Kyla Carr received the Honors ‘s Undergraduate Research and Creativity Grant

The TARDIS lab are thrilled to announce that Kyla Car, a senior in majoring in psychology has received ODU Honors’ Undergraduate Research and Creativity Grant to study identity development among biracial college students at ODU!

Specifically, her project will determine how parental closeness impacts biracial youth differential identification with their maternal and paternal ethnic/racial groups and the capacity to integrate these two cultural identities.

Taylor Receives Provost’s Award for Outstanding Undergraduate Researcher Award!

Dr. Alan Meca and the TARDIS Lab are incredibly proud of Taylor Webb for receiving the Provost’s Award for Outstanding Undergraduate Researcher Award for her amazing effort in supporting TARDIS and her contribution to the broader literature centered around experienced of marginalized youth.

As Lab Manager, Taylor has been involved in every facet of running a research lab. Taylor not only manages the lab schedule, delegates tasks to all research assistants, and ensures they are completed in a timely manner, but she also assists in developing tasks that help research projects move forward. Since starting her position in Spring 2019, Taylor has developed tools for tracking RA task assignments, began coordinating monthly lab meetings, created a system logging day-to-day activities, and established biweekly reports that are written by each RA and then consolidated by Taylor.

Beyond this, Taylor has contributed on a number of manuscripts within the last year and begun assisting me in the write up of several manuscripts and recently begun the process of spearheading her own project utilizing secondary data analysis – addressing key issues within developmental science. As part of her funded Honor’s Creativity Grant, Taylor will be utilize secondary data analysis to examine how cultural stressors uniquely affect internalizing symptoms among Hispanic/Latinx college students and determine the role cultural assets play in mitigating these effects

We are thrilled that Taylor Webb’s phenomenal research contribution has been recognized by ODU and the Provost’s Office.

Parenting Identity and Internalizing Problems Among Parents

Dr. Alan Meca and the Tardis Lab are excited to announce the first manuscript published utilizing data collected by the Tardis Research Lab!

The paper, published in Identity, examines the associations between Parenting Identity and Mental Health (i.e., symptoms of depression and anxiety) and differences in these associations between current and expecting parents. Consistent with previous literature and our hypothesis, parental identity commitment was negatively associated with generalized anxiety and depression. Additionally, reconsideration of commitment was positively associated with generalized anxiety and depression. No difference were found among first-time expecting parents and current parents.

Would not have been possible without the contributions made by James Paulson, Taylor Webb, Michelle L. Kelley, Julie Rodil and all of you for completing our research study!

A copy of the article can be found ResearchGate: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/339962845_Examination_of_the_Relationship_between_Parenting_Identity_and_Internalizing_Problems_A_Preliminary_Examination_of_Gender_and_Parental_Status_Differences

Directionality between Ethnic Identity and Discrimination

Dr. Alan Meca and the Tardis Lab are thrilled to announce our manuscript, which examined the directionality between Ethnic Identity and  discrimination and their effects on psychosocial functioning with Hispanic youth, has now been published in Developmental Psychology!

Results supported a bidrectional relationship between ethnic identity and discrimination. Whereas discrimination predicted subsequent ethnic identity exploration, consistent with the rejection-identification hypothesis, higher ethnic identity belonging predicted subsequent discrimination. Findings also indicated important unique effects between these processes and symptoms of depression and alcohol and cigarette use.

Would not have been possible without the contributions made by Mindy Gonzales-Backen, Rachel Davis, Julie Rodil, Daniel Soto, and Jennifer Unger-Hamilton!

A copy of the article can be found ResearchGate:
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/339040521_Discrimination_and_Ethnic_Identity_Establishing_Directionality_among_Latinoa_Youth

Violence Intervention and Prevention wins the UnitedHealthcare Community Care Award!

TARDIS would like to congratulate our community partner Cameron Bertrand and his organization, Violence Intervention and Prevention, for winning the UnitedHealthcare Community Care Award!

This award includes a grant that will fund a youth leadership nutrition program, in which Dr. Meca has agreed to provide his assistance as an external program evaluator. We are excited to continue to assist in VIP’s mission to empower youth in the local community!

Taylor Webb receives Honor’s Creativity Grant!

Congratulations to Taylor Webb! Taylor’s research proposal examining how knowledge of mainstream culture and experiences of discrimination impact social anxiety among Hispanic college students has been selected by the University Undergraduate Research Committee at Old Dominion University to receive funding ($3,000) for the Spring 2020 semester.

TARDIS lab is very proud of her accomplishment and excited to see the growth of her research!

Iris Cowan Receives M-MARC Fellowship!

Isis Kristina received the the Monarchs Maximizing Access to Research Careers (M-MARC) Undergraduate Student Training for Academic Research (U*STAR) for 2019-2020! The M-MARC U*STAR program supports students’ academic and research activities while they train to enter Ph.D. programs.

As part of the fellowship, Isis’ tuition and fees will be entirely covered, she will receive a substantive monthly stipend, have the opportunity to present at two national scientific conferences, participate in a summer research experience, and be exposed to a variety of exceptional professional training opportunities.

Tedra Ballard receives Honor’s Creativity Grant!

Congratulations to Tedra Ballard! Tedra’s research proposal on minority women in ODU’s engineering program has been selected by the University Undergraduate Research Committee at Old Dominion University to receive funding ($3,000) for the Fall 2019 semester.

The goal of Tedra’s research project is to identify factors that contribute to the underrepresentation of African American women in engineering by targeting the effects of the unique experiences of these women on multiple educational outcomes.  The findings from the proposed study may provide insights into potential solutions for addressing STEM disparities, particularly in the field of engineering.

TARDIS lab is very proud of her accomplishment and excited to see the growth of her research!

Rachel Davis Defends her Honor’s Thesis

Dr. Alan Meca and the Tardis Lab are proud to announce Rachel Davis successfully defended her Honor’s Thesis. Rachel has also been accepted into the doctoral program in Developmental Psychology at Virginia Commonwealth University and will be starting this coming Fall. We are extremely proud of her accomplishments and wish her the best as she continues on to this next chapter! 

Dr. Meca Presents at ODU’s Graduate School in Psychology Panel

Dr. Alan Meca represented the field of Developmental Science at ODU’s Graduate School in Psychology Panel along side Drs. Matt Judah & Jing Chen of ODU Department of Psychology and Dr. Tony Perez of Department of Educational Psychology and Program Evaluation! 

Discussion focused on requirements and expectations surrounding graduate training in the fields of developmental science, clinical psychology, human factors, and educational training. Specific attention was given to want students need to consider in order to be competitive for graduate programs.