Latest Developments |
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At the Society for Research on Adolescence's (SRA) 2023 Conference, we had our own graduate student, Melissa Uribe and lab coordinator, Brandon Patron present their research on fatalism and internalizing symptoms in Latinx youth in the context of COVID-19. Our senior graduate student, Byron Garcia, presented his research on bilingualism and executive functioning in a symposia at the SRA conference. 
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Lab members Cynthia, Jazmin, and Byron were invited by the Latinx Cultural Center at USU to participate on a “Latinx Mental Health” workshop panel with Dr. Domenech Rodrgiuez and her graduate student, Alejandro Vazquez. Together they presented data on mental health disparities among Latinx individuals and ways of overcoming barriers to seeking help. Thank you to our lab members Cynthia, Jazmin, and Byron and to Dr. Domenech Rodriguez and Alejandro, for representing the multicultural emphasis within our program and for taking the time in providing knowledge and resources to others in our community who may otherwise not have had this opportunity to learn about Latinx mental health.   Congratulations to lab members, Kenia and Byron, for submitting research proposals that were accepted for them to present at the NLPA conference this past October in Miami, FL. Kenia and Byron were given the opportunity to present important findings from two of our lab projects – Utah Family Check Up Study (FCU) and Salud de Los Adolescents Latino (SAL). Kenia presented research data from our Utah Family Check Up study providing evidence that the implementation of a brief intervention like FCU is feasible to implement in community-based organizations. Byron’s poster presented preliminary data from our SAL study, examining the associations between parenting dimensions and delayed discounting among Latinx adolescents. Congratulations again to both Kenia and Byron for representing our lab’s research at the national level.  Under the advisement of Dr. Cruz, Byron worked hard in his first semester of the program developing and writing an exceptional fellowship application to submit to the NSF. The NSF GRFP recognizes and supports outstanding graduate students who have demonstrated their potential for significant research achievements. The NSF fellowship is a prestigious, highly competitive, and nationally recognized award and we want to congratulate Byron for submitting a successful fellowship application and representing the lab! Byron will now receive three years of funding support from NSF to help him pursue his research at the next level. As a result of his efforts, Byron was highlighted by the psychology department at USU for October’s “Student Spotlight”.  After 5 years of hard work and dedication, Molly has submitted her first round of internship applications! The lab is beyond proud of all of Molly’s accomplishments and contributions to the lab. As the first student welcomed to The Youth Development, Context and Prevention Cruz Lab, we are sad but extremely proud of Molly for helping lay down the foundation of the lab and for being an exceptional student researcher through graduate school. Currently, Molly is waiting to hear back about interviews from the sites that she applied to. Molly plans to spend most of January visiting and interviewing at the internship sites that offer her an interview. We wish you the best of luck Molly! Any internship site would be lucky to have you!
A big congratulations to Jazmin for representing the lab at SCCAP, APA division 53 convention in Jazmin’s hometown of Chicago, IL. Thank you to Dr. Robins and colleagues at the University of California, Davis, for allowing Jazmin the opportunity to work with the California Families Project (CFP) longitudinal dataset. Jazmin’s poster is titled “The effect of neighborhood and father involvement on depression symptoms among latino children”. Her use of advanced statistical analyses (i.e., structural equation modeling) and ability to exceptionally address a gap in literature earned her the award for most innovative research poster.  Congratulations to our lab member, Kenia Carrera, for successfully defending her thesis this past summer! Kenia’s successful thesis defense is an important milestone towards her development as a professional in the field of mental health among Latinx youth. Kenia’s thesis is titled “Examining the effects of familism on the association between parent-adolescent conflict, emotion regulation, and internalizing problems among Latinx adolescents.” To tests her research questions, Kenia analyzed data from our completed SAL project. The Youth Development, Context and Prevention Cruz Lab is extremely proud of Kenia’s accomplishments and we are excited to see what further contributions she will make to the field. Thank you to Drs. Domenech-Rodriguez and Ginger Lockhart for serving on Kenia’s committee.
Congratulations to our lab member, Kenia Carrera, for successfully proposing her thesis on August 29! Her thesis is titled "The effects of familism on the association between parent-adolescent conflict, emotion regulation, and internalizing problems among Latinx adolescents." Kenia is analyzing data from our SAL project to complete this important study. We are so proud of her and excited to witness her growth in research focused on Latinx youth mental health. Thank you to her committee members, Drs. Ginger Lockhart and Melanie Domenech-Rodriguez for providing excellent feedback and mentoring for this project!
-Molly Dr. Cruz and Molly both presented the lab’s research at APA’s annual convention in Washington, D.C. last month! Dr. Cruz co-chaired a symposium focused on Routine Outcome Monitoring in graduate training clinics with researchers at University of Washington, University of Arkansas, and Virginia Tech University. There was a great turnout for this symposium and great discussion all around. Molly presented a poster related to a secondary data analysis project focused on Middle Eastern mental health attitudes, titled: "Mental Health Attitudes and Perceived Stigma in Middle Eastern Culture: A Qualitative Analysis." Thank you to Drs. Melanie Domenech Rodríguez and Sara Boghosian for your support in this project. We both enjoyed meeting others in the field and look forward to our next opportunity to present our research! -Molly  Chandler Benney and Ashley Magana, two of our wonderful undergraduate research assistants, presented a poster at USU's Student Research Symposium (SRS) this week! Their poster was titled: "Do parental and cultural factors play a role in overeating behaviors among Latino youth?" This research is part of the Choices Youth Health Study we finished collecting data on last year, and is an area that they are both very passionate about. It was a successful presentation with a lot of people stopping by and asking questions. Great job, Chandler and Ashley! -Molly  |
