PEANUTs Lab

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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

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

Oklahoma Psychological Society 2025 Conference

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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!

Carson Freeman presented research he has been conducting with Christina Personette, examining the role of adverse childhood experiences and social support in prenatal mental health.

Carson in front of his poster

Zoe Childers-Rockey and Madison Bissa presented the lab’s Paper-in-a-Day project that examined mental health service use in pregnancy and postpartum.

Zoe and Madi in front of their poster

Southwestern Psychological Association 2025 Convention

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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!

Christina presented on adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and perinatal mental health. Her study expands research showing that conventional ACEs predict anxiety and depression in pregnancy by showing that (1) ACEs also predict prenatal anger symptoms and lower well-being and (2) this applies not only to conventionally examined ACEs, which occur in the home, but also expanded ACEs, which occur in the community.

Christina in front of her poster

Zoe and Emily presented on participant representativeness in an online study on mental health during pregnancy. Their research shows that recruiting pregnant participants online allows reaching participants that cannot be recruited via clinics and hospitals (such as those without access to prenatal care) and allows recruiting samples much faster than typically done in person – but that some limitations in terms of representativeness suggest the need to implement stratified sampling. Zoe received a graduate student poster showcase award for this poster!

Zoe and Emily in front of their poster, with Zoe holding her award

Society for Personality and Social Psychology 2025 Annual Convention

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On February 20-22, Jacob Stephens attended and presented his research at the annual convention of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, in Denver Colorado! Jacob is a research assistant in the lab and graduate from his undergraduate degree last Fall.

Jacob’s research found that sensory processing sensitivity (sensitivity to social and environmental stimuli) and rejection sensitivity (hyper-alertness to potential rejection from others) are associated with each other and independently predict psychological distress and well-being, with both predicting mental health even when controlling for the other.

Jacob in front of his poster

Lab’s first Paper-in-a-Day!

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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!

Oklahoma Psychological Association 2024 Convention

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Two of the lab’s students presented at the convention of the Oklahoma Psychological Association on November 8!

Undergraduate Honors student McKenna Nhem was invited to present a talk on her research examining environmental sensitivity to discrimination on the prediction of adult mental health. This summer fellowship project followed up McKenna’s scoping review and honors thesis finding limited research examining how temperament/personality can capture environmental sensitivity in adult mental health research. McKenna’s project also examined psychological distress and well-being after finding that previous research focused exclusively on psychopathology.

Recent undergrad alumni Zoe Childers-Rockey presented the protocol of her new independent project, a systematic review of the moderators of the association between peer influences and adolescent delinquency. Her poster got a first place award!

McKenna talking at a podium
Zoe in front of her poster

New student paper! Moderators of the Association Between Parental Separation and Adolescent Externalizing Behaviors and Substance Use

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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

Infographic about Madison's article. Main findings are that divorce earlier in an adolescent's lifetime is more strongly related to externalizing behaviors in adolescence, positive family relationships are protective, and cultural factors should be taken into consideration.