My research uses a biopsychosocial approach to investigate relations between family stress and children’s development. Most recently, I have focused on examining the impact that family conflict (e.g., marital aggression) has on children’s bioregulatory processes, including sleep. Building on direct effects, I have begun examining mediators and moderators of effects to determine why and for whom family conflict is related to sleep. Lastly, a portion of my research examines the extent to which sleep problems in the normative range (e.g., one hour less sleep, occasional night waking) predict emotional, behavioral, cognitive, and physical health problems. Overall, my research is multidisciplinary in nature and has drawn from disciplines including child development, family studies, pediatric sleep medicine, and health psychology.
