Platform-mediated avoidance tasks assess how animals learn to avoid foot shock by stepping onto a platform. Many designs place platforms in corner locations which align with species-specific defense reactions (SSDRs) like hiding in corners. This creates a bias, making it unclear whether animals are learning the platform signals safety or simply relying on SSDRs.. To address this, we varied platform location, assigning male and female rats to one of three conditions: rear corner (RC), center (CE), or both (BO). We hypothesized that animals would preferentially select the RC platform to avoid foot shock. During initial low threat, platform proximity outweighed spatial preference, but with repeated exposure, avoidance became more structured, and escape declined. Females consistently preferred the RC platform, while males distributed time more evenly and used the CE more than females. Animals rarely used both platforms simultaneously, even when doing so provided more coverage from the shock grids. This suggests that animals were not simply maximizing options but committing to a single strategy. These findings show that platform location and availability influence escape and avoidance, shaped by spatial learning and innate defense strategies. Refining task design improves translational relevance, especially for modeling maladaptive avoidance in anxiety disorders, which disproportionately affect women.

Adolescence is a period of immense physical, social, and cognitive changes that enhance vulnerability to mental health challenges. Modern-day factors such as social media exacerbate this problem in teens, with impacts on emotion, sleep, and depression–three aspects of life and development that bidirectionally relate to one another (Kahn, 2013; Yasugaki, 2023). Prior research in adults found that inadequate sleep predicted the use of maladaptive emotion regulation (ER) strategies, which subsequently resulted in more depressive symptoms (O’Leary et al., 2017). However, it is unknown whether sleep quality mediates or moderates the association between ER and depression. We will test these possibilities by leveraging data from a longitudinal study of clinically depressed and psychiatrically healthy adolescents where we acquired self-reported measures of ER, self- and assessor-reported depressive symptoms, and daily measures of subjective sleep quality over the course of 3 weeks. Consistent with prior literature, we hypothesize that depressed adolescents will rely more on maladaptive ER techniques (e.g., emotional suppression) than their non-depressed counterparts, and that the use of such skills will positively correlate with depression severity and worse sleep quality across the entire sample. Further, we predict that a worse subjective sleep quality will mediate (and/or moderate) the relationship between ER and depression.

Whereas previous work has shown that judgments of ambiguous social categories (e.g., sexual orientation) vary as an influence of perceptually clear social categories (e.g., race and gender), there is little research on how specifically Latinx identities vary as an influence on ambiguous social categories. To open a new chapter in this literature, the present research examines how various perceptions and stereotypes overlap cognitively and shape judgments. Study 1 showcases through the visual perceptions of faces that when target faces were rated as more masculine, participants provided more straight categorizations for Latinx targets compared to white targets on average. However, the effect reversed when target faces were rated as feminine, such that participants provided more gay categorizations for Latinx targets compared to white targets. Study 2 showcases, through an implicit association task, that Latino gay men are more closely associated with straight and ethnic-typed stereotypes than gay stereotypes. This could lead to perceivers characterizing these groups with identity-hidden or identity-denying beliefs. Collectively, these findings begin to unpack perceptions of intersectional identities (e.g., Latinx and LGBTQ+) to further understand the mechanisms by which perceivers make judgments about their identities.

Individuals with schizophrenia are shown to have a 4.5-fold increased risk of dying by suicide (Legge et al., 2021). One of the most reliable predictors of suicide is the presence of self-harm behavior (Haw et al., 2005). Polygenic scores (PGS), a method to quantify the underlying genetic architecture of risk for psychiatric disorders, can be utilized to determine whether higher schizophrenia genetic liability is associated with the engagement in self-harm behavior in children, possibly increasing risk for suicide. Using a sample of 5124 11–12-year-olds from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development Study (ABCD), we used total and distress scores from the Prodromal Questionnaire–Brief Child Version. Separate PGS were calculated using data from genome wide association studies for the phenotypes of interest: schizophrenia—also separately looking at hallucinations and subclinical psychotic-like experiences (SPLE)—and self-harm. Linear regression analyses revealed PGS for hallucinations and SPLE, but not schizophrenia, significantly predicted psychosis spectrum symptoms (β=0.084, p=0.011; β=0.191, p=8.89e-09). Logistic regressions showed PGS for SPLE, but not schizophrenia or hallucinations, significantly predicted self-harm endorsement (β=0.727, p=0.009). Age, sex, and the top five genetic principal components were covariates. Further analyses will look at the role of self-harm PGS in the established relationship between self-harm behaviors and schizophrenia PGS; crucial to track the etiologic basis of childhoood suicide risk.

Existing literature found that many prospective resource parents were motivated to pursue fostering due to prior familiarity with the foster care system—either as former foster children, growing up in foster families, or relationships with others connected to the system (Peake & Townsend, 2012; Martin et al., 1992). However, there is limited research on how such familiarity influences willingness to foster children specifically impacted by trauma. This gap is crucial to explore as behavioral and emotional problems in foster children were associated with disruptions after placement and decreased caregivers’ commitment to fostering (Sawyer et al., 2007). This study uses intake data from prospective resource parents (N=171) at the beginning of treatment at UCLA TIES for Families, a mental health service for children in or adopted from foster care. Preliminary results show 13.7% of participants reported being adopted or knowing someone who was adopted as a motivator, and 38.6% knew a parent who had fostered or adopted through the child welfare system. A Mann-Whitney U Test for non-parametric data will assess whether degrees of foster care proximity (e.g., knowing a former foster youth v.s. knowing a resource parent) relate to willingness to parent a child with trauma-related characteristics. Understanding the impact of different forms of foster care familiarity on caregiver preparedness and confidence can inform social workers and therapists for better placement stability, training, and support for resource parents.