Sexual minority men of color experience high rates of discrimination due to their intersecting racial and sexual identities (DiGuiseppi et al., 2022). These men also have high levels of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and depressive symptoms (Bertolino et al., 2020; Schnarrs et al. 2025). However, to the best of our knowledge, there have been no studies that have investigated whether ACEs may lead to heightened stress sensitivity that makes sexual minority men of color more vulnerable to the negative health impacts of everyday discrimination. Using data from a larger study that assessed how distinct life experiences impacted the well-being of sexual minority men of color (N = 497), the present study aims to examine whether ACEs moderate the relationship between everyday discrimination and depressive symptoms in this population. We hypothesize that higher levels of everyday discrimination will be associated with higher depressive symptoms. Furthermore, we hypothesize that the relationship between everyday discrimination and depressive symptoms will be stronger, or exacerbated, among individuals with exposure to more ACEs. Findings from this study have the potential to inform the development of more targeted interventions to address depressive symptoms among sexual minority men of color and take into consideration everyday discrimination experiences and ACEs, thereby improving health outcomes.

Autistic individuals face higher rates of bullying and suicidality, plausibly attributable to a lack of autism acceptance in the general population. Currently, there is little research that analyzes how the university population interprets autism spectrum disorder, and how their specific characteristics and life experiences may influence their overall autism acceptance. The current study is using survey data from UCLA undergraduate students. Participants completed the Autism Attitude Acceptance Scale (Kim, 2020) along with demographic measures that assess one’s social proximity to an autistic individual, their political affiliation, and their support of autism treatment. Political affiliation and social proximity to an autistic person were analyzed as predictors of autism acceptance. A nested model comparison revealed that social proximity did not significantly predict autism acceptance, nor did political affiliation (χ2(1) = 0.28, p = .16). Conversely, support of autism intervention significantly predicted autism acceptance. A nested model comparison revealed that the inclusion of political affiliation and social proximity improved the prediction of intervention support (χ2(2) = 4.84, p = 0.019). Advocates for autism acceptance may use these findings to inform their future work of creating a more accepting space for autistic individuals. Our findings of autism intervention support predicting autism acceptance may be used to direct future research on the strengths and weaknesses of current autism intervention styles.

Adolescence is a complex period of human development marked by a biologically programmed hunger to know the self and connect to a transcendent force—the core of what is understood as spirituality. When spiritual development is disrupted, adolescents become significantly more susceptible to depression, anxiety, and other mental disorders. While genetic predispositions and psychosocial contributors have been widely studied, verbal abuse remains an overlooked yet pervasive risk factor that directly impacts two fundamental aspects of spiritual development: parent-child relationships and the formation of identity and personal expression. Although adolescent psychotherapy is commonly employed, its focus on disease and treatment may unintentionally reinforce stigma and harmful experiences. This paper addresses this limitation by proposing singing bowl and vocal sound healing techniques as interventions to help adolescents cultivate long-term well-being, strengthen personal identity, and reclaim a voice silenced by verbal abuse. Through an interdisciplinary, mixed-methods systematic review of peer-reviewed empirical studies, published books, and literature reviews, I conclude that sound healing is an extremely promising clinical intervention that promotes neurological, psychological, and spiritual healing and rewiring. This proposal contributes to the emerging discussions on sound healing and mental health. With further research, sound healing has the potential to transform the landscape of clinical practice for adolescents.

To make adaptive decisions, organisms build internal models of environmental relationships. A key feature is forming the identity-specific cue-reward memories needed for flexible model-based choices. While midbrain dopamine often represents general reward value, the projection from ventral tegmental area dopamine (VTADA) neurons to the basolateral amygdala (BLA) is a specialized pathway for encoding specific reward identities.Using Th-Cre rats and fiber photometry, we recorded VTADA-BLA terminal activity during Pavlovian and instrumental conditioning. Rats learned to associate distinct auditory cues and lever presses with specific rewards, Ensure or pellets. We assessed these associations through Pavlovian-to-Instrumental transfer (PIT), outcome-specific devaluation, and reward magnitude scaling. Behavioral results confirmed acquisition of these associations, while photometry data revealed that reward-predictive cues evoked VTADA​-BLA activity during conditioning and PIT. Neural activity was observed during lever presses congruent with cue-action pairings, suggesting the engagement of this pathway during expectancy-guided decision-making. Following devaluation, animals reduced behavioral responding, yet VTADA-BLA activity didn’t differ between valued and devalued cues. Similarly, neural responses to reward magnitude did not scale as expected. These findings suggest the VTA-BLA circuit primarily encodes predictive associations rather than fluctuating value, refining our understanding of dopamine’s role in model-based learning

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) activity has quadrupled under the Trump administration (Blair & Hausman, 2026). Latinés are one of the most impacted racial/ethnic groups, as there was a 225% increase in ICE arrests among them in 2025 (Ong et al., 2025). Such events generated significant concerns among Latinés, who are more likely to worry about immigration policies compared to other racial groups (Noé-Bustamante, 2025), which is related to depression and anxiety (Rabin et al., 2022). Consequently, immigration enforcement constitutes a mental health risk factor worth investigating, particularly among Latiné college students who are underrepresented in immigration policy research. Aspects of emotional resiliency were found to buffer the impacts of social stressors on the onset of mental health disorders among Latinés (Urcuyo et al., 2024). Using a subsample of students from the 2024-2025 Healthy Minds Study who identified as “Hispanic/Latine” (N = 18,851), I examine whether emotional resiliency (BRS; Smith et al., 2008) buffers the impact of anti-immigrant policies on the mental health outcomes of Latiné college students. To do so, I conduct a moderated regression analysis. The majority of the subsample is female (70.5%), with a mean age of 24.09 years (SD = 7.76). I hypothesize that emotional resiliency will buffer the effects of immigration worries on depression and anxiety. This study helps identify protective factors for the mental health of Latiné college students in the wake of anti-immigrant policies.

Emotion regulation (ER) develops substantially across adolescence, with many individuals strengthening their regulatory skills during this period, which supports adaptive functioning and mental health outcomes (Silvers, 2022). Research suggests that family context is important, as emotion regulation develops through processes such as parental modeling and the emotional climate of the family (Morris et al., 2007). However, the degree to which family contexts play a role in ER development is unclear, particularly with regard to the development of distinct ER strategies. This study aims to address the potential role of family context in ER development, and how family context differentially relates to individual strategies. To address this, we will analyze data from 94 participants aged 10 to 22 from the Pathways Into Adolescence (PIA) Study, using the Emotion Regulation Questionnaire to assess cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression, and the Family Conflict Scale. Linear regression analyses will be conducted predicting these emotion regulation strategies, while controlling for age and gender. We hypothesize lower levels of family conflict will likely be associated with more adaptive emotion regulation skills. This study will help clarify the impact of family dynamics on distinct emotion regulation strategies in adolescents, as they relate to long-term emotional and psychological health.

Motivated by the concerning increase in adolescents turning to AI for emotional support and therapy -- including cases that have tragically resulted in suicide -- this study aims to investigate linkages between adolescents’ emotional intelligence, parental relationships, and usage of AI for emotional support. The present study will utilize coded parent-child conflict interactions, self-reported AI usage, and performance-based assessments of emotional intelligence to collect these measures. The initial hypotheses are as follows: H1: Adolescents who report their parents as excessively strict (authoritarian parenting style) will be associated with lower emotional intelligence scores and greater reported use of AI for emotional support. H2: Adolescents who report their parents as communicative and fair (authoritative parenting style) will be associated with higher emotional intelligence scores and lower reported use of AI for emotional support. H3: Coded parent-child interactions will show higher degrees of negative parenting behaviors than self-reported measures by parents. Furthermore, parent-child interactions coded as “harsh parenting” will be associated with lower emotional intelligence scores and greater use of AI by the child. Though its usage has skyrocketed, AI chatbots – even clinical “therapy bots” -- remain highly unregulated and inadequate for providing careful emotional support. The results of this study will help inform future regulations for AI, including parental education and access guidelines for adolescents

A seminal study in context-dependent memory taught in many psychology classes found significantly better recall in divers when their learning environment matched their testing environment, whether underwater or on land (Godden & Baddeley, 1975). What if similar effects could be achieved with environmental context reinstatement during memory consolidation instead of retrieval? Previous research suggests that video context reinstatement during consolidation, paired with electrical stimulation, can result in significantly improved recall (Shtoots, 2024). In seeking to replicate these results, the present study seeks to clarify and extend the effects of context reinstatement by presenting undergraduates with image lists of variable lengths for memory testing without stimulation. We hypothesize that the shortest lists with context reinstatement during consolidation will show the highest rates of recognition (Smith 2010), while moderate length lists will show the greatest context-dependent effects in recall (Isarida 2020). The findings will highlight the interaction between context reinstatement during consolidation and list length. Additionally, the results will help us select an optimal list length for novel experiments involving video contexts, in hopes of replicating Shtoots’ results supporting an interaction between context reinstatement and electrical stimulation during consolidation.