McNair Scholar 2022 Grace-Divine Boutouli
Grace-Divine Boutouli is a rising junior at the University of Minnesota majoring in Developmental Psychology with double minors in Neuroscience and Computer Science. Her research interest is how adverse childhood experiences affect neurological and physiological processes in children’s ability to interact with their environment and their sense of belonging.
My dream is to complete a Ph.D.in Developmental Psychology to understand better ways to help improve the lives of children by conducting community-based research and projects. I also dream of being able to provide support to college students as a mentor.
Research project
Does a loving-kindness intervention increase parental warmth in describing their toddler, especially for parents with maltreatment histories?
Abstract: Parents’ attitudes towards their children are central to parenting and promoting healthy child development, including child behavior, executive functioning, and peer interactions. Mindfulness practices, specifically loving-kindness meditations (LKMs), may promote more positive parenting emotions. The current project goals are to 1) test whether LKMs improve parent attitudes compared to a focused imagery control and 2) examine whether parent childhood maltreatment history moderates these associations. A preliminary sample of 43 parents of toddlers participated in an online study. On average, parents expressed greater warmth when talking about male children. The LKM did not significantly affect parent negativity nor did parent childhood maltreatment history moderate these associations. These preliminary results are supported by previous research demonstrating no association between childhood maltreatment history and parent attitudes; however, larger samples are needed to determine the efficacy of LKMs on parent attitudes.
Faculty mentor
Megan Gunnar is a Regents Professor and Distinguished McKnight University Professor at the University of Minnesota. She received her Ph.D. in Developmental Psychology at Stanford University in 1978 and then completed a post-doctoral fellowship in Psycho-neuroendocrinology at Stanford Medical School. In 1979 she became an assistant professor of developmental psychology at the University of Minnesota, moving through the ranks to full professor in 1990. Professor Gunnar has spent her career studying how stress biology affects the human brain and behavioral development and the processes that help children regulate stress and emotions.
Emily B. Reilyis a 4th-year Ph.D. candidate interested in parent compassion as a key skill for parenting sensitivity in infancy. Emmy has been working in the Gunnar Lab on the Toddler and Preschool Attention Studies, investigating the influence of early life stress on joint attention and executive function in the first years of life. She is currently conducting an independent study with parents of toddlers investigating the associations between parent compassion, self-compassion, empathy, and parenting sensitivity.