Poster Presentation

Author: Madeleine Schlegel  |  Major: Psychology  |  Semester: Fall 2025

My name is Madeleine Schlegel, and I am a senior psychology major and Spanish minor at the University of Arkansas. I am involved in the Family and Community Intervention (FCI) Lab, which focuses on advancing child and autism research. During my time in the FCI Lab, I have assisted with multiple projects investigating evidence-based treatments for autistic youth and their families while working to reduce accessibility barriers to service use, including a Community Advisory Board-informed development, feasibility, and efficacy trial of Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT) for autistic youth (PCIT-Autism). After working on the initial pilot study implementing PCIT-Autism and observing the consistently high attrition rates in PCIT broadly, I decided to conduct my honors thesis on caregivers’ perceived satisfaction with the treatment. In this project, I am evaluating whether caregivers’ perceptions of satisfaction differ based on whether they received the standard PCIT-Autism protocol or a less intensive version that omits the coaching component of PCIT. This research will inform the development of a standardized protocol and examine attrition, attention, and adherence.

In Fall 2025, I was given the opportunity to disseminate the preliminary findings from this project at the Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies’ 59th annual convention in New Orleans, Louisiana. Specifically, I developed a poster presentation for the Autism Special Interest Group alongside my mentors in the FCI Lab. During the Special Interest Group, I had the opportunity to engage with researchers and clinicians specializing in evidence-based treatments for autistic youth, which allowed me to gain insights I would not have developed independently. Additionally, I discussed the implications of our findings and how they may shape future research on PCIT-Autism. Presenting in this setting helped me recognize the value of scientific dialogue, as the discussions deepened my understanding of how collaborative feedback can refine research questions and improve methodological rigor.

This experience, in addition to strengthening the clinical and scientific relevance of my research, allowed me to network and gain exposure to the field of professional clinical psychology. This semester, I have been preparing and submitting applications to clinical psychology Ph.D. programs. One component of these applications is selecting a principal investigator (PI) whom you would like to work under during your time in graduate school. Because ABCT is a large conference that is attended by researchers from universities across the United States and beyond, I had many opportunities to interact with and hear from the PIs that I am interested in working with. One interaction that sticks out to me is meeting a researcher from the University of Colorado, Boulder in the conference’s hotel lobby. Although short, this introduction helped me gain confidence in networking and interacting with the types of people whom I admire. Furthermore, meeting peers and experts within the field of clinical psychology solidified my interest in pursuing higher education and, eventually, a career as a clinical psychologist.

My advice for students attending their first conference is not to be afraid to network and introduce yourself. It may seem very daunting at first to approach someone who is an expert in the field you intend to pursue education or a career in, but you will not regret introducing yourself or striking up a conversation about a question or topic you are curious about. Most professionals have been in the same situation as you at the beginning of their own career and would be happy to give advice or support.

The future of my research project involves scoring assessment materials for the interpretation of my project’s findings. Furthermore, I plan to defend my thesis in Spring 2026. Overall, I am very grateful for the opportunity I had to share my research, network with possible mentors, and experience a professional setting in the field of clinical psychology.