Study abroad programs increase a student's exposure to different cultures, traditions, and ways of life. While the benefits of participating in a study abroad program have been well documented, barriers, such as language, culture, and environment, may present themselves to program participants. Participants are introduced to a variety of new…

Early life stress, daily life experiences, and the stress responsive hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis have each been examined as predictors of the development of psychopathology. Rarely have researchers attempted to understand the covariation or interaction among these stress domains using a longitudinal design in the prediction of…

Hypothalamic-Pituitary-Adrenal (HPA) axis activity is related to negative mental health outcomes, including depression. Most developmental research uses salivary cortisol to index HPA activity; however, hair cortisol concentrations (HCCs) reflect cortisol production over extended periods of time. While HCCs have been linked to adult depression,…

Accidents caused by human errors illustrate the fragility of cognitive processing and its coordination by executive functions against stress. To better understand how core executive functions change over time, influence each other, and are affected by chronic stress exposure, a prospective cohort study was conducted from 2016 to 2019. Five hundred…

In contrast to a large body of work concerning the effects of physiological stress reactivity on children's socioemotional functioning, far less attention has been devoted to understanding the effects of such reactivity on cognitive, including mnemonic, functioning. How well children learn and remember information under stress has implications for…

This study examined interparental conflict as a linear and curvilinear predictor of subsequent changes in adolescents' negative emotional reactivity and cortisol functioning during family conflict and, in turn, their psychological difficulties. In addition, adolescents' negative emotional reactivity and cortisol functioning during family conflict…

Incontinence, psychological symptoms, parental stress and psychopathology were examined in 51 children (43 boys, mean age = 9.7 years) presented in an outpatient clinic for autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and in 53 matched controls (43 boys, mean age = 10.2 years). All children were clinically assessed for ASD, incontinence and psychopathology…

Students at the graduate level undergo higher levels of stress compared to their peers, and this stress is known to affect academic performance. Most of the research is focused on the negative aspect of stress. Positive psychology aspects, such as eustress and flow, are related to success in some activities; however, it is unknown whether these…

This study examined children's morning hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis activation as a moderator of links between hostile, over-reactive parenting at age 4.5 years and children's skills for success in school (higher executive function and literacy and less externalizing behaviour) at age 6. Participants included 361 adoptive families.…

Rural stress is the physiological reaction brought upon by internal and socioeconomic stressors characteristic of rural residents. This type of stress is exacerbated by the complex issues facing rural populations and serves to inhibit the growth of vibrant, resilient communities. The current study sought to construct and validate an instrument…

Depressive symptoms, somatic complaints, and circulating levels of inflammatory biomarkers interleukin-6 (IL-6) and C-reactive protein (CRP) were examined as correlates of social and physical peer victimization in an ethnically diverse sample of adolescents (N = 91) using a multi-informant approach. Hierarchical regression analyses indicated that…

We examined the prediction that the interaction between Glucocorticoid Receptor Gene ("NR3C1") methylation, stress, and experienced maternal support predicts anxious and avoidant attachment development. This was tested in a general population sample of 487 children and adolescents (44% boys, M[subscript age] = 11.84, SD[subscript age] =…

Young people with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have a high prevalence (~40 %) of anxiety disorders compared to their non-ASD peers. It is unclear whether cognitive and biological processes associated with anxiety in ASD are analogous to anxiety in typically developing (TD) populations. In this study 55 boys with ASD (34 with a co-occurring…

Research on self-efficacy has been a productive field while limited studies have explored language learners' formation of academic self-efficacy. This quantitative study developed an instrument with two questionnaires for assessing English as a foreign language (EFL) learners' formation of self-efficacy and academic self-efficacy. It further…

Theorists argue that parental reflective functioning (PRF) is activated in response to emotions, potentially supporting parenting sensitivity even when arousal is high. That is, when parents become emotionally reactive when interacting with their children, those who can use PRF to understand their children's mental states should be able to parent…