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. Her lab is currently completing a 5 year clinical trial on DBT Skills for mothers of preschool aged children. She also supervises a DBT Skills practicum at the University of Oregon Psychology Training Clinic.
Dr. Zalewski is not accepting new graduate students for Fall 2025.
Selected publications (*student/post-doc at the time of publication):
Zalewski, M., Maliken, A., Lengua, L.J., Martin, C.G., Roos, L., & *Everett, Y. (2020). Integrating dialectical behavior therapy with child and parent training interventions: A narrative and theoretical review. Clinical Psychology: Science and Practice.
*Binion, G., & Zalewski, M. (2018). Maternal emotion dysregulation and the functional organization of preschooler's emotional expressions and regulatory behaviors. Emotion.
Zalewski, M., *Lewis, J.K., & *Martin, C.G. (2018). Identifying novel applications of dialectical behavior therapy: considering emotion regulation and parenting. Current Opinion in Psychology, 21, 122-126.
*Martin, C.G., *Roos, L.E., Zalewski, M., & *Cummins, N. (2016). A dialectical behavior therapy skills group case study on mothers with severe emotion dysregulation. Cognitive and Behavioral Practice.
Kiff, C.J., Lengua, L.J., & Zalewski, M. (2011). Nature and nurture: parenting in the context of child temperament individual differences. Clinical Child and Family Psychology Review, 14, 251-301.
