About

Catherine P. Bradshaw, Ph.D., M.Ed., is a University professor and the senior associate dean for research at the UVA School of Education and Human Development. She is also a faculty fellow with the University's vice president of research. Her primary research interests focus on the development of aggressive behavior and school-based prevention of behavioral and mental health problems. Her work includes research on bullying and school climate, emotional and behavioral disorders, and the design, evaluation, and implementation of evidence-based prevention programs in schools. She has led over ten federally-funded randomized trials of school-based prevention programs, including studies of Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports and social-emotional learning curricula. Bradshaw has expertise in implementation science and the scale-up of evidence-based programs at district and state levels, working with organizations such as the Maryland State Department of Education and other states and districts to foster safe and supportive learning environments. She has received over $50 million in research grants from agencies including the Institute of Education Sciences, NIH, CDC, and NIJ. Bradshaw is the co-director of the $10 million IES-funded National Center for Rural School Mental Health and has published more than 380 peer-reviewed articles and chapters. She has served as an editor for prominent journals and as a coeditor and editor of several handbooks related to school mental health and bullying prevention. Her advisory roles include consulting for various federal and state agencies, the United Nations, the World Bank, and the National Education Association on issues related to bullying, mental health, and violence prevention. She served on the 2011 White House panel on bullying and helped organize studies for the National Academies of Science, Engineering, & Medicine. Bradshaw is a Fellow of the American Educational Research Association and a member of the National Academy of Education. Her educational background includes a Ph.D. from Cornell University, an M.Ed. from the University of Georgia, and a B.A. from the University of Richmond.

Research topics

• Psychology
• Sociology
• Computer Science
• Developmental psychology
• Social psychology
• Machine Learning
• Social Science
• Geography
• Applied psychology
• Mathematics education
• Pedagogy
• Gender studies
• Mathematics
• Engineering
• Statistics

Selected publications

• Introduction to the Special Issue: Innovations and Strategies for Addressing COVID-19 Pandemic Related Challenges in Prevention Science Research in Applied Settings

  Prevention Science · 2026-01-01

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  This paper serves as an introduction for a special issue of Prevention Science: "Innovations and Strategies for Addressing COVID-19 Pandemic Related Challenges in Prevention Science Research in Applied Settings." This collection of original papers came together through an open call for original submissions to address emerging issues following the COVID-19 pandemic and related impacts on prevention science research. These papers are organized into four broad themes related to COVID-related impacts on (a) data collection, (b) measurement and missingness, (c) implementation supports and delivery considerations, and (d) broader pandemic impacts. The special issue concludes with a commentary focused on measurement and methodological considerations in analyzing data impacted by COVID-related disruptions. This set of papers provides insights for prevention science scholars and practitioners, illustrates lessons learned for managing pandemic-related data collection and design challenges, and highlights innovations in online data collection.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Coping Power-Rural: A Pilot Study of the Two-Tiered Preventive Intervention Focused on Addressing Transdiagnostic Needs in Rural Schools

  School Mental Health · 2026-04-21

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  Abstract This paper reports initial findings from a pilot study of the Coping Power- Rural program with upper elementary and middle school students, which was created to meet the specific needs of rural populations. Coping Power- Rural included adapted content to ensure it was relevant and accessible to students and teachers in rural schools. The program followed a two-tiered delivery format, incorporating both universal classroom sessions as well as targeted group sessions. The program also promoted skill generalization across contexts (e.g., school and home settings) through a flexible, technology-enhanced caregiver component, which provided caregivers with remote access to resources and supports. Building on prior feasibility and acceptability work (Nguyen et al. in Sch Ment Health 16:776–792, 2024. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12310-024-09632-2 ), this pilot study reports pre-post contrast testing of the Coping Power- Rural program in six rural schools across three states, involving 185 students (grades 4–7; 55.1% male; 43.2% Black; 7.6% Latine) and 48 school-based staff. The pre-post pilot outcomes indicated significant improvements in student conduct problems, aggressive/disruptive behavior, prosocial behavior, emotion regulation problems, internalizing problems, family stability, and family involvement from pretest to posttest ( p < 0.05; Cohen’s d s ranged from 0.20 to 0.48). There were also significant pre-post improvements for youth who participated in the targeted group on several teacher-reported outcomes (e.g., greater reductions in aggressive/disruptive behavior, emotion regulation problems, internalizing problems). These pre-post pilot findings provide promising evidence regarding outcomes for students based on exposure to the classroom Coping Power- Rural sessions, as well as for students in the targeted group.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• The R-CITY Youth Violence Preventive Intervention: Primary Outcomes from a School Cluster Randomized Controlled Trial

  Prevention Science · 2026-04-15

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  Student experiences of racism and discrimination in schools can undermine their sense of safety and psychological wellbeing and contribute to aggression and violence. Yet educational systems rarely implement violence prevention programming with bias prevention or equity promotion components. To address this gap, researchers and educators partnered to develop R-CITY (Reducing Racism and Violence through Collaborative Intervention with Teachers and Youth; Bottiani et al., School Mental Health, 16(3), 632-648, 2024). A school-level randomized controlled trial was conducted in 27 elementary and middle schools to assess the 'value-added' benefits of supplementing the standard Second Step SEL program (22-27 lessons and group implementation support; comparison condition) with R-CITY's equity-focused one-to-one teacher coaching and grade-differentiated sets of six equity lessons with implementation supports (Second Step + R-CITY, intervention condition). Augmenting Second Step with R-CITY equity-focused components was associated with significant effects on one of six observational measures of student behavior (physical aggression) and one of three teacher-report measures (general teaching self-efficacy), both in the hypothesized direction. Sensitivity analyses excluding the most severely COVID-impacted cohort identified an additional effect on teacher-reported racial discomfort. No significant effects were found on observed teacher practice outcomes or suspension disproportionality rates. Results provide initial evidence that supplementing traditional SEL programming with equity content and coaching can produce significant incremental effects on select outcomes, including reductions in physical aggression and improvements in teacher capacity; however, further research is needed to evaluate the intervention's cost-effectiveness and effects on equity-specific outcomes.

  PublisherDOI

• Leveraging Machine Learning to Understand the Link Between School Climate and Youth Substance Use: a Focus on Cannabis and Alcohol Use

  Prevention Science · 2026-02-28

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  This paper focuses on school climate indicators, which have been previously linked with aspects of students' well-being and school-related success, to explore how they relate to alcohol and cannabis use. We used machine learning (ML) approaches and leveraged data from a diverse sample of 69,513 students (45.4% White, 23.9% Black, 8.9% Latine) across 111 middle and high schools, with 12% (n = 7783) reporting cannabis use and 18.8% (n = 12,220) reporting alcohol use in the past 30 days. We focused on 154 items related to school climate, student attitudes and behaviors, and demographics. We employed a two-stage feature selection method, initially reducing the 154 features to 31, and subsequently to 20, for both alcohol and cannabis use. Alcohol and cannabis use shared 15 common features and 5 distinct features, though some variation occurred across these two outcome variables. We identified both unique and shared factors that best classified current users vs. non-users. Specifically, gender, sense of pride in the school, weapon carrying, and bullying others were unique indicators that best classified alcohol use. In contrast, difficulties overcoming challenges, problems controlling temper, and becoming angry easily were more strongly associated with cannabis use. Shared indicators associated with both substances included gang membership, skipping school, violent behavior, school-parent and school-student engagement, and gambling. The inclusion of diverse classification factors underscored ML's ability to capture complex social and environmental factors that may be associated with substance use differently across student demographics. These features were tested in 12 classification models for both substances, achieving ROC-AUC scores up to 86% with fine-tuning of the best-performing models. The results highlight the utility of ML for examining complex, multidimensional indicators associated with substance use that complement traditional models.

  PublisherDOI

• Implementing Coping Power-Rural in Schools

  2025-10-28

  book-chapterSenior author

  Abstract Coping Power-Rural (CP-R) is a school-based program designed to prevent behavioral and mental health problems through enhancing social and emotional learning outcomes using a Tier-1 universal and Tier-2 small group implementation structure. When adapting the original evidence-based program for rural elementary and middle schools, it was essential to incorporate implementer feedback to improve the program’s usability, feasibility, and social validity for these contexts. This chapter provides an overview of the rationale for adapting the original Coping Power program into a program for rural schools, along with a summary of the unique two-tier structure. The authors then provide two case studies from the perspective of two implementers in rural schools who share their experiences with implementing CP-R. The authors summarize a set of subsequent adaptations that were made to the program based on their feedback, along with recommendations for other program developers working in rural schools with similar social and emotional programs aiming to address the behavioral and mental health concerns of rural students.

  PublisherDOI

• Addressing Methodological Challenges in Follow-Up RCTs During the COVID-19 Pandemic: The Impact of the Good Behavior Game and MyTeachingPartner™ on Teacher Burnout and Self-Efficacy

  Prevention Science · 2025-01-02 · 3 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  Retention of early career teachers is a critical issue in education, with burnout and self-efficacy serving as important precursors to teachers leaving the field. An integration of the PAX Good Behavior Game (GBG; Barrish et al., 1969) and MyTeachingPartner (MTP; Allen et al., 2015) was tested in a randomized controlled trial (RCT) to investigate whether the combined programs would improve long-term outcomes for early career teachers. However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, there was a higher proportion of missing data and attrition in follow-up data collection than otherwise would have been expected. The current paper focused specifically on intervention impacts on teacher-reported burnout and self-efficacy through the COVID-19 pandemic and explored various approaches for addressing missing data as an illustrative example for other researchers who may similarly have faced missing data challenges due to the pandemic. Participants included in the original trial were N = 188 early career teachers (grades K-3) who were randomly assigned to either the intervention (i.e., GBG + MTP; n = 94 teachers) or control condition (n = 94) and provided baseline data. Specifically, teachers reported on their burnout and self-efficacy at pre-intervention (Fall), post-intervention (Spring), 1-year post intervention (in Fall and Spring), COVID Year 1 (Spring 2021), and COVID Year 2 (Spring 2022). We conducted a series of outcomes analyses under varying missing data assumptions (i.e., MCAR, MAR, NMAR). There were mixed findings (i.e., both null and beneficial) regarding GBG + MTP impacts on burnout, which varied across missing data assumptions; however, there were no GBG + MTP impacts on self-efficacy. This study may also provide insight for other researchers encountering similar challenges when analyzing follow-up data collected during the COVID-19 pandemic, as we highlight pros and cons of several different approaches for modeling missing data related to attrition due to the COVID-19 pandemic and related school closures.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Impacts of Social Media Based Nutrition Education: A Systematic Review

  Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics · 2025-09-23

  reviewOpen access1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Exploring Sustained Impacts of Double Check Coaching on Teacher and Student Outcomes: Findings from a Randomized Controlled Trial

  Journal of Educational and Psychological Consultation · 2025-11-24 · 1 citations

  article1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Leveraging Machine Learning to Assess Coaches’ Use of Motivational Interviewing Consistent Language: Implications for Training and Practice

  Journal of Educational and Psychological Consultation · 2025-09-07 · 1 citations

  articleSenior author
  PublisherDOI

• Preventing Suicidal Thoughts and Behaviors Among Youth: Integrative Data Analysis of Crossover Impacts of the Coping Power Preventive Intervention

  JAACAP Open · 2025-02-06 · 4 citations

  articleOpen access

  Objective: Despite evidence-based interventions for psychiatric disorders that often precede suicidality, suicide remains a leading cause of death among youth. There has been increased interest in whether preventive interventions targeting early risk factors lead to decreased distal risk for suicidal thoughts and behaviors (STBs). This study examined the impact of Coping Power (CP), a school-based preventive intervention targeting externalizing problems, on STBs. Method: The sample included 3,182 youths (36.4% female; 77.3% Black) who participated in 1 of 11 randomized controlled trials of CP. Individual-level data across trials were harmonized using integrative data analysis to address cross-study variation in measurement of STBs. The study used meta-analysis of individual participant data for modeling cross-study variation in intervention effects and propensity score weighting for addressing covariate imbalance arising from combining intervention arms across studies. Hypothesis tests were conducted for parent- and teacher-reported STBs under propensity score-weighted multilevel modeling. Results: = -0.40). Inconsistent results for standard CP and individual CP in sensitivity analyses preclude clear conclusions for these 2 intervention formats. Conclusion: Synthesis of the reported findings highlights the promise of digital health and mindfulness-based interventions for youth with externalizing problems in reducing STBs. Additional research is needed to better understand the nature of for whom, how, and under what conditions preventive interventions impact later STBs. Diversity & Inclusion Statement: We worked to ensure sex and gender balance in the recruitment of human participants. We worked to ensure race, ethnic, and/or other types of diversity in the recruitment of human participants. We worked to ensure that the study questionnaires were prepared in an inclusive way. One or more of the authors of this paper self-identifies as a member of one or more historically underrepresented racial and/or ethnic groups in science. One or more of the authors of this paper self-identifies as a member of one or more historically underrepresented sexual and/or gender groups in science. One or more of the authors of this paper self-identifies as living with a disability. One or more of the authors of this paper received support from a program designed to increase minority representation in science. We actively worked to promote sex and gender balance in our author group. We actively worked to promote inclusion of historically underrepresented racial and/or ethnic groups in science in our author group. The author list of this paper includes contributors from the location and/or community where the research was conducted who participated in the data collection, design, analysis, and/or interpretation of the work. While citing references scientifically relevant for this work, we also actively worked to promote inclusion of historically underrepresented racial and/or ethnic groups in science in our reference list. While citing references scientifically relevant for this work, we also actively worked to promote sex and gender balance in our reference list.

  PublisherDOI

Recent grants

• NIH Grant K01CE001333

  NIH · $450k · 2011

• R-CITY: A Collaborative Intervention With Teachers and Youth

  NIH · $3.0M · 2019–2026

Frequent coauthors

• Elise T. Pas

  Johns Hopkins University

  96 shared

• Katrina J. Debnam

  University of Virginia

  72 shared

• Jessika H. Bottiani

  63 shared

• Sarah Lindstrom Johnson

  Arizona State University

  62 shared

• Tracy Evian Waasdorp

  Children's Hospital of Philadelphia

  61 shared

• Joseph M. Kush

  James Madison University

  35 shared

• Philip J. Leaf

  29 shared

• Nicholas S. Ialongo

  Johns Hopkins University

  29 shared

Labs

• PIT CREW LabPI

Awards & honors

• Fellow of the American Educational Research Association
• Member of the National Academy of Education
• 2009 Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engi…
• Lifetime Achievement Research Award