Assaf Oshri

Education

Research

I am part of the Georgia Center for Developmental Science. I am interested in children's and youth's well-being and resilience. In my research program, I focus on understanding youth development using multi-methods (observation, surveys, neuroimaging-fMRI, stress physiology) and multi-level research (e.g., individual cognition,  personality, family, peer, and neighborhood environments). Specifically, my laboratory team (ydi.uga.edu) conducts research that elucidates the multi-level mechanisms that underlie the link between early-life stress in childhood (e.g., child maltreatment, poverty, cultural stress) and adolescent behavioral risk (e.g., substance use, sexual risk behavior) and resilience. I hope that the knowledge generated by my research will inform intervention and prevention programs, as well as promote resilience among children and adolescents at risk.

Theory and level of analyses that inform my research:

Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience, Hormesis, Developmental Psychopathology, Evolutionary-Developmental Perspectives, Developmental Psychobiology,

 On Twitter: @YDIatUGA 

Teaching

HDFS 8710 (Graduate Class) " Advanced Theories in Human Development and Family Science" 

Awards

Editorial Appointments

Service

Areas of Expertise

See Georgia Center for Developmental Science;

Informed by developmental systems theories centering on self-organization, process dynamics, bi-directional interactions, and transactions, I  utilize a developmental psychopathology approach to studying adolescent resilience versus risk behaviors and their association with chronic stress (e.g., family conflict, child maltreatment, poverty). In particular, in my program of research, I have been studying the developmental pathways and trajectories that underlie the link between early childhood adversity and the development of child and adolescent health risk, including psychopathology and adjustment problems. I am especially interested in using multi-level research (from the neighborhood through the family and to the neural level) to understand the developmental ecology in which adolescent risk behaviors probabilistically emerge during development, spanning from childhood to emerging adulthood.  Striving to inform prevention and intervention research, my research aims to enhance and complement current understanding of how early life stress potentiates adolescents to participate in risk behaviors, and what factors and processes promote positive youth development and resilience.

Current Research

Using multi-level methodologies to elucidate links between early life stress and decision-making, risk behaviors, and resilience among rural youth; The 

Resilience: developmental context and mechanisms of hormetic effects in development 

Job Description

Assaf Oshri is the Director of the Georgia Center for Developmental Science and a Professor in the Department of Human Development and Family Science. His research focuses on youth well-being, risk, and resilience using multi-level methods (e.g., behavioral observations, surveys, psychophysiology, and neuroimaging).

Assaf directs the OIBR work-group Stress, Adversity, Trauma, & Resilience (STAR)

He is also a faculty affiliate of UGA’s Integrated Life Science - Neuroscience program and the psychology department.

Assaf is accepting new applications for doctoral training in HDFS and Neuroscience. 

Interesting fact: Assaf has a coffee maker named Madlaine (Sylvia retired), a sourdough starter called Kovida, and a Kamado grill named Joe. 

Publications

Selected peer-reviewed publications (*denotes mentored students)

Oshri, A., Reck, A. J., Carter, S. E., Uddin, L. Q., Geier, C. F., Beach, S. R., ... & Sweet, L. H. (2024). Racial discrimination and risk for internalizing and externalizing symptoms among Black youths. JAMA network open, 7(6), e2416491-e2416491.

Oshri, A., Howard, C.J., Zhang, L., Reck, A., Cui, Z., Liu, S., Duprey, E., Evans, A.I., Azarmehr, R. and Geier, C.F. (2024). Strengthening through adversity: The hormesis model in developmental psychopathology. Development and Psychopathology, Online view 

Oshri, A. (2022). The Hormesis Model for Building Resilience Through Adversity: Attention to Mechanism, Context and Developmental Timing, Review of General  Psychology.

Oshri, A., Cui, Z., Owens, M., Carvalho, C., & Sweet, L. (2022). Low-to-moderate level of perceived stress strengthens working memory: Testing the hormesis hypothesis through neural activation. Neuropsychologia, 108354.

Oshri, A., Cui, Z., Carvalho, C., & Liu, S. (2022). Is Perceived Stress Linked to Enhanced Cognitive Functioning and Reduced Risk for Psychopathology? Testing the Hormesis Hypothesis. Psychiatry Research, 314; 114644.

Oshri, A., Liu, S., Caughy, O. M., Suveg, C., & Goodgame-Huffman (2021). Biological sensitivity to context as a dyadic construct: an investigation of child-parent RSA synchrony among low-SES youth. Development and Psychopathology

Oshri, A., Liu, S., Goodgame-Huffman, L. & Koss, K. (2020). Firm parenting and youth adjustment: stress reactivity and dyadic synchrony of respiratory sinus arrhythmia.  Developmental Psychobiology. https://doi.org/10.1002/dev.22019

Oshri, A., Hallowell, E., Liu, S., MacKillop, J., Galvan, A., Kogan, S. M., & Sweet, L. H. (2019). Socioeconomic Hardship and Delayed Reward Discounting: Associations with Working Memory and Emotional Reactivity. Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience, 100642. doi.org/10.1016/j.dcn.2019.100642 

Oshri, A., Duprey, E. B., Kogan, S. M., Carlson, M. W., & Liu, S. (2018). Growth patterns of future orientation among maltreated youth: A prospective examination of the emergence of resilience. Developmental psychology, 54(8), 1456.

Oshri, A., Liu, S., Duprey, E. B., & MacKillop, J. (2018). Child maltreatment, delayed reward discounting, and alcohol and other drug use problems: the moderating role of heart rate variability. Alcoholism: clinical and experimental research, 42(10), 2033-2046.

Oshri, A., Kogan, S., Kwon, J., Wickrama, K., Vanderbroek, L., Palmer, A., & MacKillop, J. (2017). Impulsivity as a mechanism linking child abuse and neglect with substance use in adolescence and adulthood. Development and Psychopathology, 1-19. doi:10.1017/S0954579417000943

Oshri, A., *Topple, T., & *Carlson, W. M. (2017). Positive Youth Development and Resilience: Growth Patterns of Social Skills among Youth Investigated for Maltreatment. Child Development.

Oshri, A., Kogan, S., Liu, S., Sweet, L., & Mackillop, J. (2017). Pathways Linking Adverse Childhood Experiences to Cigarette Smoking Among Young Black Men: a Prospective Analysis of the Role of Sleep Problems and Delayed Reward Discounting. Annals of Behavioral Medicine, 1-9.

Oshri, A., *Carlson, W. M., *Kwon, J., Zeichner, A., & Wickrama, KAS. (2016). Developmental growth trajectories of self-esteem in adolescence: Associations with child neglect and drug use and abuse in young adulthood. Journal of Youth and Adolescence. http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10964-016-0483-5

Oshri, A., Himelboim, I, *Kwon, J. A., *Sutton, T. A., & MacKillop, J. (2015). Childhood physical and sexual abuse and social network patterns on social media: Associations with alcohol use and problems among young adult women. Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs, 76(6), 845–851(2015). 

Oshri, A., *Sutton, T. E., Clay-Warner, J., & Miller, J. D. (2015). Child maltreatment types and risk behaviors: Associations with attachment style and emotion regulation dimensions. Personality and Individual Differences, 73, 127-133.

Oshri, A., Lucier‐Greer, M., O'Neal, C. W., Arnold, A. L., Mancini, J. A., & Ford, J. L. (2015). Adverse childhood experiences, family functioning, and resilience in military families: A pattern‐based approach. Family Relations, 64(1), 44-63.

Oshri, A., Schwartz, S. J., Unger, J. B., Kwon, J. A., Des Rosiers, S. E., Baezconde-Garbanati, L., ... & Szapocznik, J. (2014). Bicultural stress, identity formation, and alcohol expectancies and misuse in Hispanic adolescents: a developmental approach. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 43, 2054-2068.  DOI 10.1007/s10964-014-0171-2.

Oshri, A., Handley, E. D., *Sutton, T. E., Wortel, S., & Burnette, M. L. (2014). Developmental trajectories of substance use among sexual minority girls: Associations with sexual victimization and sexual health risk. Journal of Adolescent Health, 55(1), 100-106.

Oshri, A., Rogosch, A. F., & Cicchetti, D. (2013). Child maltreatment and mediating influences of childhood personality types in the development of adolescent psychopathology. Journal of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology, 42(3),287-301. DOI: 10.1080/15374416.2012.715366.

Oshri, A., Tubman, J. G., Morgan-Lopez, A., Saavedra, L., & Csizamadia, A. (2013). Sexual sensation seeking, co-occurring sex and alcohol use, and sexual risk behavior among adolescents in treatment for substance use problems. American Journal on Addictions, 22(3), 197-205. DOI: 10.1111/j.1521-0391.2012.12027

Oshri, A., Tubman, J.G., & Burnette, M. (2012). Childhood maltreatment histories, alcohol and other drug use symptoms, and sexual risk behavior in a treatment sample of adolescents. American Journal of Public Health, 102, 250-257. doi: 10.2105/AJPH.2011.300628

Youth Development Institute (YDI)

Program Faculty of Cognitive and Behavioral Neuroscience through the UGA Integrated Life Science Program :

https://ils.uga.edu/faculty/

https://ils.uga.edu/faculty/by-interdisciplinary-groups/cognitive_neuro/

https://ils.uga.edu/faculty/by-department/neuroscience-faculty/