Bio:

What factors promote children and adolescents’ ability to regulate and cope with their emotions? Is the development of this ability a crucial ingredient in the prevention and treatment of pediatric mental health problems? Questions such as these form the basis of Dr. Conway’s research, teaching, and service, devoted to enhancing emotion regulation and reducing mental health problems in disadvantaged children and youth.

Capitalizing on recent advances from multiple disciplines such as developmental neuroscience, psychology and social work, Dr. Conway utilizes a contextual and neurobehaviorally-informed approach to investigating factors that are most salient to the development of regulatory abilities at key periods for the emergence of pediatric mental health problems.  These include early childhood, early adolescence, and early adulthood. Investigation of factors at the interface of multiple biopsychosocial domains (e.g., social context, emotion, attention, sleep) and how these findings can be translated into cost-effective and innovative interventions is a key focus of her work with colleagues, students, and youth and families. Adaptations of empirically validated attention and emotion regulation interventions, form the current focus of her work.

Dr. Conway has extensive experience working with individuals with mental health challenges from early childhood through late life both in inpatient and outpatient settings.  The dissemination and training of the most effective, culturally-appropriate and developmentally-informed mental health services, both nationally and internationally, drives her teaching and service.

Dr. Conway obtained her M.S.W. and Ph.D. from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor and was awarded two research fellowships funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIMH and NICHD) to pursue post-doctoral training in early childhood and adolescent mental health research.


Research Interests:

• Identifying factors that promote the self-regulation of emotion and attention in children and adolescents
• Investigating risks for the development of affective disorders
• Translating findings into cost-effective mental health interventions
• Applying and testing the effectiveness of the interventions
  
  

Selected Publications and Presentations:

Book Chapters
Conway, A., Tugade, M., Catalino, L., & Fredrickson, B. L. (forthcoming). The Broaden and Build Theory of positive emotions: Form, Function, and Mechanisms. In J. Boniwell & S. David (Eds.), Oxford Handbook of Happiness. London, England: Oxford University Press.

Dahl, R. E., & Conway, A. (2009). Self-regulation and behavior problems: Toward an integrative conceptual and translational research agenda. In S. Olson & A. J. Sameroff (Eds.), Regulatory processes in the development of behavior problems: Biological, behavioral, and socioecological interactions. Cambridge University Press.Link: More

Journal Articles
Ladouceur, C. D., Conway, A. & Dahl, R. E. (2010). Attentional control moderates the relations between negative affect and neural correlates of action monitoring in adolescence. Developmental Neuropsychology, 35, 194-211. Link: More

Stifter, C., Cipriano, E., Conway, A., & Kelleher, R. (2009). Temperament and conscience: The role of effortful control. Social Development, 18, 353-374. Link: More

Cohn, M. A., Fredrickson, B. L., Brown, S. L., Mikels, J., & Conway, A. (2009). Happiness unpacked: Positive emotions increase life satisfaction by building resilience. Emotion, 9, 361-368.Link: More

Conway, A. (2009). Neurophysiological basis of self-regulation in children and youth. Reclaiming Children and Youth, 17, 16-22.

Conway, A., McDonough, S., Follett, C., & Sameroff, A. (in revision). Mental health symptoms in toddlers and their mothers following the disaster of September 11th. Manuscript invited for resubmission. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry.

Conway, A. & Stifter, C. (resubmitted). Longitudinal antecedents of executive function. Manuscript invited for resubmission Child Development.

Conway, A. & McDonough, S. (2006). Emotional resilience in early childhood: Developmental antecedents and relations to behavior problems. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences. Link: More

Keller, M. C., Fredrickson, B. L., Ybarra, O., Cote, S., Mikels, J. A., Johnson, K., Conway, A., & Wagner, T. (2005). A warm heart and a clear head: The effects of weather on mood and cognition. Psychological Science, 16(9), 724-731. Link: More

Conway, A. (2005). Girls, aggression, and emotion regulation. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 75(2), 334-339. Link: More

Last updated September 09, 2010 .