The Promoting Resilience in Offspring and Targeting Early Childhood Trajectories Lab
In the Promoting Resilience in Offspring and Targeting Early Childhood Trajectories (PROTECT) Lab, we study the intergenerational transmission of risk and resilience across families and generations. We employ a resilience framework and conduct research using developmental psychopathology and trauma-informed perspectives.
The branching and changing tree serves as our symbol of development, representing our research into how early childhood experiences shape lifespan pathways, from how a parent’s childhood shapes his or her parenting to how parenting shapes childhood experiences of offspring in the next generation.
Research
Our collaborative research considers how a wide range of experiences, behaviors, and relationships between parents and children shape development beginning in utero, continuing across the lifespan and spanning generations.
Publications
We share our research on risk and resilience in children, adolescents, parents and families with diverse audiences, including scientific investigators, healthcare providers, community partners and individuals in need.
News
Whether in peer-reviewed journals, national or local news media, or at academic conferences, our research aims to strengthen understanding of intergenerational pathways of risk and resilience.
Mission and Values
In the PROTECT Lab, we draw on developmental psychopathology principles that emphasize the importance of dually considering typical and atypical development, early and cumulative experiences, continuity and change, and age-salient developmental tasks when conceptualizing pathways of competence, resilience, vulnerability and psychopathology.
The PROTECT Lab is invested in promoting diversity and inclusiveness in faculty-student mentoring, fostering a positive and supportive lab culture, disseminating our findings to both academic and community audiences, and engaging in scholarly activities, such as clinical and translational research that serves the public good.
Want to Participate in a Research Study?
Join Our Lab
Prospective doctoral students and currently enrolled undergraduate students should contact Angela Narayan, PhD, by email to inquire about ongoing research opportunities. Please note that information on open research assistant and doctoral student positions will also be posted here as it becomes available.
Graduate Students
Applications for incoming doctoral students are currently closed. Please check back in Fall 2021 for more information!
Undergraduate Students
We are currently recruiting undergraduate students to help with research projects in the PROTECT Lab. Undergraduate research assistants are typically involved in a variety of ways, including interacting with participants, coding research data, developing their own research projects that may lead to presentations or publications, and participating in lab meetings. Please email Angela Narayan, PhD, if you are interested in setting up an informational interview to learn more.
The PROTECT Lab typically reviews applicants for volunteer research assistant (RA) positions on an ongoing basis. A commitment of two days (16 hours) per week for at least nine months is the minimum requirement to be a volunteer RA. Although your time would not be compensated, we offer a rich training experience that would prepare you well for graduate training in a mental health profession.
