In conjunction with the Psychiatric Inpatient Unit of the C.S. Mott Children's Hospital, Professor Daniel Keating, and Dr. Edward Huntley--I have been able to (virtually!) craft the focus of my thesis around adolescent trauma and parental maltreatment. Because parents have quite a large influence over adolescent wellbeing, the core of my work is centered on ways by which this influence can negatively affect adolescents. For the duration of the Summer, our focus has been on utilizing two waves of longitudinal brain imaging data from the Adolescent Health Risk Behavior Study, concentrating on correlations between delinquency-related risk behavior and traumatic parental environments; the assumption being that poor parenting styles will lead to higher levels of youth risk behavior. Through the work we complete, I hope to shed greater light on emotional abuse within the home, and the capacity for adolescent resilience.
