Cullin J Howard

Education

Research

I am interested in exploring how mothers' and fathers' parenting behaviors interact with youth neurophysiology to foster socioemotional resilience. I focus specifically on four domains of self-regulatory neurophysiological development : (1) stress activity patterns of the peripheral nervous system, (2) co-regulation between parents and children across physiolgoical systems as a mechanism for scaffolding independent socioemotional functioning, (3) the connectivity within/between functional brain networks, and (4) the maturation of neural white matter tracts underlying these networks supporting higher-order cognitive function. Adopting a hormesis-informed developmental perspective, I examine these systems using a blend of quantitative approaches—including longitudinal SEM, multilevel modeling, time series analysis, meta-analysis, and nonlinear modeling—to investigate the conditions under which youth thrive because of their exposure to adversity, rather than despite it.  

Awards

Advisory Committee

Dr. Assaf Oshri

Dr. Geoffrey Brown 

Dr. Charles Geier

Journal Articles

Oshri, A., Howard, C., Zhang, L., Reck, A., Cui, Z., Liu, S., Duprey, E., Evans, A., Azarmehr, R., & Geier, C. (2024). Strengthening through adversity: The hormesis model in developmental psychopathology. Development and Psychopathology, 36(2).