About us

The CARES Lab (Culturally-informed Approaches to Research on Emotional Health and Substance Use) is housed in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences at Texas A&M University in College Station, TX. Our research focuses on culturally-informed investigations of temperamental and cognitive-affective mechanisms underlying anxiety, trauma, and substance use comorbidity in both children and adults.

Our mission: The CARES Lab is dedicated to advancing culturally-informed research that explores the temperamental and cognitive-affective mechanisms underlying anxiety, trauma, and substance use comorbidity in both children and adults. By integrating culturally relevant frameworks, we aim to enhance understanding of how individual differences in emotional and behavioral tendencies interact with sociocultural factors to shape mental health outcomes. Through this work, we seek to inform interventions that are both meaningful and effective for diverse populations.

Our vision: Our vision is to lead transformative research that bridges the gap between culture, emotion, stress, and substance use, fostering a deeper understanding of the complex factors influencing mental health across the lifespan. We aspire to create a more inclusive and comprehensive framework for addressing mental health disparities and informing culturally-appropriate interventions that promote resilience and well-being in diverse communities.

Core Concepts in Our Research

Culturally-informed research acknowledges the central role of culture in shaping mental health, stress responses, and substance use. It incorporates culturally relevant frameworks, considers the impact of sociocultural factors, and ensures that research methods, interpretations, and interventions are meaningful and applicable to diverse populations.

Temperamental factors refer to biologically-based individual differences in emotional and behavioral tendencies that emerge early in life and influence responses to stress, anxiety, and risk for substance use. For example, our work examines traits such as behavioral inhibition, negative emotionality, and effortful control as key temperamental factors that shape how individuals experience and regulate emotions.

Cognitive-affective mechanisms involve the interaction between thought processes (cognition) and emotional experiences (affect) that contribute to anxiety, trauma responses, and substance use behaviors. These include patterns of attention to threat, interpretation of threat, maladaptive emotion regulation strategies, and cognitive biases that amplify distress.

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