Research

Parenting and Perceived Control

The importance of parenting is widely accepted and established in previous literature, particularly with cases involving childhood maltreatment. Perceived control has been shown to be a key resilience factor in recovering from the lasting negative effects of childhood trauma. This project aims to explore the connection between parenting and the resulting perceived control of the child with the following questions. 1) How do parental affection, parental discipline, and gender of the parent interact to influence perceived control? 2) What is the association between childhood maltreatment and perceived control across time with parental discipline and parental affection as a moderator?

Alexithymia and childhood maltreatment: A meta-analysis

Alexithymia refers to difficulties identifying and describing one’s emotions. Growing evidence suggests that alexithymia is a key transdiagnostic risk factor. Despite its clinical importance, the etiology of alexithymia is largely unknown. We are conducting a meta-analysis to summarize findings on the role of one hypothesized antecedent of adult alexithymia, namely childhood maltreatment.

Identifying Biochemical Signatures in the General Population: Relations to Childhood Maltreatment, Disease Burden, and Mortality

Prevalence of non-communicable diseases such as depression and a range of somatic diseases is continuously increasing requiring simple and inexpensive ways to identify high-risk individuals. Thus, this project aims to identify biochemical clusters based on C-reactive protein, interleukin 6, fibrinogen, cortisol, and creatinine using k-mean cluster analytics. Further, the link of the resulting clusters to childhood maltreatment, a well-established early-life risk factor for developing mental and somatic disorders, will be examined such as the relations of the clusters todiseases and mortality 10 years after the biomarker assessment. Analyses will be conducted in a U.S. American sample (from Midlife in the United States study) and validated in a Japanese sample (from Midlife in Japan study).

Towards a Better Understanding of Heterogeneity in Psychosomatic Medicine: The Intricate Link Between Negative Life Events, Clinical symptoms, and Psychotherapy Efficacy

Evidence suggests an association of negative life events and different mental disorders such as major depressive disorder and anxiety disorder. However, researchers disagree about mechanisms underlying this relationship and about how these relations might influence the course of psychotherapy. The purpose of this project is to address these issues in a clinical sample that has been screened in the beginning and at the end of their inpatient treatment. Data has been collected between October 2017 and March 2020.

Music, Self-compassion, and Self-Reference

Music is widely used to regulate one’s mental states, regardless of whether one feels happy or sad. It is known to have an effect on the way one view themselves and shapes their identity. In order to better understand the relationship between music and the self, it is important to the consider the mediating factors that may define this relationship. In this study we are conducting a mediation analysis to investigate the role of self-compassion in the relationship between music and self reference.

Trauma and Face Recognition

Although interest in human facial recognition ability has grown, the literature rarely investigates factors that influence facial recognition and especially self-face recognition. By using a novel self-morphing task, we are investigating whether and how childhood maltreatment related to self-recognition distortions.