IDeA Award 2022: Diane Lickenbrock

Institution: Western Kentucky University

Department: Psychological Sciences

Rank: Associate Professor

Project Title: The development of emotion regulation with the parent-infant relationship: Intrinsic and extrinsic predictors

About the project: Our project examines how mothers, fathers, and infants contribute to children’s ability to regulate their emotions over time. Early infancy is an important time-period to examine the development of emotion regulation, because infants are learning to regulate their emotions during interactions with their parents. 

Intended outcomes: Our goal is to understand the extent to which specific characteristics of parents and infants make children more or less susceptible to emotion regulation difficulties. We also aim to understand similarities and differences in the extent to which mothers and fathers contribute to their child’s emotion regulation. Students working on the project gain hands-on research experience, and many have gone on to graduate studies in medical and mental health fields.

How KY INBRE will help accomplish these goals: The funding from KY INBRE has helped us purchase equipment and supplies needed for the project. It has also funded graduate students as well as summer student research assistants who help with the project. The data from this project has supported NIH grant applications for funding to continue examining contributors of infant emotion regulation development. 

Outside of the classroom/lab: I enjoy getting outside with my family and collecting vinyl records.