parenting, personality and brain development, and youth psychopathology
Broadly, my research pertains to the influence of developmental experiences (parenting in particular, but also peers and life stress in general) on change over time in personality and brain functioning in youth, and how these factors interact to influence risk for depressive and anxiety disorders. Given that having experienced a prior episode of depression or anxiety is one of the strongest predictors of experiencing a subsequent episode, I am particularly interested in understanding how developmental experiences, personality, and brain functioning predict the first onset of internalizing psychopathology. The primary project in my lab will examine predictors of the onset of first-episode depressive and anxiety disorders in a sample of early adolescents who have at least one parent with a history of these illnesses, and who are therefore at high risk. In particular this project will focus on parenting, personality, life stress, and neural markers of emotional and reward processing as well as cognitive control (assessed via fMRI) as predictors of the onset of depressive and anxiety disorders.