Research at the D&P Lab focuses on the transactional nature through which children’s interactions with their family, community and culture can shape the course of development. Specifically, we are interested in how the integration of biological, psychological and environmental factors can inform our understanding of the development of memory and self among children. Guiding our research is a developmental psychopathology perspective, which emphasizes the interface between normal and atypical development. As such, our research focuses on at-risk populations including children from low-income families and children from maltreating families. Our research integrates methods from cognitive, developmental, and clinical psychology, and utilizes a multiple-levels-of analysis approach towards the study of child development and child psychopathology.
Current projects include:
- A NICHD-funded randomized clinical trial evaluating the effectiveness of a brief therapeutic intervention for maltreating mothers and their preschool-aged children
- A NICHD-funded longitudinal evaluation of theoretically-informed explanatory mechanisms linking adversity to child behavioral and physical health at multiple levels of analysis, with a focus on behavioral and biological self-regulation of the parent and child
- An investigation of mother-child reminiscing in relation to autobiographical memory and self development among low SES pre-school aged children and their mothers.
- An evaluation of the effectiveness of trauma-informed afterschool programming to improve psychopathology and resilience among at-risk children in the South Bend community
- A longitudinal study of the effects of maternal history of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) on the birth outcomes and early development of infants from low-income families