News
Campus Band Spring Concert 2024
On April 21, 2024, Jackie performed as first chair flute in the Virginia Tech Campus Band ensemble. Many graduate students from the Psychology department, including Gabby, attended to support Jackie!
Gabby, Jackie, and fellow grad student friends who attended the concert!
Virginia Tech Whole Health Consortium 2024
Dr. Davis and graduate students, Jackie Kosmas and Gabby Patarinski, attended the Virginia Tech Whole Health Consortium annual meeting on April 5th. The meeting brought together faculty across the university engaged in health-related work or research and community partners for discussion and to promote future collaborations. Dr. Davis was recognized as one of the winners of the 2024 Seed Grant Award!
Psychology Department Poster Showcase 2024
The Virginia Tech Psychology Department had a research showcase on March 22, 2024 and SEED lab research assistant, Denise Kesselring-Dacey, presented work from her project with Dr. Heather Davis in collaboration with Virginia Tech faculty Dr. Rosanna Breaux investigating rural youth's disordered eating to inform design of a school-based intervention. Many members from the SEED Lab attended to show their support for Denise!
International Conference on Eating Disorders 2024
Graduate students, Jackie Kosmas and Gabby Patarinski, traveled to New York City to present at the International Conference on Eating Disorders. Jackie presented a paper talk showing food insecurity longitudinally predicted excessive exercise and dietary restraint among college students across one semester, and Gabby presented a poster on weight self-stigma predicting binge eating across one academic year.
Jackie and Gabby exploring NYC!
Jackie giving her paper talk
Psychology Department 2023 Holiday Party
Jackie, Gabby, and Dr. Davis all attended the annual VT Psychology Department Holiday party.
Happy Holidays and Happy New Year from the SEED Lab!
Announcing the FRESH Study!
The SEED Lab has begun recruitment for the Food access, REsources, and pSychological Health (FRESH) Study (IRB #23-807)!
Our goal is to understand correlates of food insecurity and disordered eating among college students.
This study involves completing a screening survey, a brief phone interview, questionnaires, and potentially an invited additional interview.
If you're interested in participating, complete our interest survey here!
If you have any questions, please email us at SEEDlab@vt.edu.
June 7th, 2023:
From Dr. Davis's Twitter:
"Excited to share our hot-off-the-press paper examining #WhatIEatInADay on #tiktok! Thanks to my awesome team @MeredithKells @ChloeRoske and the Twitterless Sam Holzman and Jennifer Wildes - this was a fun one!"
You can read the new article here!
June 1-3rd, 2023:
Dr. Heather Davis and Gabby Patarinski attended the Academy for Eating Disorders' 30th Annual International Conference on Eating Disorders in Washington, D.C. this summer! Dr. Davis presented new research and collaborations with colleagues in several paper talks while Gabby presented a poster on a new topic. Check out her poster at the bottom of the Research tab on our site!
IDEA Study Recruitment
June 2023:
We have expanded our recruitment efforts for the IDEA study to include more states in Appalachia! If you or your child are 11-17 years old, struggling with eating, and in Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, Maryland, Mississippi, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, or West Virginia, you may be eligible to participate.
If you are interested in participating and want to see if you're eligible, please complete our interest survey. As always, please email us at seedlab@vt.edu or DM us on Instagram (@seedlabvt) with any questions.
March 23rd, 2023:
We have exciting news! The SEED Lab has begun a new project, the IDEA (Investigating Disordered Eating in Adolescents from Rural Virginia) Study. For this research, we are recruiting Virginia adolescents (age 11-17) who struggle with their eating to participate in an interview over Zoom and answer survey questions.
April 28th, 2023:
Two of our fantastic undergraduate researchers, Kathryn Athanasaw and Anna Garban, presented their independent research at the Virginia Tech Dennis Dean Symposium today! Our grad student Gabby and research assistants Leah, Natavan, and Denise came out to support our SEED Lab members. Way to go, Kathryn and Anna! 👏
Their research poster was titled: "Weight Self-Stigma Predicts Eating Disorder Symptoms Across One Semester Among College Students"
April 17th, 2023: First year clinical science student Gabby Patarinski was awarded a competitive Student Travel Scholarship from the Academy for Eating Disorders! The funds will support her travel to present her research at the International Conference on Eating Disorders in June.
Body Image, Eating, & Wellness
April 7th, 2023:
One of our SEED Lab collaborators is recruiting for a study at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU)! Please email Neha Goel at eatingandwellnessvcu@gmail.com if you are interested or have any questions. You can also scan the QR code for more information or call 602-578-8777.
VCU researchers are recruiting South Asian women, ages 18-30, to complete health questionnaire assessing body image, eating, and wellness. Participation is voluntary and responses are confidential. Compensation is available.
February 2023:
SEED Lab graduate student Gabby Patarinski published her first, first-author manuscript based on the results of her undergraduate honors thesis in Eating Behaviors! Gabby and her team found that perfectionism is associated with disordered eating in men and women and that this relationship was the same using two different assessments of disordered eating (the EDE-Q and the EPSI). Read Gabby's article here!
November 2022:
We launched our first recruitment push for our new project: The (DISH) Study!
This project is a pilot study utilizing ecological momentary assessment to examine the relationship between eating disorder symptoms and daily emotional experiences.
Note: We completed recruitment for DISH at the end of March 2023.
Additionally, we have an Instagram account now!
Check us out and give us a follow @SEEDlabVT for more updates.
October 19th, 2022:
Virginia Tech's Psychology Department just interviewed Dr. Davis and featured her in the New Faculty Spotlight! You can check it out here.
October 17th, 2022:
The SEED Lab team recently participated in the Virginia Tech Undergraduate Research Mixer.
Dr. Davis, Gabby, Anna, and Leah had the opportunity to connect with interested students and to share information about the research that the SEED Lab is conducting and plans for future projects. As a new lab, we are excited to be a part of the scientific community on campus and for more people to get to know us!
