Dr. Clark is an expert on postpartum mood disorders, early parent-child relationships, and infant and early childhood mental health. She has written numerous articles on the screening, evaluation and treatment of postpartum depression, maternal employment, and assessment of strengths and areas of concern in early parent-child relationships. In her research on patterns in young children, she incorporates the study of genetic, constitutional, interpersonal and medical factors that both contribute to and amplify differences in attention, behavior, and emotional development regulation.
Dr. Clark has also developed the Parent-Child Early Relational Assessment, an instrument for assessing the quality of feelings and behavior in parent-child interactions, used in over 300 international research and clinical programs. She was a major contributor to the Diagnostic Classification of Mental Health and Developmental Disorders of Infancy and Early Childhood (DC:0-3), and the developer of the Mother-Infant Therapy Group Approach for Postpartum Depression. As the principal investigator on two National Institute of Mental Health–funded studies, she also examines the efficacy of mother-infant psychotherapeutic approaches for women experiencing PPMD and studies the validity of screening and assessment instruments of social-emotional functioning.
Dr. Clark is an Associate Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health and Director of the Parent-Infant and Early Childhood Clinic and the Postpartum Depression Treatment Program. She received her Ph.D. from Northwestern University and completed her clinical psychology internship at Michael Reese Medical Center in Chicago. She completed her postdoctoral fellowship in Clinical Services Research in the Department of Psychiatry at University of Wisconsin Medical School.
Related Links
Recommended Reading List
- “Treating the Relationships Affected by Postpartum Depression.” Clark, R., et al. (1993). Zero to Three, 13(5).
- Clark, R. and Tluczek, A. (2008) A Mother-Infant Therapy Group Model for Postpartum Depression. Infant Mental Health Journal. Special Issue on Perinatal Mood and Anxiety Disorders and Mother-Infant Relationships, Infant Mental Health Journal, Vol. 29 , 5,
- Perfetti, J., Clark, R., and Fillmore, C. (2004). Postpartum depression: Identification, screening, and treatment. Wisconsin Medical Journal, 103(6), 56-63.
