My overall research interest involves understanding changes in the experiences and expression of emotions during the adolescent transition. Specifically, I am interested in: 1) examining the effects that poor emotional awareness has on adolescent emotional processing, including determining what kinds of emotion regulation strategies individuals with low awareness use, and 2) examining how emotional awareness and emotion regulation together relate to internalizing symptoms. Related to this line of research, I am also interested in emotional concordance, that is, the relationship between the primary emotional response domains: physiological arousal, self-reported experience, and observed expression. More recently, I have developed an interest in examining children and adolescents within the area of healthcare, specifically focusing on age-appropriate doctor-patient communication and adherence strategies, as well as the use of play in treatment programs.
