As part of the 2024-25 Harriet Elliott Lecture Series, please join us for presentations and a discussion around current research by regional scholars on stress and life adversity.

Panelists will discuss the effects of discrimination on physical health broadly and cardiovascular functioning specifically, the role of socioeconomic inequality in early life adversity and brain development, acculturation stress and health, and the role of identity socialization in resilience.

Panelists & Topics

Deprivation and Threat: Biologic Pathways Through Which Adversity Impacts Risk for Psychopathology

Margaret A. Sheridan, PhD
Associate Professor of Psychology & Neuroscience, UNC Chapel Hill

Significant research indicates that one pathway through which adversity increases risk for psychopathology is via ‘biologic embedding’ or the impact of adversity exposure in childhood on our brain and body development. Here I describe recent research documenting the impact of two dimensions of adversity: deprivation and threat on neural structure and function. In an extension of this ongoing work, I will try to situate the impact of adversity within the social contexts of inequality, identifying how context can shift how outcomes are associated with adversity as a future direction of this research program.

Acculturative Stress and Resilience Among Latinos in the U.S.

Rosa M. Gonzalez-Guarda, PhD, MPH, CPH, RN, FAAN
Assistant Dean, PhD Program and Associate Professor, Duke University School of Nursing

Latino immigrants experience a relative health advantage, compared to U.S. born Latinos and non-Latinos. Nevertheless, this health advantage decays over time and across generations. This presentation will highlight the role that acculturative stress and resilience play in influencing health trajectories of Latino immigrants overtime and interventions strategies that are needed to promote health and health equity in this population.

The Psychophysiological Cost of Anticipatory Stress: Vigilance, Vagal and Vascular Functioning

LaBarron K. Hill, PhD
Assistant Professor of Psychology, NC A&T University

In this presentation, I will overview findings from my program of research linking discriminatory stress to cardiovascular functioning. I also will highlight growing evidence suggesting that the anticipatory stress characterized by vigilance may play a unique role in amplifying the psychophysiological response.

Buffers Against Bias: The Power of Ethnic-Racial Socialization

Lisa Kiang, PhD
Professor of Psychology, Wake Forest University

In the face of systemic racial bias and inequity, a growing body of research suggests that minoritized youth benefit from parental ethnic-racial socialization conversations that foster a strong, positive ethnic-racial identity and help prepare youth to cope with experiences of discrimination. This presentation will discuss theoretical and empirical support for whether and how these socialization and identity processes can serve as promotive and protective factors in people’s lives, including ideas for moving towards a more equitable society.

Free and open to the public. Free parking in the Walker Parking Deck.