Graduate Student
I came to Mary's lab because of my interest in interventions that promote the healthy development of infants in foster care. I am currently working on a study that examines how our intervention works for foster caregivers. I am looking at moderators, such as attachment state of mind, which may affect the degree to which a foster caregiver engages in our intervention. I predict that caregivers who are more engaged in the ABC intervention program will have foster children with better outcomes in the long term.
I am also interested in the behavioral and biological factors associated with bond formation among biological and non-biological parents and infants. A recent study that I conducted revealed that mothers produce more oxytocin when they engaged in close physical interaction with a child they do not know, when compared with their own child. For my dissertation, I will continue this research by investigating whether this trend exists when foster mothers bond with their foster infants. I hope that such research will further our understanding of how bonds form, how bio-behavioral factors may be related to the quality of the bond between foster mothers and foster infants, and be useful for identifying healthy or at-risk bonds between foster mothers and children on behavioral and bio-behavioral levels.
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