Pediatric Emotion Regulation Lab

Fordham University

Welcome to PERL!

Our research focuses on the study of children and adolescents who struggle to regulate negative emotions such as anger, frustration, and anxiety. We are also interested in learning about parent characteristics that may influence how they respond to their child's strong emotions. Currently, our work utilizes state-of-the-art methods including psychophysiological assessment during frustration and ecological momentary assessment (EMA) of maternal responses to child outbursts. Previously, we collected structural and functional MRI and EEG data, and we continue to examine the neural bases of emotion regulation deficits utilizing publicly available datasets. We are also conducting a study of the impact of school air pollution on child emotional, behavioral, and academic outcomes in collaboration with Dr. Josh Brown (Psychology) and Dr. Stephen Holler (Physics). Overall, the PERL lab takes multiple approaches to address questions about the etiology of pediatric emotion dysregulation, and how to improve outcomes and inform interventions.

Study Participants: Click here if you are a teenager or college student interested in participating in one of our active studies.

Graduate applicants: Click here for more information.

Fordham undergraduates interested in joining the PERL lab, click here.

Lab News

Congratulations to Cristina Nardini for presenting at the National Mentor Summit workshop in February 2025!

Cristina presented a workshop at the 2025 National Mentor Summit in Washington DC with Fordham CPDP faculty, Dr. Liz Raposa, and collaborators from University of Minnesota, Dr. Lindsey Weidler and Yunqi (Kay) He. The workshop centered emotion coaching as a way to improve emotion regulation among youth mentees and mentors.

We are thrilled to have Anisha join our lab in January of 2025. She is pursuing a master's degree in the Clinical Research Methods (CRM) program. Welcome Anisha!

Julia Trexler received the FCRH Spring and Fall Research Grants in 2024-2025!

Congratulations to Julia, who was the recipient of Fordham University Rose Hill Research Grant in September and January for her Honors Thesis, “The Menstrual Cycle and ADHD Effects on Risky Behavior." This project was completed in conjunction with CRM student, Ally Eisenberg.

Cristina Nardini received the Psi Chi Graduate Research Grant in December 2024!

Congratulations to Cristina, who was the recipient of the competitive Psi Chi Graduate Research Grant in December 2024 for her project entitled “Socioemotional dynamics of emotion regulation and anxiety symptoms among adolescents: A person-centered network approach.” This project will serve as the foundational study in Cristina’s dissertation.

Congratulations to Maggie Benda, Cristina Nardini, and Meryl Rueppel for presenting their work at the ABCT annual conference in November 2024!

Select Publications:

Leibenluft, E., Allen, L., Althoff, R., … Roy, A.K., …Stringaris, A. (2024). Irritability in youth: A critical integrative review. American Journal of Psychiatry, 181, 275- 290. https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.ajp.20230256.
Ferrara, E.*, Lee, H., Stadterman Guarecuco, J.*, Somekh, M.R.*, Hirsch, E.*, Keesey, R.*, Cham, H., Hoyt, L.T., & Roy, A.K. (2024). Novel assessment of the impact of irritability on physiological and psychological frustration responses in adolescents. Journal of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology, 53, 216-230. https://doi.org/10.1080/15374416.2024.2301753
Benda, M.*, DeSerisy, M., Levitch, C., & Roy, A.K. (2023). An investigation of the neural basis of anger attributions in irritable youth. Emotion, 24, 1068-1077. https://doi.org/10.1037/emo0001337.
Hirsch, E.*, Alam, T.*, Kirk, N.*, Bevans, K.B., Briggs-Gowan, M., Wakschlag, L.S., Wiggins, J.L., & Roy, A.K. (2023). Developmentally specified characterization of the irritability spectrum at early school age: Implications for pragmatic mental health screening. International Journal of Methods in Psychiatric Research. https://doi.org/10.1002/mpr.1985
Davis, K., Hirsch, E., Gee, D., Andover, M., & Roy, A.K. (2022). Mediating role of the default mode network on parental acceptance/ warmth and psychopathology in youth. Brain Imaging and Behavior. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11682-022-00692-z
Silverman, M.R., Stadterman, J., Lorenzi, D., Feuerstahler, L., Hirsch, E., & Roy, A.K. (2022). Parental factors that confer risk and resilience for remote learning outcomes during the COVID-19 pandemic among children with and without attention-deficit/ hyperactivity disorder. Journal of Attention Disorders.
Silverman, M.R., Bennett, R., Feuerstahler, L., Stadterman, J., Dick, A.S., Graziano, P., & Roy, A.K. (2022). Measuring emotion dysregulation in children with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder: Revisiting the factor structure of the Emotion Regulation Checklist (ERC). Behavior Therapy, 53, 196- 207. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.beth.2021.07.004
Hirsch, E., Davis, K., Cao, Z., & Roy, A.K. (2022). Understanding phasic irritability: Anger and distress in children’s temper outbursts. Child Psychiatry and Human Development, 53, 317- 329. doi:10.1007/s10578-021-01126-5.

*denotes student author

Page updated

Report abuse