Lab updates

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

On April 17, the lab’s students Carson Freeman (undergraduate research assistant), Zoe Childers-Rockey (past undergraduate research assistant and incoming Masters student), and Madison Bissa (past Honors thesis student, now Clinical PhD student at the University of Tulsa) presented their research at the Oklahoma Psychological Society Convention in Edmond Oklahoma!

On March 28-30, undergraduate student and recent graduates Christina Personette, Emily Flesher, and Zoe Childers-Rockey Southwestern Psychological Association Convention in Little Rock, Arkansas!

On Saturday January 18, seven undergraduate and graduate students along with Dr. Rioux spent the day writing a paper on mental health service use in pregnancy and postpartum, 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! We hope this will be the first of regularly occurring Paper-in-a-Day events for the lab!

Madison Bissa, who is now a PhD student in clinical psychology at the University of Tulsa, recently published her Honors thesis completed in the lab in the peer-reviewed journal Adolescent Research Review.

Madi conducted a systematic literature review examining the moderators of the association between parent divorce and adolescent externalizing behaviors and substance use. In other words, her review helped understand for which adolescents and when parental divorce/separation has a larger or smaller association with externalizing behaviors and substance use. This work was conducted with the contribution of five undergraduate research assistants who are co-authors on the paper: Parker Haley, Ashley Wells, Jenna LaBelle, McKenna Nhem, and Delaney Fulp.

Find the paper here! http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s40894-024-00249-9
Read-only free version: https://rdcu.be/dWNLN

On October 17-20, undergraduate students Christina Personette and McKenna Nhem attended and presented their research at the Society for Research in Psychopathology international conference in Montreal, Canada!

Christina presented her research findings on environmental sensitivity to recent stressful experiences predicting prenatal mental health. Results showed that recent stressful experiences predict depressive symptoms only for individuals high on the temperament trait of sensory processing sensitivity.

McKenna presented her findings on environmental sensitivity to discrimination predicting adult mental health. Results showed that individuals high on aesthetic sensitivity, a facet of sensory processing sensitivity, benefited most from low discriminatory environments. High levels of discrimination had negative impacts of psychological distress and well-being regardless of temperament.

Madison Bissa, who completed her Honors thesis in the lab and is now a PhD student in clinical psychology at the University of Tulsa, recently published as first author in the American Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology MFM. This work was conducted in addition to her Honors thesis as part of independent research under the supervision of Dr. Rioux for her minor in Women’s and Gender studies.

Madi found that in a recent pregnancy cohort (Experiences of Pregnancy), asking several questions about gender identity, modality, and binary did not lead to participant dropout. This answers researcher concerns that cisgender participants offended by gender-related questions may drop out of their study, in turn supporting that the academic and social benefits of measuring gender identity outweigh worries about participant dropout.

Find the paper here! https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ajogmf.2024.101484