This fall, Tulane CFL lab members had the honor of presenting at two conferences: the annual meeting of the American Psychological Association, APA, (https://convention.apa.org) and the 38th annual International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies, ISTSS, (https://istss.org/home). Fourth year doctoral student Renee Lamoreau represented the lab at both conferences, doing both a poster presentation at APA and a symposium at ISTSS! At the 2022 annual conference of the American Psychological Association, second year doctoral student Hilary Skov presented her poster and represented the Gray lab incredibly well. Second year doctoral student Allison Pequet also did an amazing job presenting her research in a poster at ISTSS. We are elated to highlight their accomplishments below.
Renee’s poster for APA focused on the relationship between childhood maltreatment and children’s emotion regulation skills. Renee’s findings showed that household chaos and psychological aggression work together to influence child emotion dysregulation. Her research demonstrates the importance of household chaos as an important predictor of child outcomes over and above parenting behaviors. To learn more about this research, contact rlamoreau@tulane.edu. Other lab members Hilary Skov, Allison Pequet, and Dr. Sarah Gray also supported this research.
Hilary’s poster for APA focused on the role of respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) withdrawal (a clinical biological marker of stress sensitivity) in the relationship between COVID-19 stressor exposure and subjective stress levels. Her research found that children with higher levels of RSA withdrawal were associated with a stronger relationship between covid stress exposure and subjective stress. Results also showed that RSA withdrawal is a risk factor for higher levels of subjective stress. This demonstrates the importance of understanding biomarkers of stress sensitivity, like RSA, within economically and racially marginalized communities, as these families face increased risk for COVID-19 stress exposure. Anna Wilson, Erin Glackin, Victoria Parker, and Dr. Sarah Gray collaborated with Hilary on this poster.
Then, in November at ISTSS, Renee Lamoreau and Allison Pequet both presented their work within the lab!
Second year graduate student Allison Pequet did a great poster presentation on the unintended positive changes of COVID-19 and their effects on post-traumatic stress symptoms. Her research showed that there was significant positive and significant negative association between negative COVID-19 stressors and maternal post traumatic stress symptoms (PTSS). This work explains that mothers who experience high levels of covid-related stressors and have few opportunities to experience positive changes are at high risk for PTSS. This strengths-based work was well received at ISTSS and we are so proud of her! Lab members Casey Schulkind and Dr. Sarah Gray supported Allison’s work on her poster.
Renee Lamoreau and Monica Daniels, both school psychology PhD students at Tulane and part of the Mom Power team, did a symposium presentation about Mom Power and the results of a virtual group adaptation for mothers with trauma histories. Their presentation focused on the flexibility offered by virtual interventions, the importance of representation in their support group materials and facilitating culturally relevant conversations with their study participants during Mom Power. This presentation reported on mothers’ self-reported data collected after the six-week intervention which showed the benefits of the virtual adaptation to the study including reduced access barriers to increase attendance. This work was also supported by Anna Wilson, Hilary Skov, Victoria Parker, and Dr. Sarah Gray.
We are so proud of all of the fantastic work in the lab from last fall!