Christopher Mehus

Christopher Mehus is a Research Associate Professor in the Department of Family Social Science at the University of Minnesota. His research focuses on improving public health through parenting interventions, particularly for high-stress families, with a focus on trauma-informed care, adolescent health, and primary care integration. He holds a PhD in Couple and Family Therapy from the University of Minnesota and an MA in Marriage and Family Therapy from Saint Mary’s University of Minnesota.

His work emphasizes understanding parenting behaviors in developmental pathways, the intersection of trauma and parent-child relationships, and evaluating parenting programs in healthcare settings. He has developed initiatives like the KnowledgeforParents.umn.edu platform to disseminate research-based resources.

Key areas include improving adolescent sexual health services, addressing healthcare access disparities, and analyzing parenting practices across generations. His recent studies highlight declining spanking prevalence in U.S. households and the mental health impacts of the pandemic on college students.

Mehus collaborates on grants exploring primary care’s role in prevention science and has pioneered interventions for vulnerable populations such as pregnant youth experiencing homelessness. He actively engages in community outreach and program implementation research to ensure sustainable health solutions.