Kristy B. Allen, Ph.D.
- Assistant Professor
Contact Info
1000 Sunnyside Avenue
Lawrence, KS 66045
Personal Links
Biography —
Dr. Allen is accepting applications for Fall 2025 admissions.
Dr. Allen earned a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from Viginia Tech, with an APA-accredited internship at Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic at the University of Pittsburgh. After completing post-doctoral fellowships in the Departments of Psychiatry and Psychology at the University of Pittsburgh, she joined the faculty at the University of Tennessee as an Assistant Professor in 2017. Dr. Allen became a member of the Clinical Child Psychology Program at the University of Kansas in 2022. She is active in the fields of clinical child psychology and clinical science, serving on the editorial board of Clinical Child and Family Psychology Review and the board of the Society for a Science of Clinical Psychology. Her research has been supported by the National Institute of Mental Health, the American Psychological Foundation, and the Society for a Science of Clinical Psychology. In her free time, Dr. Allen is often out exploring with her husband, Ben, their three young daughters, and infant son.
Education —
Research —
Dr. Allen's program of research aims to identify key factors that underlie the intergenerational transmission of anxiety. In particular, she focuses on cognitive-affective processing of ambiguity or uncertainty as a key mechanism of risk, as well as parental ability to tolerate negative affect in their children. This work is informed by the use of multiple methodological approaches at different levels of analysis, including event-related potentials, eye-tracking, behavioral observation, and ecological momentary assessment. The goal of Dr. Allen's research is to develop and refine mechanistically-based prevention and intervention approaches, particularly for anxious parents and their children. To that end, she has an interest in computerized cognitive bias modification techniques and digital interventions.
Selected Publications —
Baumgardner, M., LaGattuta, A., & Allen, K. B. (in press). A brief measure of positive and negative interpretation biases: Development and validation of the Ambiguous Social Scenarios Questionnaire. Assessment.
Allen, K. B., Tan, P. Z., & Prinz, R. J. (2022). Introduction to the Special Issue: Interplay of Family Factors and Cognitive-Affective Processes in Youth. Clinical Child and Family Psychology Review, 25(1), 1-4.
Baumgardner, M., Silk, J. S., & Allen, K. B. (2021). Interpretation bias and anticipated distress in the face of ambiguity: Predictors of change in cognitive behavioral therapy for youth anxiety. Child Psychiatry and Human Development.
Hunter, H., Allen, K. B, Liu, R., Jaekel, J., & Bell, M. A.(2021). Examining the bidirectional relationships between maternal intrusiveness and child internalizing symptoms in a community sample: A longitudinal study from infancy to middle childhood. Depression and Anxiety, 38, 1245-1255.
Allen, K. B., Benningfield, M. M., & Blackford, J. U. (2020). Childhood anxiety: If we know so much, why are we doing so little? JAMA Psychiatry, 77, 887-888.
Allen, K. B., Woody, M. L., Rosen, D., Price, R. B., Amole, M. C., & Silk, J. S. (2020). Validating a mobile eye tracking measure of integrated interpretation and attention bias in youth. Cognitive Therapy and Research, 44, 668-677.
Hutchinson, E. A., Rosen, D., Allen, K. B., Price, R. B., Amole, M., & Silk, J. S. (2019). Adolescent gaze-directed attention during parent-child conflict: The effects of depressive symptoms and parent-child relationship quality. Child Psychiatry and Human Development, 50, 483-493.
Woody, M. L.†, Rosen, D.†, Allen, K. B., Price, R. B., Hutchinson, E. A., Amole, M., & Silk, J. S. (2019). Looking for the negative: Depressive symptoms in adolescent girls are associated with sustained attention to a potentially critical judge during in vivo social evaluation. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 179, 90-102.
Allen, K. B., Silk, J. S., Meller, S., Tan, P. Z., Ladouceur, C. D., Sheeber, L. B., Forbes, E. E., Dahl, R. E., Siegle, G. J., McMakin, D. L., & Ryan, N. D. (2016). Parental autonomy granting and child perceived control: Effects on the everyday emotional experience of anxious youth. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 57, 835-842.
Price R. B.†,Allen, K. B.†, Silk, J. S., Ladouceur, C. D., Ryan, N. D., Dahl, R. E., Forbes, E. E., & Siegle, G. J. (2016). Vigilance in the laboratory predicts avoidance in the real world: A dimensional analysis of neural, behavioral, and ecological momentary data in anxious youth. Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience, 19, 128-136.