Youth, Emotion, Development, and Intervention Lab

The Youth, Emotion, Development, and Intervention (YEDI) Lab at the University of Illinois, housed in the Department of Psychology, focuses on the development of depression and anxiety, as well as broader mental health outcomes (e.g., substance use, behavioral problems, ADHD, self-harm), particularly in children and adolescents, from multiple levels of analysis and measurement, including genetic, stressful environments, biological, cognitive, interpersonal, parenting, peer, and temperament influences.

We have conducted several large-scale multi-wave prospective studies that track children and adolescents, as well as a caretaker, over several years to predict naturalistic trajectories of depression and anxiety based on numerous genetic, biological, and psychosocial vulnerabilities. We are continuing this line of risk research.

Additionally, we are applying the information gained from these in-depth risk factor research studies to advance evidence-based intervention knowledge and improve the lives of youth via personalized prevention of depression.

The overarching main goal of our lab is to enhance understanding of the vulnerabilities and mechanisms that contribute risk to developmental trajectories of depression and anxiety in youth so that developmentally sensitive, brief, evidence-based assessments can be constructed to individualize and personalize interventions to reduce symptoms and prevent these disorders before they crystallize into life-long, recurrent and chronic conditions.

Updates

2/19/21

• Congratulations to Tina on her acceptance to the University of Washington for her clinical internship!
• Congratulations to Julianne for her first-author paper in Clinical Psychological Science, and to Chris and Julianne for their paper in Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology! Way to go, research rock stars!

12/31/20

• Congratulations to Erin, Julianne, and Tina for their acceptances to do symposium presentations and to Talia her poster presentation at the 2021 Society for Research in Child Development Conference!
• Congratulations to Julianne & Erin for their symposium presentation at the Society for Research in Adolescence conference!

7/13/20

• Congratulations to Erin on receiving a Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award (NRSA) Individual Predoctoral Fellowship (Parent F31) from NIH! Way to go, Erin!

6/16/20

• Congratulations to Erin and Dustin on their publication in Psychological Assessment about how the longitudinal pattern of depression assessed repeatedly over time is different when based on questionnaires versus clinical interviews!

5/19/20

• Congratulations to Talia for receiving an award for her presentation “An Investigation of Rumination as a Moderator of the Parenting-Depression Relationship”. Talia received the Outstanding Poster Presentation in Education, Social Sciences & Human Behavior for her work. Way to go Talia!

4/29/20

• Congratulations to Talia for receiving the Outstanding Clinical-Community Science Undergraduate Student Award from the psychology department for her honors undergraduate thesis investigating rumination as a moderator of the relation between parenting and child depression!

• Congratulations to Tina for receiving the Ed Scheiderer Memorial Award from the Clinical-Community department for her outstanding empirical paper, “The Breadth and Potency of Transdiagnostic Cognitive Risks for Psychopathology in Youth,” published in the Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology!

3/06/20

• Congratulations to Julianne and Erin for their publication in Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology about how interrelations between positive emotionality and different forms of chronic interpersonal stress relate to growth trajectories of depression and social anxiety!

• Congratulations to Chris on his acceptance to start the Social-Personality Ph.D. program at UC Berkeley starting next fall!

• Congratulations to Kate on her acceptance to attend the Human Development Ph.D. program at Cornell University starting next fall!

2/08/20

• Congratulations to Julianne for her acceptance to do a research talk at the 2020 Society for Research on Adolescence Conference!

10/26/19

• Congratulations to Julianne on her first-author publication in Emotion on longitudinal associations of positive affect and relationship quality among children and adolescents!

• Congratulations to Tina on her first-author publication in Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology showing that a general cognitive vulnerability relates to a breadth of psychopathology among youth, particularly internalizing forms!

8/1/19

• Congratulations to Dustin and Erin for submitting their Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award (NRSA) Individual Predoctoral Fellowship (Parent F31) applications to NIH! Woohoo!

• Congratulations to Julianne and Chris on their publication in Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology on the relation of observed parenting on youth onset of depression!

• Congratulations to Erin on her first-author publication in Journal of Research in Personality about the importance of separating within and between-person variance to understand the longitudinal co-occurrence of depression and anxiety syndromes in youth!

• Congratulations to Elissa on her first-author publication in Clinical Psychological Science on how pubertal timing acts as a transdiagnostic risk for psychopathology in youth!

5/11/19

• Vivian has been awarded a departmental distinction and the Undergraduate Clinical/Community Science Award for her undergraduate psychology thesis on how rumination and interpersonal stress contribute to nonsuicidal self-injury among adolescents! Congratulations, Vivian!

• Tina has been awarded theFred & Ruby Kanfer Award from the Clinical/Community area for research and scholarship aimed at improving the psychological lives of all individuals. Congratulations, Tina!
  

• Julianne and Chris’s paper on the influence of observed parenting on the prospective onset of youth depression across three years has been accepted! Congratulations!

1/15/19

• Vivian, Fatema, Chris, Julianne, Erin, Dustin, and Tina have all been accepted to present posters at the 2019 Anxiety and Depression Association of America (ADAA) conference! Congratulations, everyone!

• Erin & Dustin received an outstanding poster award at ADAA! Congratulations!

4/1/19

• Tina submitted her National Research Service Award (NRSA) Individual Predoctoral Fellowship application. Congrats!

4/3/18

• Julianne has been awarded the National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellowship. Julianne, we are so excited for you- you’re a rockstar!

3/19/18

• We are looking for undergraduate research assistants for summer 2018 and the 2018-2019 school year. Apply here or contact Fatema at jivanjee@illinois.edu for more information.

3/1/18

• Erin’s paper on co-occurring trajectories of anxiety and depression across childhood and adolescence has been accepted. Congratulations, Erin!

12/20/17

• Julianne’s poster on how adolescent girls’ peer experiences are related to symptoms of social anxiety and depression has been accepted to the 2017 Society for Research on Adolescents (SRA) conference. Congratulations, Julianne!

9/13/17

• Julianne’s paper on maternal affective expression and adolescent’s subject experiences of positive affect has been accepted. Congratulations, Julianne!

7/10/17

• Dustin’s paper on the longitudinal relationship between depression and chronotype has been accepted. Congratulations, Dustin!

7/7/17

• Tina’s paper on the role of temperament and positive parent in the development of rumination has been accepted. Congratulations, Tina!

7/6/17

• Julianne submitted a poster presentation on how adolescent girls’ peer experiences are related to symptoms of social anxiety and depression to the 2017 Society for Research on Adolescents (SRA) conference.

7/6/17

• Julianne Griffith has joined our team as a new graduate student. Elissa Hamlat has joined us as post-doctoral research fellow. Welcome to the YEDI Lab, Julianne and Elissa!

6/23/17

• Elissa received the SRP President’s Award for her poster on the length of depressive remission and working memory. Congratulations, Elissa!

6/20/17

• Erin will be presenting her work on co-occurring trajectories of anxiety and depression across childhood and adolescence at the Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies (ABCT) convention this November as part of a symposium entitled “Evaluating Prominent Theories Concerning the Role of Stress in Anxiety and Depression Trajectories.” Congratulations on your symposium acceptance, Erin!

6/7/17

• Erin submitted her paper on co-occurring trajectories of anxiety and depression across childhood and adolescence. Her paper is currently under review.

 5/24/17

• Fatema’s poster on the developmental co-occurrence of eating pathology and depression symptoms and Elissa’s poster on the length of depressive remission and working memory performance have been accepted to the September 2017 Society for Research on Psychopathology (SRP) conference. Congratulations, Fatema and Elissa!

4/1/17

• We received NIMH R01 for a new study entitled “Reducing Fetal Exposure to Maternal Depression to Improve Infant Risk Mechanisms.” This study will examine how reducing pregnant women’s depressive symptoms may affect their children’s outcomes. We’re excited to work on this project with our collaborators at the University of Denver, Denver Health Medical Center, University of Colorado Hospital, and University of Colorado Boulder!

10/27/16

• Erin and Dustin submitted their NSF grant proposals today. Woohooo!

10/20/16

• Dr. Hankin was named the Fred and Ruby Kanfer Professor of Psychology at UIUC. Congratulations, Ben!

8/16/16

• The GEM Lab has moved from the University of Denver to the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. We are now known as the YEDI Lab. We look forward to being here!