Amanda is currently a first-year PhD student working with Dr. Kari Adamsons. She is originally from Seattle but moved to Phoenix to attend Arizona State University (ASU) for her undergraduate degree. In May 2023 she earned a B.S. in Political Science and Psychology from ASU. During her undergraduate studies, she worked in several child development labs where she became interested in child and adolescent development. In addition, she worked in a lab examining family relationships, leading her to become fascinated by parent-child relationships and their contribution to children’s and adolescents’ developmental outcomes. For her honors thesis, she studied parent-child emotional synchrony and its association with early adolescents’ internalizing and externalizing psychopathology. Through her research labs and her honors thesis, she gained experience and knowledge about research examining parent-child relationships.
At UConn, Amanda has continued to further her understanding of parent-child relationships and child development. Specifically, she wants to conduct research examining the role of parent-child relationships in children’s and adolescents’ mental health and risk taking, with particular interest in substance use and abuse, delinquent behaviors, anxiety, and depression. In addition, she is interested in how parents’ behaviors contribute to these adolescent outcomes. In the future, she plans to continue studying predictors of adolescent substance use and other mental health outcomes. Ultimately, she aims to conduct research that can have real-world implications for families and adolescents.
Outside of school work, Amanda typically spends her time watching sports. She is a huge Seattle sports fan, so she will often spend her free time watching games on TV. In addition, she loves to read books for fun and spend time outdoors.