Amori Mikami

Learning how to make good friendships is an important developmental task in childhood. Dr. Amori Mikami studies the ways in which children make friends, how friendships influence children’s adjustment, and why some children have difficulties with friendship-making.

Mikami is developing and testing new psychosocial interventions to help children with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) to be more successful in making and keeping friends. Specifically, she created an intervention training parents to be “friendship coaches” for their young children with ADHD. She is the lead principal investigator in a five-year, dual-site trial funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research to test this intervention in Vancouver, BC and in Gatineau, Quebec. In the intervention, parents learn how to talk to their children about social skills, arrange playdates for their children, and facilitate situations where their children are likely to develop friendships. Mikami has also developed an intervention training teachers to help peers be more socially accepting of children with ADHD (which was funded by the National Institute of Mental Health).

Mikami trained as a child clinical psychologist. She moved to BC in August 2011 from an assistant professor position at the University of Virginia in the United States.

Recent Publications

Mikami AY, Griggs MS, Lerner MD, Emeh CC, Reuland MM, Jack A, Anthony MR. A randomized trial of a classroom intervention to increase peers’ social inclusion of children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. J Consult Clin Psychol. 2013 Feb;81(1):100-12. doi: 10.1037/a0029654. Epub 2012 Aug 6. (PubMed abstract)

Mikami AY, Griggs MS, Reuland MM, Gregory A. Teacher practices as predictors of children’s classroom social preference. J Sch Psychol. 2012 Feb;50(1):95-111. doi: 10.1016/j.jsp.2011.08.002. Epub 2011 Aug 28. (PubMed abstract)

Mikami AY. The importance of friendship for youth with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. Clin Child Fam Psychol Rev. 2010 Jun;13(2):181-98. doi: 10.1007/s10567-010-0067-y. (PubMed abstract)

Mikami AY, Jack A, Emeh CC, Stephens HF. Parental influence on children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder: I. Relationships between parent behaviors and child peer status. J Abnorm Child Psychol. 2010 Aug;38(6):721-36. doi: 10.1007/s10802-010-9393-2. (PubMed abstract)

Mikami AY, Lerner MD, Griggs MS, McGrath A, Calhoun CD. Parental influence on children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder: II. Results of a pilot intervention training parents as friendship coaches for children. J Abnorm Child Psychol. 2010 Aug;38(6):737-49. doi: 10.1007/s10802-010-9403-4. (PubMed abstract)