Does exposure to trauma explain lower rates of psychopathology among racial, ethnic minorities in the United States?

David R. Williams, a Harvard Pop Center faculty member, collaborated with a Harvard RWJF Health & Society Scholar program alumna and current Harvard faculty member Katie McLaughlin and colleagues in this study to shed light on whether exposure to trauma might be partly at play in explaining why racial and ethnic minorities have lower rates of psychopathology in the U.S.

Are sexual minorities at a greater risk of experiencing stress?

Harvard Pop Center faculty member S. Bryn Austin, PhD, and Graduate Student Affiliate Brielle Bryan have authored a study that indicates that sexual minority women (lesbian and bisexual) physiologically experience more stress based on disparities in sympathetic nervous system biomarkers.

Study first to find intervention helpful in preventing traits in adolescent boys that are considered a precursor to psychopathy

Former Harvard RWJF HSS program scholars Margaret Sheridan, PhD, and Katie McLaughlin, PhD, are co-authors on a study published in the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry that found a foster care intervention to be effective in preventing the onset of CU (callous-unemotional) traits—a development precursor to psychopathy—among adolescent boys who had been exposed to severe, early deprivation.

Brain scans lead to hopeful findings on ability of abused children to regulate mood

Harvard RWJF Health & Society Scholar program alumnae Katie McLaughlin, PhD, and Margaret Sheridan, PhD, are co-authors on a study published in the Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry that found that individuals who had been abused as children could successfully learn and apply techniques to regulate their emotional reactions to “very stimulating emotional situations.” Learn more in this newseveryday.com article.

Children who are physically abused or witness domestic violence at increased risk of higher BMI as adolescents

Harvard Robert Wood Johnson Health & Society Program alumnae Margaret Sheridan, PhD,  and Katie McLaughlin, PhD, are co-authors on a study in Child Abuse & Neglect that finds that children who witnessed domestic violence had almost six times the odds of being overweight or obese as adolescents.

RWJF Alums study how marathon bombings impact adolescent mental health

Last Spring, RWJF alums Katie McLaughlin and Margaret Sheridan were in the middle of a study on trauma that, like so many of its kind, relied upon artificial situations created in a lab. But in the middle of this study, a real-life trauma occurred: the marathon bombing. As McLaughlin told New England Public Radio, this provided a unique opportunity to look at how children and adolescents who had experienced previous trauma…