermore, Dr. Zalewski is formally trained in Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), an evidence based approach to treating individuals with Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) and other disorders involving high emotional dysregulation.
Dr. Zalewski is accepting new graduate students for Fall 2026.
Selected publications (*student/post-doc at the time of publication):
Zalewski, M., Byrd, AL., Vine, V., *Hernandez, AC., & Stepp, SD. (2024). Maternal suicide risk predicts preschooler emotional and behavioral problems. Psychiatry Research, 337, 115969.
Zalewski, M., Maliken, A., Lengua, L.J., Martin, C.G., Roos, L., & *Everett, Y. (2023). Integrating dialectical behavior therapy with child and parent training interventions: A narrative and theoretical review. Clinical Psychology: Science and Practice.
O'Brien, J. R., Lee, A. H., Stone, A. L., Dieckmann, N. F., Zalewski, M., & Wilson, A. C. (2024). Maternal depression, parenting, and child psychological outcomes in the context of maternal pain. Child Development, 95(5), 1709-1722.
Dr. Zalewski will be admitting a clinical psychology doctoral student at University of Oregon to be co-mentored with Dr. Bai who has research experience and interests in the following topics: family, parent-child relationships, intergenerational frameworks of mental health; risk and protective processes as related to youth emotion regulation/emotion dysregulation, suicidal thoughts and behaviors, and internalizing problems with a particular interest in parent and child psychopathology. Methods leverage and longitudinal methods—both traditional and intensive—and multiple methods (observational and parent report). A student will complete at least one empirical project in each lab.
To be considered, applicants should indicate interest in co-mentorship on the application portal by identifying Dr. Zalewski as their first-choice advisors and Dr. Bai as their second-choice advisor.
Out of fairness to all prospective students, Dr. Zalewski will not reply to individual emails regarding applications. Dr. Zalewski looks forward to reviewing submitted applications.
