Morse Scholars

Curriculum Vitae

I am currently a T32 postdoctoral fellow in the Lifespan Family Research lab at the Waisman Center. My research agenda is broadly concerned with identifying compensatory resources that support the well-being of parents of children with developmental disabilities over the life course. The goal of this line of work is to better understand the social (e.g., egocentric networks) and psychological (e.g., coping styles) factors that facilitate resilience under conditions of chronic caregiving stress. I also have a strong interest in using research to promote racial/ethnic and socioeconomic equity in the context of intellectual and developmental disabilities, specifically in relation to health services and outcomes.

Postdoctoral Training Mentors: Marsha Mailick, PhD, and Leann Smith DaWalt, PhD

Disciplines that I pull from in my research: Sociology, Social Psychology, Network Science, Human Development and Family Studies, and Gerontology

Articles that influenced my research:

Berkman, L. F., Glass, T., Brissette, I., & Seeman, T. E. (2000). From social integration to health: Durkheim in the new millennium. Social science & medicine, 51(6), 843-857.

Kahn, R. L., & Antonucci, T. C. (1980). Convoys over the life course: Attachment, roles, and social support. In P. B. Baltes & O. Brim (Eds.), Life-span development and behavior (Vol. 3, pp. 254–283). Academies Press.

Borgatti, S. P., & Halgin, D. S. (2011). On Network Theory. Organization Science, 22(5), 1168–1181.

Mailick Seltzer, M., Floyd, F., Song, J., Greenberg, J., & Hong, J. (2011). Midlife and Aging Parents of Adults With Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities: Impacts of Lifelong Parenting. American Journal on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities, 116(6), 479–499.

Folkman, S., & Lazarus, R. S. (1985). If it changes it must be a process: Study of emotion and coping during three stages of a college examination. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 48(1), 150–170.

Curriculum Vitae

The overarching goal of my research is to understand the role of the family environment in the socioemotional development of children with special healthcare needs, with a particular focus on autism spectrum disorder (ASD). I am interested in exploring how the emotional climate of the family during early childhood, such as exposure to parental mental health or interparental conflict, may put children at risk for maladaptive developmental trajectories as well as family factors that foster healthy socioemotional functioning. My work increasingly focuses on how neurobiological predispositions and the unique care needs of children with ASD interact with the family environment to shape socioemotional and mental health outcomes. I hope my research directly informs policy, practice, and prevention and promotes the healthy development of children with ASD.

Postdoctoral Training Mentor: Sigan Hartley, PhD

Disciplines that I pull from in my research: Psychology, Human Development and Family Studies, Education, Sociology, Neurophysiology

Articles that influenced my research:

Baker, J. K., Seltzer, M. M., & Greenberg, J. S. (2011). Longitudinal effects of adaptability on behavior problems and maternal depression in families of adolescents with autism. Journal of Family Psychology, 25, 601–609. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0024409

Boykin, W., & Allen, B. A. (2002). Beyond deficits and difference psychological integrity in developmental research. In E. W. Gordon (Ed.), Producing knowledge, pursing understanding, (15-34). Emerald Group Publishing Limited.

Cridland, E. K., Jones, S. C., Magee, C. A., & Caputi, P. (2014). Family-focused autism spectrum disorder research: a review of the utility of family systems approaches. Autism : The International Journal of Research and Practice, 18(3), 213–222. https://doi.org/10.1177/1362361312472261

Mazefsky, C. A., Pelphrey, K. A., & Dahl, R. E. (2012). The need for a broader approach to emotion regulation research in autism. Child Development Perspectives, 6(1), 92–97. https://doi.org/10.1038/jid.2014.371

Morris, A. S., Silk, J. S., Steinberg, L., Myers, S. S., & Robinson, L. R. (2007). The role of the family context in the development of emotion regulation. Social Development, 16(2), 361–388. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9507.2007.00389.x

O’Keefe, S. B., & Medina, C. M. (2016). Nine strategies for helping middle school students weather the perfect sotrm of disability, diversity, and adolescence. American Secondary Education, 44(3), 72-87.

Strauman, T. J. (2017). Self-Regulation and pychopathology: Toward an integrative translational research paradigm. Annual Review of Clinical Psychology, 13, 497–523. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-clinpsy-032816

White, S. W., Mazefsky, C. A., Dichter, G. S., Chiu, P. H., Richey, J. A., & Ollendick, T. H. (2014). Social-cognitive, physiological, and neural mechanisms underlying emotion regulation impairments: Understanding anxiety in autism spectrum disorder. Journal of Developmental Neuroscience, 39, 22–36. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijdevneu.2014.05.012.Social-cognitive

Curriculum Vitae

My research focuses on intrinsic and extrinsic factors that contribute to language learning in young children with developmental disabilities, including children with Down syndrome, fragile X syndrome, and autism spectrum disorders. Specifically, my research investigates the relationships between parent and child factors during naturalistic parent-child interactions. By including both mothers and fathers, we can better understand similarities and differences in parent behaviors, which may shed light on ways in which parents may need different supports during parent-coached interventions. In addition, I am particularly interested in how we can gain additional insight into interactions and child language development through the use of multiple methods, including standardized measures, behavioral coding, parent report, physiological measures of parent-child synchrony, and Language ENvironment Analysis (LENA).

Home Departments: Communication Sciences and Disorders

Major Professor: Audra Sterling, PhD

Disciplines that I pull from in my research include: Communication Sciences and Disorders, Human Development and Family Studies, Developmental Psychology, Linguistics

Articles That Influenced My Research: 

Adamson LB, Bakeman R, Deckner DF, Romski M. (2009). Joint engagement and the emergence of language in children with autism and Down syndrome. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 39, 84–96. PMCID: PMC2640949

Brady N, Warren SF, Fleming K, Keller J, Sterling A. (2014). Effect of sustained maternal responsivity on later vocabulary development in children with fragile X syndrome. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 57, 212–226. PMCID: PMC3864610

de Falco S, Esposito G, Venuti P, Bornstein MH. (2010). Mothers and fathers at play with their children with Down syndrome: Influence on child exploratory and symbolic activity. Journal of Applied Research in Intellectual Disabilities, 23, 597–605. PMCID: PMC3530190

Sterling A, Warren SF. (2014). Maternal responsivity in mothers of young children with Down syndrome. Developmental Neurorehabilitation, 17, 306–317. PMCID: PMC4113603

Curriculum Vitae

My research investigates the genetic and environmental contributions to brain structure and how individual differences in brain measures relate to psychopathology such as anxiety disorders. I utilize a wide range of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) techniques such as diffusion-weighted MRI and quantitative T1 relaxometry to characterize specific brain properties ranging from neurite dispersion to axonal myelination. My hope is that better understanding the genetic basis of individual differences in brain structure can inform both typical and atypical brain development.

Home Department: Neuroscience (Neuroscience Training Program)

Major Professor: Andy Alexander, PhD

Disciplines that I pull from in my research include: Neuroscience, Psychology, Medical Physics, Radiology

Articles That Influenced My Research: 

Alexander AL, Lee JE, Lazar M, Field AS. (2007). Diffusion tensor imaging of the brain. Neurotherapeutics: The Journal of the American Society for Experimental NeuroTherapeutics, 4(3), 316–329. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nurt.2007.05.011. PMCID: PMC2041910

Adluru, N., Luo, Z., Van Hulle, C.A., Schoen, A.J., Davidson, R.J., Alexander, A.L., Goldsmith, H.H., 2017. Anxiety-related experience-dependent white matter structural differences in adolescence: A monozygotic twin difference approach. Scientific Reports 7, 1–11. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-08107-6

Chung, M.K., Luo, Z., Adluru, N., Alexander, A.L., Davidson, R.J., Goldsmith, H.H., 2018. Heritability of nested hierarchical structural brain network, in: 40th Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMBC). Presented at the 40th Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMBC), pp. 554–557.

Jahanshad, N., Kochunov, P.V., Sprooten, E., Mandl, R.C., Nichols, T.E., Almasy, L., Blangero, J., Brouwer, R.M., Curran, J.E., de Zubicaray, G.I., Duggirala, R., Fox, P.T., Hong, L.E., Landman, B.A., Martin, N.G., McMahon, K.L., Medland, S.E., Mitchell, B.D., Olvera, R.L., Peterson, C.P., Starr, J.M., Sussmann, J.E., Toga, A.W., Wardlaw, J.M., Wright, M.J., Hulshoff Pol, H.E., Bastin, M.E., McIntosh, A.M., Deary, I.J., Thompson, P.M., Glahn, D.C., 2013. Multi-site genetic analysis of diffusion images and voxelwise heritability analysis: a pilot project of the ENIGMA-DTI working group. Neuroimage 81, 455–469. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2013.04.061

Zhang, H., Schneider, T., Wheeler-Kingshott, C.A., Alexander, D.C., 2012. NODDI: Practical in vivo neurite orientation dispersion and density imaging of the human brain. NeuroImage 61, 1000–1016. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2012.03.072