Congratulations to the DAS Lab for presenting at the Society for Research in Pathology (SRP) Annual Meeting last year!
Dr. LeMoult gave a talk titled: “Stress Generation: Longitudinal and Daily Diary Applications”
Dr. LeMoult’s workshop served to elevate the next wave of stress generation research by overviewing our best practice guidelines and spotlighting creative, high-quality stress generation studies to encourage idea exchanges among attendees. Stress generation theory is a powerful model for understanding the course and negative sequelae of depression and other psychiatric disorders.
Ellen gave a talk titled: “The Infant Microbiome and the Intergenerational Transmission of Psychiatric Risk”
This study leverages Canada’s largest deeply-phenotyped birth cohort to elucidate the mechanistic associations between maternal prenatal stress, the microbiome, and child internalizing symptoms, implicating the microbiome as one mechanism through which maternal prenatal stress is biologically embedded in a way that to impacts later offspring’s later mental health.
Taylyn presented: “Parent Cognitive Biases and Child Biological Stress Recovery: A Longitudinal Investigation Across Laboratory & Naturalistic Stressors”
This work was the first to investigate the role of parent cognitive biases on child biological stress regulation. We found that parent’s negative attention biases predicted less cortisol recovery in their child during a laboratory stress task, and that parent’s negative interpretation biases predicted less daily cortisol recovery in their child during the transition to high school.
Seon presented: “The Role of Parent Interpretation Biases, Self-Compassion, and Rumination on Adolescent Anxiety and Depression”
Seon’s research investigated how parents’ self-compassion and rumination shape the influence of their negative interpretation bias—the tendency to view ambiguous situations negatively—on their children’s anxiety and depression over time. Her findings revealed that parents’ self-compassion buffers the effects of their interpretation biases on children’s depression, while rumination amplifies the effects on children’s anxiety.
Bronwen presented: “Daily Coupling of Loneliness and Shame Heighten Risk for Depression: The Role of Negative Self-Referential Processing”
This study was the first to test whether feeling shame in response to loneliness heightens risk for depression, and whether associations are strengthened by negative self-referential cognitions. The findings suggest that coupling of daily loneliness and shame predicts risk for depression and is heightened by negative self-referential processing.
Cindy presented: “The Association of Self-Conscious Moral Emotions (Shame and Guilt) with Depressive Symptoms in Chinese, Chinese Canadian, and Caucasian Canadian Students: A Longitudinal Cross-Cultural Study”
Although shame and guilt have cross-cultural differences, previous research suggests the relation between shame and depression does not differ across broad cultural groups (e.g. Western vs. East Asian). However, fewer studies consider nuanced cultural differences, such as between Chinese, bicultural Canadian and Chinese, and Caucasian Canadians, which may present important insights. This longitudinal study examines these nuanced cross-cultural differences in the association of shame- versus guilt-proneness with depression after controlling for well-established depression predictors.
Fides presented: “Cultural Stress and Depression Symptomology: A Longitudinal Analysis of Domestic and International Chinese Students”
Our study explored how cultural stress—specifically acculturative stress and ethno-cultural identity conflict—contributes to depression among Chinese domestic and international students. We found that both forms of cultural stress were significant predictors of depression over time, with international students experiencing higher levels of depression, highlighting the compounded impact of cultural and immigrant-related stressors.