Pediatric Emotion Regulation Lab

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 have utilized state-of-the-art methods, including functional MRI, EEG, and cortisol acquisition, to examine the neural and physiological bases of such emotion regulation deficits. We have also conducted psychometric evaluations of the tools developed for assessing irritability in young children and adolescents. The PERL lab recently began investigating parent characteristics that may influence how they respond to their child’s strong emotions. Currently, we are looking for mothers of children with ADHD who may be interested in participating in a research study. See our Active Studies page for more information.

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!

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.

Julia Trexler received the FCRH Spring Research Grant in January of 2025!

Congratulations to Julia, who was the recipient of the Fordham University Rose Hill Spring Research Grant in January of 2025 for her project “The Menstrual Cycle and ADHD Effects on Risky Behavior." This project will be done in conjunction with our lab mate Ally Eisenberg and will serve as the foundation for Julia's psychology honor thesis this spring.

Congratulations to Maggie Benda for presenting at the ABcT annual conference in November 2024!

Congratulations to Cristina Nardini for presenting at the ABcT annual conference in November 2024!

Cristina presented at the ABCT 2024 annual conference on a panel chaired by Dr. Bethany Teachman (University of Virginia) that focused on increasing access to evidence-based mental health care through community partnerships and non-specialist providers. Cristina presented her project entitled “Implementation and Impact of an Online Social Skills Curriculum Among Low-Income, BIPOC High School Students in a Community-based Organization.”

Julia Trexler received the FCRH Fall Research Grant in September of 2024!

Congratulations to Julia, who was the recipient of the Fordham University Rose Hill Fall Research Grant in September of 2024 for her project “The Menstrual Cycle and ADHD Effects on Risky Behavior." This project will be done in conjunction with our lab mate Ally Eisenberg and will serve as the foundation for Julia's psychology honor thesis in the spring of 2025.

Select Publications:

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.

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