The Vanderbilt Stress and Coping Lab
Our research is focused on understanding how children, adolescents, and parents cope with stress and adversity in their lives. Findings from our basic studies of coping are translated into the development and testing of preventive interventions to enhance coping and adaptation and to improve the emotional and physical health of children and families. We study psychological, biological, and interpersonal processes in stress and coping using a wide range of methods including interviews, questionnaires, direct observations of behavior, assays of stress biology, and neuroimaging. Our current work is focused on two groups faced with significant stress: children of parents with a history of major depressive disorder, and children with cancer and their parents.
Our research laboratory is located on the second floor of Jesup Hall on the Peabody Campus of Vanderbilt University.