PEANUTs Lab

PEANUTs Lab

Life History Research Society Conference, Summer 2026

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Last June 3-5, trainees from the lab and Dr. Rioux attended and presented their research at the Life History Research Society international conference in Oslo, Norway!

Postdoctoral fellow Qili Lan presented her project examining whether there are different alcohol use trajectories throughout pregnancy and the first year postpartum, and how these trajectories relate to child socioemotional and neurodevelopment between 1 and 2 years of age.

Undergraduate research assistant Carson Freeman presented his project examining relations between change in depression across the perinatal period and early infant temperament, and whether these associations depend on birthing parent temperament.

Masters student Zoe Childers-Rockey presented results from her ongoing review on the moderators of the effect of peer environments on adolescent delinquency. She focused on the results of prospective longitudinal studies, looking at moderators at the individual, family, peer, and broader social levels.

2026 Undergraduate Research Conference

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April 8-9, three of our undergraduate research assistants presented projects they worked on at the Texas Tech annual undergraduate research conference!

William Jamison presented the project from our Paper-in-a-Day event earlier this semester, examining associations of sensory processing sensitivity with cannabis use motives.

William in front of his poster

Lily Reyes presented parts of a systematic review she assisted on over the course of this academic year, examining the moderators of peer influences on adolescent delinquency.

Lily in front of her poster

Jocelyn Chiramel presented additional results from the systematic review on peers and adolescent delinquency, on which she has been assisting for two years.

Jocelyn received an award from the Lubbock Economic Development Alliance for the quality of her presentation!

Two pictures: One showing Jocelyn in front of her poster, and one where she is holding her award certificate

Southwestern Psychological Association Convention 2026

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March 27-29, ten of the lab’s current and past students presented their research at the annual convention of the Southwestern Psychological Association, which was held in Frisco, Texas! This includes three posters, two talks our students gave after receiving Psi Chi research awards, and four talks given as part of a symposium!

Undergraduate research assistants Lily Reyes and Jocelyn Chiramel as well as masters student Zoe Childers-Rockey presented a poster on an ongoing systematic review of peer environments and adolescent delinquency.

Lily, Jocelyn, and Zoe in front of their poster

Undergraduate research assistant William Jamison presented his project on cannabis state laws and cannabis use in young adults. While using cannabis was more common in states where cannabis was legal, cannabis frequency and abuse symptoms did not differ based on state legality or the degree of punishment for using cannabis.

William in front of his poster

Undergraduate research assistant Carson Freeman presented a poster on perinatal anxiety, sensory processing sensitivity, and infant temperament. His project received a Psi Chi regional research award, and following this award he also gave a brief talk on his project.

Three pictures showing Carson in front of his poster, giving his talk, and holding his award certificate

Masters student Zoe Childers-Rockey presented a talk on her project examining whether maternal positive parenting buffers the association of peer victimization on adolescent aggression, as well as if this association differs between boys and girls. Her project also received a Psi Chi regional research award.

Two pictures showing Zoe giving her talk and holding her award certificate

Five students presented talks as part of a symposium on perinatal mental health organized by Dr. Rioux:

Christina Personette, a past undergraduate research assistant in the lab who is now a PhD student at the University of Pittsburgh, presented on the role of social support in the association between adverse childhood experiences and prenatal mental health.

Christina giving her talk

Masters student Julianne Godchaux-Linneman presented on her ongoing scoping review on the associations of discrimination and perinatal mental health.

Julianne posing in front of her slides.

Madison Bissa, a past Honors thesis student in the lab who is now a PhD student at the University of Tulsa, presented on the association between sexual and gender minority identity and postpartum mental health.

Madison giving her talk.

Emily Flesher (undergraduate student) and McKenna Nhem (past honors thesis student who is now a PhD student at the University of North Texas, co-presented a talk on last year’s Paper-in-a-Day project, examining mental health service use in pregnancy and postpartum.

McKenna and Emily posing in front of their slides.

The students’ presentations and accomplishments were celebrated with a group dinner! At the same time, we celebrated three students (McKenna, Zoe, and Christina) who recently published their first first-author papers!

Group smiling around a table
Picture of three mugs saying PEANUTs Lab first time first author!

New student paper! Sensory processing sensitivity and vulnerability to recent stressful experiences in the prediction of mental health in pregnancy

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Christina Personette, who is now a PhD student in clinical psychology at the University of Pittsburgh, recently published a paper she completed in the lab as an undergraduate research assistant in the peer-reviewed Journal of Affective Disorders.

Her paper used the Experiences of Pregnancy cohort to examine whether the association between recent stressful experiences and mental health in pregnancy differs based on individuals’ sensory processing sensitivity (also known as “highly sensitive personality” or sensitivity to the environment).

She found that recent stressful experiences predicted prenatal depression symptoms at high levels of sensory processing sensitivity, and not low levels of sensory processing sensitivity. For anxiety and life satisfaction, however, recent stressful experiences were predictive regardless of the level of sensory processing sensitivity. This study supports that screening and awareness of sensory processing sensitivity could support more precise and effective mental health care.

Find the paper here: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2026.121512

Graphical abstract of the paper.

Society for Personality and Social Psychology 2026 Annual Convention

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On February 26-28, Julie Godchaux-Linneman attended and presented her research at the annual convention of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, in Chicago Illinois! Julie is a student in the masters of human sciences and is doing her thesis in the lab.

Julie presented an ongoing scoping review of research examining associations between discrimination and perinatal mental health.

Congratulations Julie!

Julie in front of her poster

New paper! Sensory profile of the highly sensitive personality

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Four of the lab’s students along with Dr. Rioux published a new paper in the journal Personality and Individual Differences on the sensory profile of the highly sensitive personality!

The paper examines associations between the sensory profile (behavioral responses to overstimulation) and the highly sensitive personality (sensitivity towards external and internal stimuli and emotional reactivity to overstimulation). This can help inform tailored interventions for highly sensitive people when an aspect of their sensitivity or reactions is not complementary to a desired aspect in their life.

This was conducted with undergraduate research assistants Megan Waldron, Delaney Fulp, and Christina Personette as well as Honor student McKenna Nhem and partially supported by an Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program Scholarship to Megan and Delaney. Megan is now a PhD student in social-developmental psychology. Christina and McKenna are now PhD students in clinical/counseling psychology.

Find the paper here: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2026.113710

Graphical abstract of the paper

New student paper! Environmental Sensitivity and Adult Mental Health

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McKenna Nhem, who is now a PhD student in counseling psychology at the University of North Texas, recently published her Honors thesis completed in the lab in the peer-reviewed journal Current Psychology.

McKenna conducted a systematic scoping literature review mapping the empirical literature conducted within the environmental sensitivity framework in adult mental health. This includes mapping which social environments have been examined, which individual sensitivity factors at the genetic, endophenotypic (physiological), and phenotypic (observable) levels have been examined, which mental health outcomes have been examined, and what models have been supported. This clarifies the current state of the literature, identifies existing gaps, informs future systematic reviews and empirical research, and allows for the identification of potential sensitivity-related strengths in adult adjustment.

This work was conducted with the contribution of three other students in the lab who are co-authors on the paper: Christina Personette, Zoe Childers-Rockey and Madison Bissa.

Find the paper (open access) here: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-025-08919-0

Image with a board showing the article title
Title page of the article

Paper-in-a-Day 2026

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On Saturday January 10, the lab hosted its second Paper-in-a-Day event! Five undergraduate and graduate students along with Dr. Rioux spent the day writing a paper on the associations between sensory processing sensitivity (also known as the highly sensitive personality) and motives for using cannabis, ending the day with a full edited draft. They celebrated the end of a long day with dinner. We look forward to finalizing the paper for publication!

A student taking a selfie with his computer and other students working in the background
Two students discussing together with their computers
Photo with a Texas Tech mug in the forefront and a student holding up a mug in the back
Three student smiling around a table
The team at the dinner table

Marcé of North America 2025

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On November 5-8, Dr. Rioux and the lab’s students Carson Freeman (undergraduate research assistant), Christina Personette (past undergraduate research assistant, now Clinical PhD student at the University of Pittsburgh), and Madison Bissa (past Honors thesis student, now Clinical PhD student at the University of Tulsa) presented their research at the Marcé of North America Conference in Toronto, Canada! Marcé of North America is a regional group that is part of the International Marcé Society for Perinatal Mental Health.

Carson presented his research finding that prenatal anxiety predicted a more difficult child temperament only when there were also high levels of prenatal sensory processing sensitivity (also known as highly sensitive personality).

Carson in front of his poster

Christina presented her research finding that social support buffered te impact of household, but not community-level, adverse childhood experiences on perinatal mental health.

Christina in front of his poster

Madi presented her research finding that asking questions about gender identity in a pregnancy cohort was not associated with participant dropout.

Madi in front of her poster

New student paper! Recruitment through social media ads and videocalls: Cost, effectiveness, and lessons from the Experiences of Pregnancy study

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Zoe Childers-Rockey, who is an incoming Masters student, recently published an article she worked on as an undergraduate research assistant in the peer-reviewed American Journal of Epidemiology !

Zoe examined the effectiveness of social media advertisements with videocalls to recruit participants in their first trimester of pregnancy, outlined safeguard methods to counter fraudulent participants, and examined the representativeness of the resulting sample when compared to the US population and to pregnancy cohorts recruited in person. This work was conducted with the contribution of four other research assistants who are co-authors: Emily Flesher, Jacob Stephens, Nicole Barton, and Megan Waldron.

Learn about the key findings in the short video below and find the paper here: https://doi.org/10.1093/aje/kwaf061