Madison Bissa, who graduated from her undergraduate degree in December, presented her Honors thesis work at the conference of the Society for Research on Adolescence last week in Chicago! Madi’s poster speed talk was on a systematic review of the moderators of the association between parental separation and adolescent externalizing behaviors. Dr. Rioux also presented her work on alcohol use age of onset and substance use disorder symptoms conducted with colleagues at the University of Montreal.
Congratulations to Honors thesis student McKenna Nhem and undergraduate research assistant Christina Personette, who both received the OU Provost’s Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity (UReCA) Summer Fellowship! The fellowship will support their independent research over the summer.
McKenna will work on a research project examining how individuals differ in their sensitivity to experiences of discrimination in the prediction of mental health in a national sample of adults in the United States.
Christina will work on a project examining how pregnant individuals differ in their sensitivity to recent stressful experiences in the prediction of mental health in the first trimester of pregnancy using data from the Experiences of Pregnancy cohort study.
Several of our lab members presented their research at the Oklahoma Psychological Society (OPS) annual conference on April 5, 2024! Click on the students’ pictures to see their poster!
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!
Megan Waldron and Delaney Fulp (undergraduate research assistants) presented their talk The Highly Sensitive Personality and the Sensory Profile. Their project finds that the highly sensitive personality is related to a sensory profile characterized by a combination of low stimulus registration, high sensory sensitivity, and high sensation avoidance
The lab’s students also received several awards!
(1) Zoe Rockey received the Outstanding Undergraduate Student Award following her nomination from Dr. Rioux. (2) Christina Personette received one of the Best Poster Awards. (3) Finally, McKenna Nhem, Madison Bissa, Christina Personette, and Fily Wahidin got second place representing the University of Oklahoma in the Psychology Bowl Trivia Competition!
The students’ presentations and accomplishments were celebrated with a post-conference dinner in Oklahoma City!
Congratulations to our research assistants Delaney Fulp and Christina Personette on receiving the University of Oklahoma Department of Psychology’s TOPS (The Outstanding Psychology Student) scholarships!
The scholarship is given each year to outstanding students with excellent coursework records who contribute significantly to research, service, and/or community engagement in the department.
Delaney received the General Psychology scholarship and Christina, who is completing a statistics certificate along with her psychology major, received the Quantitative Statistics scholarship. Both were recommended by Dr. Rioux for their outstanding work in the lab along with other campus involvements.
Several of our lab members presented their research at the Oklahoma Psychological Association (OPA) annual convention on November 3, 2023! Click on the students’ pictures to see their poster!
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.
We are launching the Experiences of Pregnancy study! We will be recruiting individuals in the United States who are 10 weeks of less pregnant to understand how personality, social relationships, and the environment work together for mental health and wellness during pregnancy and postpartum.
Our research assistants worked hard on this study since January! Our large team will be recruiting participants throughout the summer.
The study is completely online. To learn more or if you are interested to join, check out the study website at experiences-study.com!
Welcome to our 11 new students, joining the lab to help with our summer projects! They will be helping us most with our Experiences of Pregnancy study recruitment, but also with Madi Bissa’s project on parental separation and adolescent externalizing problems and substance use. Find out more about our assistants on the Current Team page!
The PEANUTs Lab opened its doors this semester at the Department of Psychology of the University of Oklahoma. Our goal is to contribute to improved mental health across generations, inform developmental theory, and improve research methods and communication.
With 6 motivated, passionate undergraduate students, we are excited to work on building the protocol and surveys for our Environmental Sensitivity and Mental Health in Pregnancy Study over the spring semester!
