Lab updates

Fily Wahidin (graduate research assistant) presented her poster Prevalence and Frequency of Cannabis Use in Adults and State Cannabis Legislation: A National Study in the United States. Her project finds that cannabis use prevalence and frequency in adults (18+ years old) did not differ based on state-level cannabis legislation.

LaMauri Franklin (Honors thesis student) presented her poster Adverse childhood experiences and perinatal depression, anxiety, and depression. Her project finds that both household and community level adverse childhood experiences predicted symptoms of depression, anxiety, and anger during pregnancy.

Madison Bissa (Honors thesis student who graduated in December 2023) presented her poster Is measuring gender associated with participant dropout in a pregnancy cohort? Her project finds that including three questions on gender identity, modality, and binary in study questionnaires did not lead to study dropout among pregnant participants.

McKenna Nhem (Honors thesis student) presented her poster Environmental Sensitivity to Social Environments in Adult Mental Health: Scoping Review. Her project finds that (1) most studies examined genotype as an individual sensitivity factor, (2) most studies examined internalizing problems as a mental health outcome, and (3) most studies did not properly test their data within current theoretical models.

Zoe Childers-Rockey and Emily Flesher (undergraduate research assistants) presented their poster Pregnancy Longitudinal Cohort Recruitment via Social Media Ads with Zoom Calls: Cost, Effectiveness, and Representativeness. Their project finds that social media advertisements were an efficient way of recruiting pregnant participants and that while the resulting sample was less diverse than the US population, it was more diverse than pregnant participant cohorts recruited in person.

Zoe was also the recipient of the Outstanding Undergraduate Student Award! Congratulations Zoe!

Christina Personette (undergraduate research assistant) presented her poster The interaction between sensory processing sensitivity and recent stressful experiences in prenatal mental health: Diathesis-stress or differential susceptibility? Her project finds that recent stressful events were associated with depressive symptoms in pregnancy only for individuals with a highly sensitive personality.

Christina’s poster was the recipient of one of the awards for best poster! Congratulations Christina!

Madison Bissa (undergraduate Honors thesis student) presented her poster Moderators of the association between parental separation and adolescent externalizing behaviors: A systematic review. Her review finds that factors at the individual, family, and broader community levels moderate the association between parental separation and adolescent substance use and externalizing problems. Madison’s poster was the recipient of one of the awards for best poster! Congratulations Madi!

Zoe Childers-Rockey (undergraduate research assistant) presented her poster Parent Preferences for Peer Connection in Virtual Mental Health and Parenting Support Platforms. This research conducted in collaboration with the Hearts and Minds Lab finds that parents have strong preferences for connecting with peers if participating in a virtual (online or app-based) mental health and parenting program.

Madison Donohue (research assistant; graduated with her BA in Spring 2023) presented her poster Mental Health and Digital Media Use in the First Trimester of Pregnancy. Her project found that anxiety and depression are associated with more social comparisons on social media as well as being more comfortable asking for and sharing information online than in person.

Emily Flesher (undergraduate research assistant) presented her poster Cost and effectiveness of participant recruitment via social media ads with Zoom calls for a study on mental health in pregnancy. Her research finds that social media is an efficient recruitment method for pregnancy cohorts, with Facebook being the most cost-effective, followed by Instagram and Reddit (Twitter was not effective).

McKenna Nhem (undergraduate Honors thesis student) presented her poster Studies of person-environment interactions in adult mental health still focus on diathesis-stress: Initial results from a scoping review of studies citing environmental sensitivity theories. Her scoping review finds that studies on person-environment interactions in the prediction of adult mental health still tend to examine only one theoretical model (diathesis-stress) while citing but not testing competing models.

Annika Testerman (undergraduate research assistant) presented her poster Adverse childhood environments and substance use in pregnancy during COVID-19. This research conducted in collaboration with the Healthy Families Lab, Developmental Neuroimaging Lab, and Developmental Psychobiology Laboratory found that adverse childhood experiences were a stronger predictor of substance use in pregnant individuals during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic than pandemic-related stressors/hardship.

Fily Wahidin (graduate research assistant) presented her poster Cannabis Legislation and Use Before and After Pregnancy: Descriptive Results from a National Cohort in the United States. Her project finds that cannabis use prevalence in the year before getting pregnant as well as during the first trimester of pregnancy did not differ based on state-level cannabis legislation.