Nine Scholars Recognized for the 14th Annual Student and Early Career Council Dissertation Research Funding Awards

“Understanding Rural, African American Fathers’ Parenting: Correlates and Consequences for Early Development”

Alp Aytuglu is a doctoral candidate in human development and family science at the University of Georgia under the mentorship of Dr. Geoffrey Brown. Alp’s research program is focused on parenting in diverse socio-cultural contexts, with particular interests in the transition to fatherhood, neurobiological correlates of fathering, and the development of father-child relationships. His dissertation examines (i) the longitudinal impact of prenatal readiness for parenting among expectant, rural, unmarried African American fathers on their infants’ socioemotional adjustment, and (ii) potential mechanisms linking paternal sensitivity to executive functioning via children’s physiological regulatory capacities (e.g., vagal tone and cortisol) in rural, low SES, African American families. This project is intended to elucidate paternal contributions to early cognitive and socioemotional functioning among an underrepresented population of parents (African American fathers in low-resource environments) who have been largely neglected and highly stigmatized. In his future work Alp plans to continue documenting the neurobiological and socio-contextual correlates of fathering, and fathers’ contributions to health and development in diverse ecological settings.

“Longitudinal associations between maternal and child emotion regulation: Examining the role of maternal emotion-related socialization behaviors”

Katherine Edler is a doctoral candidate in Developmental Psychology at the University of Notre Dame working with Dr. Kristin Valentino. Her research investigates longitudinal cascades through which family processes and adversity increase children’s risk for psychopathology, with a focus on emotion dysregulation. In addition, she is interested in identifying mechanisms that underlie parenting processes, including emotion-related socialization behaviors and child maltreatment. For Katherine’s dissertation, she will recruit a community sample of 6- to 8-year-old children and their mothers. Mothers’ emotion regulation, emotion-related socialization behaviors, and children’s emotion regulation will be assessed with a multimethod battery including questionnaires, interviews, and observational and physiological assessments. Katherine will examine which aspects of mothers’ emotion regulation are most relevant for their engagement in emotion-related socialization behaviors and children’s emotion regulation over time. This longitudinal, multimethod research will inform public health efforts to improve children’s psychological functioning by identifying processes that may be targets for translational programs aimed to improve children’s adaptive emotion regulation skills.

“Identifying Actionable Classroom and Program Features for Scaling High-Quality Prekindergarten”

Paola Guerrero-Rosada is a Ph.D. candidate in the Combined Program in Education and Psychology at the University of Michigan, where she works with Dr. Christina Weiland in the Equity in Early Learning (EEL) Lab and collaborates with a long-standing Research Practice Partnerships between Boston Public Schools, the University of Michigan, Harvard Graduate School of Education, and MDRC. Paola’s research focuses on the classroom and center features that better support children’s development and mechanisms to increase equitable access to high-quality early education settings. For her dissertation, she is leveraging observational, geo-spatial, and administrative data to (1) compare the descriptive and predictive properties of two observational measures of time-use in prekindergarten classrooms, (2) examine whether exposure to challenging instructional content from prekindergarten to first-grade predicts children’s academic gains, and (3) describe statistical and geo-spatial differences between centers that self-select to participate in the Boston Universal Prekindergarten (UPK) program and other centers in the Boston area, focusing on characteristics associated with centers’ engagement with the Boston UPK quality improvement supports. Paola’s goal is to partner with practitioners to generate and disseminate evidence with immediate applications for quality improvement and prekindergarten expansion processes, emphasizing the policies and programs that benefit children’s equitable access to high-quality early education.

“Gender Disparities in Early Childhood Development and Learning Opportunities in Low- and Middle-Income Countries"

Catalina Rey-Guerra is a doctoral candidate in applied developmental and educational psychology at Boston College, where she works with Dr. Eric Dearing and Dr. Brinton Lykes. Catalina’s research examines global patterns of gender disparities in early learning opportunities and development in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). For her dissertation, Catalina will (1) examine variations in gender similarities and differences in the cognitive and social-emotional development of young children growing up in more than 70 LMICs, (2) explore potential mechanisms underlying gender disparities in early childhood (e.g., gender-differentiated parenting practices and provision of learning opportunities for girls and boys) in LMICs, and (3) co-design and co-conduct together with Colombian families and early childhood education teachers participatory workshops to have a more nuanced understanding of their perspectives about gender-related variations in learning opportunities and caregiving practices in different learning contexts. In the short term, Catalina seeks to advance the current knowledge base and develop materials to reduce gender stereotypes in early learning environments in partnership with ground-level stakeholders and organizations in LMICs. In the long term, she envisions herself as an advocate for gender equality and children’s rights, using her academic work to promote children’s healthy development. 

“Permeable Walls: Examining the Associations between Multiple Indicators of Neighborhood Disadvantage and Child Internalizing and Externalizing Behavior and the Moderating Role of Parenting Behaviors.”

Daneele Thorpe is a doctoral candidate in the Clinical Psychology Program at Stony Brook University, working with Dr. Kristin Bernard in the Developmental Stress and Prevention Lab. Daneele’s research focuses on early adversity and its impacts on parenting and child development. She aims to broaden current conceptualizations of adversity to include neighborhood-level factors, including lack of access to resources and exposure to community violence. Daneele’s dissertation will integrate ecological systems theories to examine how families’ neighborhood environment influences parenting behaviors that may protect children in the face of neighborhood disadvantage. She will use a mixed methods design that includes 1) collecting qualitative data from parents of toddlers about how the neighborhood environment shapes their parenting behaviors and 2) conducting a quantitative study to examine associations between neighborhood factors (assessed via publicly available data) and parenting behaviors. Daneele hopes her work will inform multisystemic interventions at the individual level (i.e., to build children’s resilience), family level (i.e., to support positive caregiving), and the broader community level (i.e., to address systemic disparities in resource access and safety). Her long-term goals include conducting community-informed research and collaborating with key stakeholders and policymakers to advocate for historically disenfranchised communities to ensure healthy child development.