Kristi Guest

Kristi Guest
Research Associate Professor

Assistant Professor (S), Pediatric - Developmental & Behavioral , Pediatrics
Associate Scientist (C), Civitan International Research Center , Academic Joint Departments
Associate Professor - Research (P), Psychology , College of Arts and Sciences

Overview

Dr. Kristi Carter Guest is the Disabilities Services Coordinator for the UAB Early Head Start Program, Research Coordinator for the UAB Civitan-Sparks Clinics and the UAB Leadership Education in Neurodevelopmental and Related Disabilities (LEND) and is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology. She serves on the Executive Board for the Central Alabama Early Intervention Council and is on the planning committee for the statewide Alabama Early Intervention Conference.

Dr. Guest received clinical training at the UAB Civitan-Sparks Clinics performing hundreds of developmental assessments with children who were at-risk for developmental delay. Currently she participates in the interdisciplinary diagnostic observations of children suspected of having Autism Spectrum Disorders in the UAB Civitan-Sparks ASD Clinic. With the UAB Early Head Start Program, Dr. Guest provides clinical services for children with disabilities and their families to initiate and facilitate early intervention and school based services. With the UAB Early Head Start program, she coordinates all of the developmental screenings for children in the program.

Dr. Guest serves on numerous graduate student committees in the Lifespan Developmental Psychology Program and the School of Public Health Department of Health Behavior. She mentors undergraduate students in the UAB Science and Technology Honors Program, the University Honors Program, and the Psychology Honors Program. She also clinically supervises Medical Psychology Graduate students, Lifespan Developmental Psychology Graduate students, trainees, and interns at the UAB Civitan-Sparks Clinics

Selected Publications

Academic Article

Year	Title	Altmetric
2008	Cell phones and the measurement of child neglect: The validity of the parent-child activities interview. Child Maltreatment. 13:320-333. 2008
2007	Cell phone methodology for research and service with high risk populations. 2007
2001	Middle childhood, poverty, and adjustment: Does social support have an impact?. Psychology in the Schools. 38:549-560. 2001

Research Overview

Dr. Guest has directed and coordinated several large, multi-site, federally funded research projects focusing on multiple at-risk populations of children including children at-risk for abuse and neglect, children living in poverty, children at-risk for Autism Spectrum Disorders, and children of adolescent mothers. She co-directs the ASD Database Research team along with Dr. Sarah O’Kelley evaluating clinical data obtained for children referred for an ASD assessment at the UAB Civitan-Sparks Clinics/LEND program. She also engages in research exploring screening measures and diagnostic outcomes in young children evaluated for ASD. Additionally, Dr. Guest is part of the Centers of the Prevention of Child Neglect; the major focus of the center is clarification of neglect as a construct and the documentation of its influence on child development in multiple domains.

Overall, the theme of her research within at-risk populations is to explore children’s social-emotional development and environmental factors such as parenting and social support that impact development as well as interventions targeting improvement in social-emotional growth.

Developmental psychology, social development, autism spectrum disorders, infant and child development