Contact Information

Research Information

Research Description

I am presently conducting a 3 year longitudinal psychosocial study of children and adolescents who undergo surgical repair of a chest wall deformity called pectus excavatum. We are primarily interested in the impact of surgical repair on the psychosocial development of youth. This research is being done in conjunction with Dr. Allen Hayashi (Vancouver Island Health Authority), Dr. Jillian Roberts (UVic), Dr. Erik Skarsgard (UBC), and Dr. Sigalet (University of Calgary).
I conduct research on emotional regulation and motivation. In particular, I am interested in emotional regulation during difficult learning or testing situations, failure resiliency in the context of learning, and rumination.
I have conducted research on depression in children and its relation to perceived competence. This area is now merging with my research on emotional regulation and motivation.

Interdisciplinary Research

The research on pectus excavatum combines medical and psychological expertise.

Health Related Research

The research on the repair of pectus excavatum is being done in conjunction with surgeons who have expressed an interest in knowing whether the psychological benefits of surgical repair are as important as the physiological benefits. The surgical repair being done is the Nuss procedure.

Research Keywords

International Involvement

Countries lived/worked in

The United States and Indonesia/West Papua

Software Development

Ongoing development of a software package that can be used to assess emotional interference. Currently this software can set up several versions of the emotional stroop task - a task that measures the cognitive interference produced by words that represent areas of concern or threat. This software runs two computer monitors so that the researcher and participant can view separate monitors.