About

Dr. Karen M. O'Brien is a professor in the Department of Psychology and serves as the faculty ombuds officer at the University of Maryland. Her research, teaching, and service aim to generate knowledge to address social concerns, educate and mentor students to achieve their potential, assist faculty in creating equitable, inclusive, and healthy work environments, and contribute to the communities where she lives and works. Her research focuses on factors related to successful management of work and family, end-of-life issues, and dating violence. She teaches courses on intimate partner violence and death, dying, and grieving. Dr. O'Brien is a licensed psychologist in Maryland and a fellow of the American Psychological Association. Her academic background includes degrees in Counseling Psychology from Loyola University of Chicago, Counseling and Guidance from the University of Missouri, Kansas City, and a B.A. in Sociology and Biology from Loyola University Chicago. Her areas of interest include women's vocational development and economic self-sufficiency, intimate partner violence and dating violence, and death, dying, and grieving. She has developed a two-semester service learning course focused on domestic violence, combining research and theory with practical community engagement. Her research and teaching aim to make a difference in the lives of others through developing mentoring relationships and fostering critical thinking among students.

Selected publications

• ‘Losing a Part of Yourself’: How Women Grieve Their Close Friend’s Death

  OMEGA - Journal of Death and Dying · 2025-04-14

  articleSenior authorCorresponding

  Friendship provides women with a plethora of benefits, including reduced physiological and psychological distress. Little is known regarding what happens when women experience the death of their closest women friends. Thus, this study qualitatively described the bereavement of seven women who experienced the death of a close woman friend and tested an integrative model predicting prolonged grief and posttraumatic growth with 148 women grieving the death of a close woman friend. Findings from directed content analysis highlighted grief reactions, disenfranchising interactions related to social support, ways of coping, growth after loss, and ongoing challenges. Results from a path analysis indicated that avoidant emotional coping was a key mediator and predictor of prolonged grief, while problem-focused coping served as a key mediator and predictor of posttraumatic growth. The findings can be used to advance research, clinical practice and intervention efforts for women who are grieving the death of a woman friend.

  PublisherDOI

• Juvenile Convict Cichlids Prefer Shoals Over Potential Shelters

  Ecology Of Freshwater Fish · 2025-07-05

  articleOpen access1st author

  ABSTRACT Successful strategies of predator deterrence or avoidance are necessary for juvenile organisms to survive to adulthood. Individuals should balance the benefits and risks of any strategy they choose. One strategy used by many fish species is shoaling by forming a loose grouping of conspecifics. This may deter predators through dilution or confusion, though it also increases competition between shoal mates. Another strategy is hiding to avoid predation, though hiding spots are only effective to avoid visual predators and may also be used by predators. Juvenile convict cichlids ( Amatitlania nigrofasciata ) were given a choice between a shoal of juvenile conspecifics and a potential shelter (plants/rocks), in the presence and absence of a predator ( Parachromis dovii ). We predicted that the fish would prefer the shoal when the predator was present and would prefer the potential shelter when the predator was absent because while shoaling is a predator deterrent it increases competition for resources. We found that the juvenile convict cichlids preferred to spend more time with a shoal than the potential shelter and did not prefer the potential shelter alone, and this preference did not change with predator presence. This suggests that not only did they prefer the shoal, but that they may have been avoiding the potential shelters, indicating a flexible strategy.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Improving Grief Counseling: Enhancing the Education and Confidence of Psychology Graduate Students

  Journal of Loss and Trauma · 2024-09-16 · 3 citations

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  PublisherDOI

• Educate and Empower: An Online Intervention to Improve College Women’s Knowledge and Confidence When Communicating in a Romantic Relationship

  Journal of Couple & Relationship Therapy · 2024-07-04 · 1 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  Historically, and during the covid-19 pandemic, the vast majority of unpaid family care was provided by women with devastating outcomes including lost jobs, increased poverty, and mental health concerns (Almeida et al., 2020; Dang et al., 2020; Power, 2020). Unequal family work and unhealthy communication were associated with women’s relationship dissatisfaction and depressive symptoms (Bannon et al., 2020; Carlson et al., 2020; Woods et al., 2019). The PARTNERS video intervention was created to educate college women about family work distribution, communication in a romantic relationship, and the PARTNERS model of communication (a strategy for healthy communication based on existing literature and developed by Trovato and O’Brien for this intervention). An experiment was conducted to assess the effectiveness of the video intervention. Participants exposed to the intervention had the highest relationship communication self-efficacy. Those who participated in the intervention or read a partial script were the most knowledgeable about family work distribution, communication, and the PARTNERS model. The PARTNERS intervention has potential to educate women about family work distribution and couple communication and improve their confidence when communicating with a romantic partner. Ultimately, this intervention may increase relationship satisfaction, reduce depression, and equalize family work distribution for women.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• 21st Century Accreditation

  Proceedings of the ALISE Annual Conference · 2023-10-09

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  The ALA Standards for Accreditation of Master’s Programs in Library and Information Studies has undergone a significant proposed revision to foreground: program learning outcomes; place more emphasis on equity, diversity, and inclusion; eliminate redundancy; and reflect the current institutional context of LIS education and/or the needs of the profession.
 
 The revision maintains focus on: systematic planning; program level learning outcomes and curriculum; faculty; students; and infrastructure, through the maturing lens and experiences of 21st century students, educators, employers, and schools.
 
 The revised Standards are designed to be flexible enough to support a range of program modalities (primarily in-person, hybrid, primarily online), pedagogies, concentrations, and sizes, while maintaining a professional standard and expectation of program learning outcomes relevant to an evolving and expanding range of career options and opportunities.
 
 Whether library and information studies programs exist as faculties, schools, or departments, the Standards were revised to be expansive enough to support the development, implementation, and growth of robust teaching, learning, and research environments tailored to institutional strategic directions and local realities but focused on producing quality education experiences for students through common accreditation expectations. This panel brings together program and Committee on Accreditation representatives to review the aims of the revision, the process and results of the revision consultation process focused mainly within the United States, Canada, and the UK where ALA-accreditation is recognized by the Council on Higher Education Accreditation as the accreditor for the field of library and information studies, the experiences and expectations of external review panels during site visits, and the accreditation experiences of two representative schools.
 
 The panel will further explore the implementation of the revised standards, Committee on Accreditation expectations, supports available to programs from the Office of Accreditation, and initial and developing experiences in applying the revised standards. The panel will also invite comments, questions, and observations from attendees.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Grief counseling in Korea and the US: An innovative online intervention for therapists and students

  PsycEXTRA Dataset · 2023-01-01

  dataset1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Forever Changed: Predicting Grief and Growth After an Opioid-Related Loss

  The Counseling Psychologist · 2023-10-19 · 4 citations

  articleSenior author

  Over 564,000 people died from an opioid-related overdose from 1999 to 2020. Minimal research has examined factors contributing to grief outcomes for the thousands of people mourning these stigmatized deaths. Informed by the model of resilience and transactional model of stress, this study investigated the degree to which disenfranchised grief, social support, and coping predicted grief outcomes in a sample of 159 people grieving an opioid-related death. When predicting prolonged grief, avoidant emotional coping (β = 0.55) alone accounted for unique variance. Active emotional coping (β = 0.28) and problem-focused coping (β = 0.40) explained unique variance in posttraumatic growth. These findings may inform research and clinical practice and improve grief outcomes for this vast, and understudied population.

  PublisherDOI

• Black Grief Matters: Undergraduate Students’ Experiences Grieving Police Murders of Black Americans

  The Counseling Psychologist · 2023-12-18 · 12 citations

  articleSenior author

  Black Americans’ witnessing of online anti-Black police brutality is related to negative psychological outcomes, including stress and depressive symptoms. This study examined the degree to which grief disenfranchisement, social support, and coping style predicted stress, depressive symptoms, and prolonged grief among 189 Black undergraduate students grieving police murders of Black Americans. The students experienced moderate stress, elevated depressive symptoms, and low levels of prolonged grief, and coping style emerged as the most robust predictor of mental health outcomes. Specifically, planning, behavioral disengagement, and ritual-centered coping predicted variance in perceived stress. Additionally, behavioral disengagement explained variance in depressive symptoms; and disenfranchised grief, changes in goals, and collective-centered coping accounted for variance in prolonged grief. These findings may contribute to the development of interventions to support Black undergraduate students as they grieve police murders of Black Americans.

  PublisherDOI

• Transforming undergraduate education in psychology: innovative initiatives to advance anti-racism

  PsycEXTRA Dataset · 2022-01-01

  datasetSenior author
  PublisherDOI

• Trauma and Grief Assessment and Intervention GarciaR. B.,PomeroyE. C. (2022). Trauma and Grief Assessment and Intervention. New York, NY: Routledge. 254 pp. ISBN: 978-0-367-11216-5 $69.95 (paperback).

  OMEGA - Journal of Death and Dying · 2022-11-03

  article1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

Awards & honors

• Fellow of the American Psychological Association