My program of research takes a biopsychosocial perspective on understanding health and well-being in the context of family and peer relationships. I am interested in how nature and nurture intersect – how early experiences shape the development of emotion regulation, stress responding, and social perception, and how these phenomena influence subsequent psychosocial functioning. Much of my research incorporates cortisol, a hormone secreted by the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis that reflects bodily adaptation to acute and chronic stress. However, I have pursued additional training in neuroimaging at USC and recently completed an fMRI study of adolescents' perceptions of parents and peers. At the moment, I am developing a new study of couples transitioning to parenthood, the HATCH (Hormones, Attachment, and Transition to CHildrearing) study. We will follow couples across the prenatal and postpartum periods and measure hormonal changes and patterns of within-couple coregulation. I also plan to conduct MRI scanning of the fathers to look at structural and functional changes to the "fathering brain." For more information on my work and lab, please visit http://dornsife.usc.edu/nestlab
