Biography

Carolyn Joy Dayton, PhD, LP, LMSW, IMH-E, holds joint appointments at the School of Social Work where she is an Associate Professor and at the Merrill Palmer Skillman Institute for Child and Family Development where she serves as the Associate Director of the Infant Mental Health (IMH) Program. The IMH program provides specialized, multidisciplinary training in early intervention with the families of infants, toddlers and young children. The program focuses on the development of clinical skills that allow the practitioner to promote healthy social emotional development in young children using a culturally informed approach to service delivery (https://mpsi.wayne.edu/about/infant_mental_health_dual_title_flyer.pdf).

Dayton conducts research focused on early parenting processes with an emphasis on fathering in urban settings (https://socialwork.wayne.edu/coronavirus/fathering). She is engaged in policy initiatives aimed at revising state and local policies that disproportionately and negatively affect poor, urban fathers. As an Infant Mental Health Specialist, Dayton has over two decades of experience providing clinical interventions to the families of infants and young children in a wide range of settings including home-based, center-based and hospital programs. Dayton is a licensed practitioner of clinical social work and clinical psychology and is endorsed as an infant mental health mentor (https://mi-aimh.org/) in the areas of clinical practice and research. Dayton's program of research is fundamentally translational and transdisciplinary; it is informed by her clinical work with families and aims to identify biological and psychosocial risk and resilience factors that influence parenting processes and early child development.

Education

• PhD, Clinical Psychology, Michigan State University
• MA, Michigan State University
• Graduate Certificate in Infant Mental Health, University of Michigan
• MSW, University of Michigan
• BA, Kalamazoo College

 

Training

MICHR Postdoctoral Translational Scholars Fellowship. Department of Psychiatry, University of Michigan. Ann Arbor, MI. 2011-2012

Postdoctoral Research Fellowship. Department of Psychology, Developmental Area. University of Michigan. Ann Arbor, MI. 2010-2011

APPIC Postdoctoral Clinical Fellowship. Institute for Human Adjustment. University of Michigan. Ann Arbor, MI. 2008-2010

APPIC Predoctoral Clinical Internship. Psychological Clinic & University Center for the Child and Family. University of Michigan. Ann Arbor, MI. 2007-2008

International Culture & Language Training Scholar, Madrid, Spain. 1987-1988

Office Location

Merrill Palmer Skillman Institute, Charles Lang Freer House, 71 East Ferry Street, Detroit, MI 48202

Grants

Recent Representative Grants

The Early Childhood Support Clinic: Increasing Access to Maternal Mental Health Services within a Pediatric Setting (October 1, 2024 – September 30, 2025).  Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan Special Call: Advancing Maternal Health Equity.  Co-PIs: Carolyn Dayton and Alissa Huth-Bocks

The Early Childhood Support Clinic: Improving Access to Maternal-Infant Mental Health Care through Integrated Pediatric Care (October 1, 2024 – September 30, 2025).  Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan.  Co-PIs: Carolyn Dayton and Alissa Huth-Bocks.

The Early Childhood Support Clinic: Establishing a Sustainable Billing Model for Parent and Early Childhood Mental Health Services in a Pediatric Setting (January 1, 2024 – December 31, 2025).  Priority Health Total Health Foundation.

Building Capacity for Mother-Infant Mental Health Services in a Pediatric Setting (January 1, 2025 – December 31, 2026).  Ethel and James Flinn Foundation.  Co-PIs: Carolyn Dayton and Alissa Huth-Bocks.

Integrated Care Policy Working Group (January 1, 2025 – December 1, 2026).  Perigee Fund.  Integrated Care Subgroup Leaders: Carolyn Dayton and Alissa Huth-Bocks.

Concrete Services for the Early Child Support Clinic (January 1, 2025 – December 31, 2025).  Young Woman’s Home Association.  Project Leads: Carolyn Dayton and Alissa Huth-Bocks.

Promoting Health Equity for Mothers and Infants through Integrated Pediatric Care (February 1, 2025 – September 30, 2025).  Southeast Michigan Quality Improvement Coalition: Project Leads: Carolyn Dayton, Alissa Huth-Bocks, and Meghan Dwaihy.

Research Focus

• Infant Mental Health
• Fathering in Urban Environments
• Parenting in Contexts of Risk
• Emotion Regulation Processes in Parenting and Early Child Development
• Biological and Psychosocial Processes in Early Parenting
• Fathering Influences on Early Child Development

Certifications

• Licensed Clinical Psychologist (Michigan)
• Licensed Clinical Social Worker (Michigan)
• Infant Mental Health Mentor, Clinical & Research (MI-AIMH)
• Certified Michigan Trainer:  Diagnostic Classification of Mental health and Developmental Disorders of Infancy and Early Childhood, Zero to Three.

Courses Taught

• SW 6883 Social Work Practice with Young Children and Families
• SW 7880 Infant and Family Mental Health Assessment
• SW 8880 Infant Mental Health Practice

Honors and Awards

 Wayne State University WSU President’s Award for Excellence in Teaching, 2023

Annual Fatherhood Advocate Award, Detroit Wayne Integrated Health Network, 2021

Projects

 The Early Childhood Support Clinic at Wayne Pediatrics

“Helping fathers bond with their babies during pregnancy” Child and Family Blog March, 2023: https://childandfamilyblog.com/fathers-bonding-with-baby-during-pregnancy/

“Infant mental health: Michigan clinic aims to build resiliency for a lifetime” Bridge Michigan 4/29/24: https://www.bridgemi.com/michigan-health-watch/infant-mental-health-michigan-clinic-aims-build-resiliency-lifetime

“Wayne State program helps moms, dads get mental health help” Detroit Free Press 6/20/24: https://www.freep.com/story/news/local/2024/06/19/wayne-state-early-childhood-clinic-pediatrics-mental-health/73977166007/

“Early Childhood Support Clinic Pioneers Integrated Care for Families” Flinn Foundation https://www.flinnfoundation.org/wsu-early-childhood-support-clinic-integrated-care/

“How can we improve maternal health care in Detroit?” WDET The Metro 11/26/24 https://wdet.org/2024/11/26/how-can-we-improve-maternal-health-care-in-detroit/

“Why more medical professionals are focusing on Michigan babies’ mental health” The Detroit News 12/17/24: https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/local/michigan/2024/12/17/infant-mental-health-babies-focus-wayne-state-programs-relationships-caregivers/76776052007/
 

Publications

Recent Representative Publications:

Gray, G. B., Wallace, B. A., Dayton, C. J. (2024). I’m good, I think I got this: One father’s journey from adolescence to Blac fatherhood. In C. C. Barron and K. A. Wilson, Eds. Honoring Voices within Infant Mental Health: Relationship-Based Stories from the Field. Washington DC: Zero to Three.

Brown, S., Hicks, L., Saini, E., Carbone, J., Panisch, L., Dayton, C. J. (2023). The Moderating Role of Social Support on the Cortisol Stress Response of Expectant Fathers Exposed to Adverse Childhood Experiences.  Journal of Family Violence, 40(1), 1-11 

Carbone, J. T., Brown, S., Hicks, L. M., Saini, E. K. & Dayton, C. J. (2023).  Adverse childhood experiences: Associations with a blunted cortisol stress response during pregnancy. Maternal and Child Health Journal, 27, 1293-1300.

Barron, C. C., Dayton, C. J., & Goletz, J. L. (2022). From the voices of supervisees: What is reflective supervision and how does it support their work? Infant Mental Health Journal, 43, 207-225.

Barron, C. C., Dayton, C. J., & Goletz, J. L. (2022). Levels of influence on the   supervisee’s experience of reflective supervision: A theoretical model. Infant Mental Health Journal, 226-241.

Dayton, C.J. Chair. (2022). Competency 6: Engage with individuals, families, groups, organizations, and communities (Chapter 6). In, CSWE EPAS Curricular Guide for Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health, M. Safyer & L. Gilkerson, Eds. Council on Social Work Education.

Dayton, C. J., Malone, J. C., & Brown, S. (2020). Pathways to parenting: The emotional journeys of fathers as they prepare to parent a new infant. In H. E. Fitzgerald, K. von Klitzing, N. Cabrera, T. Skjothaug and J. S. de Medonca (Eds.), Handbook of Fathers: Prenatal to PreK. New York: Springer Press.

Dayton, C.J., Barron, C. C., Stacks, A. M., & Malone, J. (2020). Infant Mental Health: Clinical Practice with Very Young Children and their Families. In J. Brandell, Theory and Practice in Clinical Social Work (Ed.). San Diego, CA: Cognella.

Dayton, C. J., Johnson, A., Hicks, L., Goletz, J. Brown, S. Primuse, T. Green, K., Nordin, M., Welch, R., & Muzik, M. (2019). Sex differences in the social ecology of breastfeeding: A mixed methods analysis of breastfeeding views of expectant mothers and fathers. Journal of Biosocial Science, Journal of Biosocial Science, 51(3), 374-393.

Hicks, L. M., Dayton, C. J. (2018). Depressive and trauma symptoms in risk-exposed, expectant mothers and fathers: Is mindfulness a buffer? Journal of Affective Disorders, 238, 179-186. doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2018.05.044

Dayton, C. J., Matthews, W. K., Hicks, L., & Malone, J. (2017). The expression of music throughout the lives of expectant parents. Psychology of Music, 45(6), 839-854. doi: 0305735617692165

Swain, J. E., Ho, S., Rosenblum, K. L., Morelen, D., Dayton, C. J. & Muzik, M. (2017). Parent-child intervention decreases stress and increases maternal brain responses and connectivity in response to own baby-cry: An exploratory study. Development and Psychopathology, 29, 535-553. doi: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0954579417000165

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