Trainees

Marette Abdelmaseh

Supervisor: Yvonne Bohr
Department: Psychology
Email: mjabd@yorku.ca

My current research focuses on the impact of early relationships on children’s development. Specifically, I am interested in understanding how the quality of maternal-infant interactions is related to children’s socioemotional well being later in life. My masters thesis examined the predictive validity of a novel measure of disrupted maternal behaviour (the AMBIANCE-Brief) in comparison to other measures of maternal-infant interaction quality. For my doctoral research, I hope to investigate the underpinnings of maternal sensitivity by examining how experiences of trauma may impact a mother's ability to attend and respond to her child's needs. I am also actively involved in a LaMarsh project called “Making I-SPARX Fly in Nunavut”, which seeks to enhance resilience and wellness among Inuit youth by adapting an existing Cognitive Behavioural Therapy based e-intervention (SPARX) created in New Zealand to be Inuit specific.

Carly Albaum

Supervisor: Jonathan Weiss
Department: Psychology
Email: csalbaum@yorku.ca

My current research focuses on process factors in cognitive behaviour therapy for children with autism. I am specifically interested in the role of the therapeutic alliance, how child characteristics and therapist skills bolster or rupture this relationship, and how this contributes to treatment change.

Melody Asghari

Supervisor: Jennifer Connolly
Department: Psychology
Email: masghari@yorku.ca 

My current research is focused on prevention and intervention for youth involved in sex trafficking. Specifically, I will be working alongside York Region Children's Aid Society to help develop a risk assessment tool used for identifying risk factors associated with sex trafficking involvement. Early identification will help prevent the exploitation of at-risk youth while also supporting healthy development through early intervention. Identifying the associated risk factors through a risk assessment tool will aid in reducing the number of youths involved in sex trafficking within Ontario.

Shaylea Badovinac

Supervisor: Rebecca Pillai-Riddell
Department: Psychology
Email: sdbadov@yorku.ca 

My graduate program of research has focused on understanding how children’s ability to regulate their emotions, a key indicator of socioemotional development, develops in the context of interactions with primary caregivers. My Master’s thesis explored associations between parents’ mental health and parent-preschooler attachment relationships and highlighted parents’ emotional well-being as one of many factors that are important for supporting adaptive child socioemotional development. My dissertation continues this line of research by investigating how factors such as parents’ mental health,physiological stress response, and behaviour interact and contribute to parents’ response to their child’s distress within a pain context.

Manal Beydoun

Supervisor: Jessica Fraser-Thomas
Department:
Email: mbeydoun@yorku.ca 

TBD

Mariami Bimm

Supervisor: Yvonne Bohr
Department: Psychology
Email: mkhou3@yorku.ca

My dissertation research aims to contribute to current knowledge about the ramifications of excessive mobile technology use in the lives of young children, and its impact on parent-child relationships. Specifically, I am examining the patterns of behavioural stress experienced by infants and the behavioural synchrony between infants and caregivers, when the latter are engaged with a mobile phone in their child’s presence. My work also queries the effects of caregivers' level of sensitivity and their attachment style in this context. The findings of this study can enhance our understanding of current issues relating to wellness in an era of ever-present technology, and may provide data to inform social policies for mobile technology use by caregivers in the presence of their infants.

Bianca Bondi

Supervisor: Debra Pepler
Department: Psychology
Email: bbondi@yorku.ca 

My graduate research is embedded at Mothercraft’s Breaking the Cycle, a relational early intervention program for substance-exposed children. For my master’s research, I established theoretically grounded cross-domain cumulative risk and protection measures for use with sibling groups exposed prenatally to substances. I also explored each child’s longitudinal neurodevelopmental profile. The emerging patterns highlighted the importance of a mixed-method, cumulative, and cross-domain consideration of risk and protection, as well as the impact of early intervention on neurodevelopment. I will continue investigating the impact of cumulative risk and protection, and early intervention, on neurodevelopment in substance-exposed infants and young children for my dissertation. Specifically, I will establish a developmental-relational assessment method to identify neurodevelopmental profiles within early relational contexts of cumulative risk and protection.

Oana Bucsea

Supervisor: Rebecca Pillai-Riddell
Department: Psychology
Email: obucsea@yorku.ca 

Past research has demonstrated an inconsistent association between cortical and behavioural indicators of pain-related distress in infancy. Specifically, some studies have shown that babies can show pain-related cortical activity in the absence of behavioural expressions. My current research is focused on gaining a deeper understanding of the relationships between cortical and behavioural indicators of pain-related
distress in hospitalized newborns. Ultimately, this program of
research will inform the development of evidence-based pain
assessment tools, thus mitigating the serious health conse
quences of unmanaged pain in infancy.

Mandy Byrnes

Supervisor: Jessica Fraser-Thomas
Department: School of Kinesiology & Health Sciences
Email: mandymcc@yorku.ca 

My initial research interests include coach development in amateur sport, specifically the coach characteristics that contribute to player commitment, retention, and long-term player engagement, and how we can enhance and develop these characteristics in leadership positions.  Sport offers a unique opportunity for children and youth to build resiliency, coping strategies, and interpersonal skills that contribute to overall social and emotional well-being.  As an educator and coach I am keenly interested in furthering educational opportunities and training for coaches with the end goal of encouraging participation in youth sport.

Samantha Chan

Supervisor: Jenine Rawana
Department: Psychology
Email: sachan@yorku.ca 

My research focuses on emotion regulation, relationships, and well-being among adolescents and emerging adults. Specifically, I will examine the interpersonal nature of emotion regulation and the impact of young people’s emotion regulation on their well-being and relationships. I am also interested in understanding the associations between romantic relationships and resilience among youth at risk.

Victoria Chan

Supervisor: Jonathan Weiss
Department: Psychology
Email: victing@yorku.ca  

My current research is focused on parent therapeutic factors in mental health treatment for children with autism. Specifically, I will develop a conceptual framework of parent therapeutic factors (e.g., parent participation and parent-child alliance) in Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT) for children with autism. This conceptual framework will form the basis of an observational measure I will develop to quantify parent therapeutic factors demonstrated in therapy sessions. Improving our understanding of parent participation and parent-child alliance in therapy can lead to more effective mental health treatment for children with autism.

Annalise Clarkson

Supervisor: Nazilla Khanlou
Department: Critical Disability Studies
Email: ac1313@yorku.ca  

My current research aims to prevent sexual violence against disabled youth through education about sex, sexuality, and healthy sexual relationships. Specifically, I am interested in exploring participatory research methods for the purpose of sex education programming developed by and for disabled youth. Knowledge is a powerful tool for protection that is denied to disabled populations and exploited by perpetrators of sexual violence. Developing innovative sex education programming would equip disabled youth with the tools to recognize, avoid, and expose dangerous relationships and to participate in healthy sexual relationships into adulthood.

Miranda DiLorenzo

Supervisor: Rebecca Pillai Riddell
Department: Psychology
Email: mgdilo@yorku.ca 

Miranda’s dissertation research is focused on understanding how the substrates of emotion regulation – a process essential for maintaining psychology well-being – develop early in life through interactions with one’s caregiver. Her research work aims to provide a better understanding of the development of caregiver-infant co-regulation and to determine the relationships between co-regulation and child developmental
outcomes.

Benjamin Diplock

Supervisor: Debra Pepler
Department: Psychology
Email: bdiplock@yorku.ca 

My current research is focused on therapeutic processes and efficacy in treatment for children with learning disabilities and mental health difficulties. Specifically, I am embedded in a child community mental health institute and am supporting a mixed-methods program evaluation of a social skills program for children with learning disabilities and social, emotional and behavioural difficulties. This program evaluation will consider the therapeutic processes, program efficacy and further support the development and modification of the programmatic theory of change. Improving our understanding of therapeutic processes and efficacy can lead to more effective delivery of mental health services and provision of treatment for children.

Katerina Disimino

Supervisor: Rebecca Bassett-Gunter
Department: School of Kinesiology & Health Sciences
Email:kdisim@yorku.ca 

The goal of my research is to promote physical activity for children with disabilities. My specific focus involves exploring strategies to implement recommendations that will support community-based organizations in the development and dissemination of targeted physical activity information for parents of children with disabilities. This knowledge mobilization initiative aims to bridge the research to practice gap and generate community-level impact through enhancing children with disabilities’ physical activity engagement, supporting their positive development, and encouraging lifelong health habits.

Joshua Doidge

Supervisor: Maggie Toplak
Department: Psychology
Email: jdoidge@yorku.ca 

Joshua Doidge received his M.A., and is currently completing his Ph.D., at York University in the Clinical-Developmental Psychology Program. Josh did his M.A. on examining gender differences on delay of gratification tasks in ADHD and Typically Developing samples. Josh is completing his doctoral research in understanding how technology is used during adolescence and how it relates to decision-making.

Tracy Fabri

Supervisor: Christine Till
Department: Psychology
Email: tfabri@my.yorku.ca 

I work within an established interdisciplinary team of world-renowned researchers (Canadian Pediatric Demyelinating Disease Network) under the immediate supervision of Dr. Christine Till. Our research answers questions regarding the impact of insult to the developing brain in high-risk medical populations. My Masters thesis examined the interrelationship between memory, identification of emotional expression, and volume of limbic structures (i.e., the amygdala, hippocampus, and thalamus) in patients with pediatric-onset multiple sclerosis. I look forward to continuing to understand cognition in children and youth with demyelinating diseases. Our research findings have the potential to inform targeted interventions and recommendations. 

Hannah Gennis

Supervisor: Rebecca Pillai-Riddell
Department: Psychology
Email: hgennis@yorku.ca 

After spending her Master’s degree studying the role of parent behaviours during vaccination (defended in 2016), Hannah’s dissertation aims to better understand how children’s own emotion regulation behaviours influence their pain-related distress post-vaccination. She is currently in the process of completing a systematic review looking at the relationship between children’s emotion regulation behaviour and distress across several developmental contexts to inform her work in the vaccination setting. She has also been involved in several research projects in the OUCH Lab that focus on parent sensitivity, insensitivity, and psychological factors and their impact on children’s pain response. She is also part of our lab’s Cochrane Review on the efficacy of non-pharmacological interventions for young child procedural pain.

Rivka Green

Supervisor: Christine Till
Department: Psychology
Email: rrgreen@yorku.ca 

Rivka is a third year doctoral student, studying clinical-developmental neuropsychology in Dr. Christine Till's lab at York University. Her general research interest is on exposures to environmental neurotoxins in early-life and childhood neurodevelopmental outcomes. Her clinical intervention interests are on prevention and management of neurodevelopmental disorders in children, including the optimization of parenting strategies. Rivka is also focusing on knowledge dissemination in the field of prenatal health, and is striving to ensure that her research reaches the desired audiences - especially pregnant and prospective mothers!

Kayla Hamel

Supervisor: Yvonne Bohr
Department: Psychology
Email: hamelk@yorku.ca

My research interests are focused on culture, resilience, and strengths-building. I completed my dissertation research in Leon, Nicaragua where I collaborated with a non-profit organization to collect data from children and youth who are living on the street or at risk of living on the street, along with their family members, community members, and program staff. The objective of this research was to develop a context-specific model of resilience pertaining to this group of marginalized young people, one that can inform intervention and policy efforts aimed at supporting this population. My secondary research interests include psychological benefits of exercise and self-compassion. I am currently completing my clinical residency at CAMH with Child, Youth and Family Services.

Durmalouk (Durra) Kesibi

Supervisor: Hala Tamim
Department: School of Kinesiology & Health Sciences
Email: durrak@my.yorku.ca 

I work on collecting data for a study looking at Parents' integration into a new host country after escaping war. Specifically, the project looks at the socio-psychological challenges of Syrian refugee parents who settled into either Canada or Lebanon after escaping the war in Syrian. The aim is to gain more understanding of refugees' challenges and to suggest the development of appropriate services to ease their integration.

Durdana Khan

Supervisor: Hala Tamim
Department: School of Kinesiology & Health Sciences
Email: drkhan@yorku.ca 

My current research is focused on social determinants particularly job related factors and their long-term effects on Canadian adults. Specifically, I will explore working schedules and how they are associated with specific health outcomes in middle aged and older adults. Given the global ageing phenomenon and growing shift work trends, studying this relationship has become increasingly relevant and crucial. Having better awareness about the effects of occupational factors like working schedules, as the population continues to age, may contribute to better health outcomes for middle-aged and older adults.

Jameela Krishnan

Supervisor: Sarah Flicker
Department: Environmental & Urban Change
Email: jkrishnan278@gmail.com

My research project is focused on exploring and documenting experiences of racism in Toronto schools through the narratives of racialized youth using the medium film. I will be supporting the youth using Participatory Visual Methodology to engage in dialogue about the issue of racism in schools and provide space for them to narrate and create a film that depicts their experiences and thoughts on the social issue. I will be examining the topic through the lens of Critical Race Theory to understand how race and its intersectionalities with other forms of subordination is at the center of understanding the oppression of racialized youth.

Yookyung (Carol) Lee

Supervisor: Yvonne Bohr
Department: Psychology
Email: yklee@yorku.ca

My current research is focused on the role of culture in caregiver sensitivity expression in caregiver-infant relationships. More specifically, I will compare the scores of widely-used caregiver sensitivity assessment tools in North American child development research across South Korean, Korean American, and European American mother-infant dyads in order to determine whether these sensitivity measures assess sensitivity similarly in different cultural groups. Caregiver sensitivity is recognized for its important role in promoting healthy child development and has long attracted the attention of developmental researchers and has been extensively studied in various contexts. However, consensus on the characteristics and behaviours that define caregiver sensitivity is still sorely lacking. Our current understanding of caregiver sensitivity is heavily biased by the dominance of Western culture, which may not be optimal to analyses in other cultures. Consistent and culturally appropriate conceptualization and assessment of sensitivity is needed to better understand the impact of caregiver sensitivity in child development. 

Natan Levi

Supervisor: Lyndsay Hayhurst
Department: Psychology
Email: natanac@yorku.ca 

Natan (he/they) is in the final year of his MSc with Dr. Jessica Fraser-Thomas. In 2013, he graduated from Rotman Commerce at the University of Toronto with a specialization in management.

Prior to starting his studies at York University, he spent 5 years working with Jane/Finch Community Tennis Association, Ontario Tennis Association and Tennis Canada delivering and evaluating grassroots sport for development programs.

Natan came to Canada as refugee from Sarajevo, former Yugoslavia, which shape his anti-oppression perspectives. His research interests explore the intersections of sport for development, social justice, and governance.

Rivka Levin

Supervisor: Jenine Rawana
Department: Psychology
Email: rivka@yorku.ca 

My current research focuses on emotion regulation among emerging adults. Specifically, I will be testing brief emotion regulation interventions based on the process model of emotion regulation to gain a deeper understanding of both the model and of efficacy of brief interventions on improving well-being among emerging adults. In addition, I will examine the role of emotion regulation flexibility on outcomes.

Charlotte Lombardo

Supervisor: Sarah Flicker
Department: Environmental & Urban Change
Email: charl@yorku.ca

My work is rooted in community engaged scholarship, drawing from the traditions of community development and community-based participatory research. My main areas of focus are youth and community arts, with a particular emphasis on the role of creative placemaking for the engagement and empowerment of young people navigating oppressions and inequities. I am currently collaborating with the community agency Sketch Working Arts, on a project artfully exploring place, community, culture and public space. 

Bryn Ludlow

Supervisor: Sarah Flicker
Department: Environmental & Urban Change
Email: bludlow@yorku.ca

I am a Canadian artist and doctoral candidate in the Communication and Culture program at York University, in the York and Ryerson Joint Program in Communication and Culture. My dissertation research study addresses "Multidisciplinary perspectives on digital stories created by former youth in foster care in Canada". With Skype, I used video elicitation and semi-structured interviewing with 35 individuals working in the arts, health care, and social services, across 10 countries to find out "What makes a great story?" Broadly, my research and teaching interests are in applications of digital, arts-based methods such as: digital storytelling, body mapping, and human-centered design to address health inequities among diverse and marginalized populations.

Rachael Lyon

Supervisor: Maggie Toplak
Department: Psychology
Email: lyonr@yorku.ca 

My research interests center around brain-behaviour relationships and treatment innovation in children and youth with neurodevelopmental and acquired brain disorders. My master’s research investigated the extent to which executive function task performance and parent-ratings of ADHD symptomatology capture age related variance in a longitudinal sample of children and youth. This work has important methodological implications for the measurement of developmental change and may, in part, explain why rating scales and performance-based measures are weakly/modestly correlated in child and youth samples. My dissertation will likely build on this work in a clinical sample.

Andrea Maughan

Supervisor: Jonathan Weiss
Department: Psychology
Email: amaughan@yorku.ca  

My research is focused on contributing to a better understanding of the experiences and wellbeing of parents of children with autism. My master’s thesis examined how parenting, parent mental health, and the parent-child relationship are impacted when parents of children with autism are involved in therapy with their children. For my dissertation, I am exploring how parent mental health and wellbeing change over time, and following participation in Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, a mindfulness- and acceptance-based intervention. I am also interested in these parents’ qualitative experiences and preferences with respect to the interventions in which they participate, with the goal of promoting appropriate support for parents of children with autism.

Kayla McDonald

Supervisor: Jennifer Connolly
Department: Psychology
Email: kylamcd@yorku.ca 

My current research aims to build a specialized model of care for youth survivors of human trafficking in the child welfare system using a participatory action framework. Specifically, based on evidence gathered through interviews with experts in the field and systematic literature review, recommendations will be provided to collaborating agencies: York Region Children’s Aid Society, York Regional Police, and Simcoe Muskoka Family Connexions. The final stage of the pilot project will involve the development, implementation, and evaluation of a model of care through agency-university collaboration. This research will contribute to the development of a model of care for survivors of sex trafficking in the child welfare system.

Annie Mills

Supervisor: Jonathan Weiss
Department: Psychology
Email: millsas@yorku.ca 

My research focuses on the well-being and mental health of individuals with developmental disabilities. My master's thesis investigated associations between child autism characteristics, parent factors, and emotion regulation in youth with autism. My doctoral research will use photo-elicitation methods and qualitative interviewing to investigate what thriving means for those with developmental disabilities. Collaborating with those with developmental disabilities and their families in creating a conceptualization of thriving is an important step in learning how best to support the well-being of this group.

Nathania Ofori

Supervisor: Jessica Fraser-Thomas
Department: School of Kinesiology & Health Sciences
Email: oforin@yorku.ca 

My current research is focused on exploring the perceptions, experiences, and outcomes of an Active Start Special Olympics program for children with intellectual disabilities. In particular, this project will investigate childrens' physical activity/physical literacy (cognitive, physical, and affective development) at home (indoors or outdoors) in lieu of the cancelled Active Start programming during the pandemic, and whether the activities learned within Active Start could be translated to the home environment. Research findings will provide valuable insights on physical literacy among young children with an intellectual disability and serve as a first step towards assessing the effectiveness of the Special Olympics Active Start program.

Kathryn Pierce

Supervisor: Debra Pepler
Department: Psychology
Email: kpierce4@yorku.ca 

My research is focused on school-based day treatment for young children with social, emotional and behavioural difficulties. Using a qualitative approach, I am working on developing a program model encompassing the strategies used by day treatment staff on a moment-to-moment basis to promote the development of school readiness skills. This work will pave the way for further research on this intervention and help with sharing knowledge about day treatment amongst children's mental health agencies. 

Sepehr Rassi

Supervisor: Rebecca Bassett-Gunter
Department: School of Kinesiology & Health Sciences
Email: sep2017@yorku.ca

My research is focused on establishing a physical activity program for autistic children, with an
emphasis on fostering meaningful participation. Central to my work is the collaboration with
community-based organizations, including Autism Ontario, and closely working with parents of
autistic children to ensure the program we create meets the unique needs of these children.
Another aspect of my research is identifying best practices in the design of training modules.
This knowledge is applied to create a comprehensive training module for facilitators who will
lead these specialized physical activity programs. The goal is to ensure facilitators are well-
equipped with the skills and insights necessary to effectively support autistic children.

Tarnpreet Virk

Supervisor: Thanujeni Pathman
Department: Psychology
Email: taranv@my.yorku.ca

My current research is focused on factors related to memory development in children, and its impacts into adulthood. Specifically, I will work towards understanding how factors related to one’s early experiences and development in childhood, aid in the storage of memory on a short-term versus long-term basis (e.g., determining which biological and cognitive factors influence memory retention and ability to conceptualize experiences, as well as determining how valence of experiences, such as positive versus negative stimuli, can affect development and memory retention). Through observational measures, I will develop to quantify whether factors such as valence, and cognitive and biological abilities, impact the processing and preserving of one’s experience in a mental capacity. I will work towards determining the prerequisites necessary, for children to not only form salient memories, but also retain those memories over time.

Elizabeth Wanstall

Supervisor: Maggie Toplak
Department: Psychology
Email: ewanst@my.yorku.ca 

My broad research interests include better understanding the neuropsychological and cognitive development of children with neurodevelopmental or early-onset medical conditions and how this intersects with mental health. Currently my research focuses on the assessment of executive functions in children with ADHD. More specifically, I have helped develop a performance-based measure of executive function that manipulates the element of structure. This work aims to better capture the developing abilities of children with ADHD in order to better characterize their needs and provide them with adequate support.