Pennsylvania State University-Main Campus · PsychologyChild Anxiety Dynamics Lab
Koraly E Perez-Edgar · University Park, Pennsylvania
Research Focus
Dr. Koraly E. Perez-Edgar's lab at Penn State focuses on understanding how anxiety can be transmitted from parents to children, especially during early childhood. The research examines the moment-by-moment interactions between parents and their children, exploring how these dynamics influence a child's emotional development and risk for anxiety. The lab also contributes to a national study that investigates how various environmental factors affect children's brain development from before birth through early childhood.
parent-child interactionanxiety transmissionneurodevelopmentemotional regulationchild developmentbiological synchronymother-child dynamicsHBCD Consortiumenvironmental influences
Research Aims
5AIM 01Investigate how moment-to-moment interactions between parents and children contribute to anxiety risk.
AIM 02Examine the impact of parental behaviors on children's emotional development.
AIM 03Assess neural and physiological synchrony during parent-child interactions.
AIM 04Identify key developmental windows affected by environmental hazards in childhood.
AIM 05Create a comprehensive dataset to inform public policy on child development.
Skills the Lab Values
neuroimaging techniques (MRI, EEG)psychophysiological measurementsbehavioral assessmentsdata collectionlongitudinal study designemotion modelingstatistical analysis (SPSS, R)parent-child behavioral observationsynchrony analysis
Output against the department
Publications216top 31% of dept.91st of 296
this lab
most publishedleast published
Citations9.0ktop 32% of dept.95th of 296
this lab
most citedleast cited
Career totals from OpenAlex, compared against labs that share a department. A department spans everything from one paper to tens of thousands, so bar heights are on a log scale — otherwise the largest lab would flatten every other bar to a line.