2 Colchester Avenue
John Dewey Hall, Rm 338
Burlington, VT 05405-0134
United States
- B.A. State University of New York at Geneseo, 2015
- M.A. Virginia Tech, 2017
- Ph.D. Virginia Tech, 2020
- Postdoctoral Fellowship, Yale University, 2020-2023
Developmental Psychology
BIO
My program of research examines how adversity and social determinants of health shape neurodevelopment and mental health across childhood and adolescence. I integrate perspectives from developmental science, clinical psychology, and neuroscience to better understand the nuanced ways in which adversity and environmental stressors can affect youth development. The overarching aim of my program of research is to identify factors that exacerbate risk or promote resilience in youth in order to inform targets for intervention and prevention and mitigate disparities in youth mental health.
My lab, the Family, Environment, Resilience, and Neurodevelopment (FERN) Lab, leverages a variety of methodologies across multiple levels of analysis including behavioral and cognitive tasks, neuroimaging (fMRI), and detailed assessments of early environments. We utilize rigorous quantitative methods, primarily in a structural equation modeling framework, to answer complex questions about the dynamic nature of behavior and neurodevelopment. Ongoing and future research plans include 1) examining how intersecting social determinants of health and adversity exposure shape brain and behavioral development across childhood and adolescence, 2) delineating the neurodevelopmental mechanisms and trajectories that link these experiences with mental health, and 3) identifying factors that contribute to youth adaptation and resilience.
Bio
My program of research examines how adversity and social determinants of health shape neurodevelopment and mental health across childhood and adolescence. I integrate perspectives from developmental science, clinical psychology, and neuroscience to better understand the nuanced ways in which adversity and environmental stressors can affect youth development. The overarching aim of my program of research is to identify factors that exacerbate risk or promote resilience in youth in order to inform targets for intervention and prevention and mitigate disparities in youth mental health.
My lab, the Family, Environment, Resilience, and Neurodevelopment (FERN) Lab, leverages a variety of methodologies across multiple levels of analysis including behavioral and cognitive tasks, neuroimaging (fMRI), and detailed assessments of early environments. We utilize rigorous quantitative methods, primarily in a structural equation modeling framework, to answer complex questions about the dynamic nature of behavior and neurodevelopment. Ongoing and future research plans include 1) examining how intersecting social determinants of health and adversity exposure shape brain and behavioral development across childhood and adolescence, 2) delineating the neurodevelopmental mechanisms and trajectories that link these experiences with mental health, and 3) identifying factors that contribute to youth adaptation and resilience.
PUBLICATIONS
Recent Publications
Brieant, A., Sisk, L.M., Keding, T.J., Cohodes, E.M., & Gee, D.G. (in press). Leveraging multivariate approaches to advance the science of early-life adversity. Child Abuse and Neglect. doi:10.1016/j.chiabu.2024.106754
Clinchard, C.*, Lee, T.*, Lindenmuth, M., Brieant, A., Deater-Deckard, K., Noble, K., Casas, B., & Kim-Spoon, J. (2024). Family economic environment and adolescent substance use: The mediating role of parent-adolescent brain similarity and parental monitoring. Journal of Family Psychology. doi:10.1037/fam0001223
Kim-Spoon, J., Brieant, A., Folker, A., Lindenmuth, M., Lee, J., Casas, B. & Deater-Deckard, K. (2024). Psychopathology as long-term sequelae of maltreatment and socioeconomic disadvantage: Neurocognitive development perspectives. Development and Psychopathology, 1-12. doi:10.1017/S0954579424000531
Holt-Gosselin, B., Keding, T.J., Poulin, R., Brieant, A., Rueter, A., Hendrickson, T.J., Perrone, A., Byington, N., Houghton, A., Miranda-Dominguez, O., Feczko, E., Fair, D., Joormann, J., & Gee, D.G. (2024). Neural circuit markers of familial risk for depression among healthy youth in the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study. Biological Psychiatry: Cognitive Neuroscience and Neuroimaging, 9, 185-195. doi:10.1016/j.bpsc.2023.05.001
Brieant, A., Clinchard, C., Deater-Deckard, K., Lee, J., King-Casas, B., & Kim-Spoon, J. (2023). Differential associations of adversity profiles with adolescent cognitive control and psychopathology. Research on Child and Adolescent Psychopathology, 51, 1725-1738. doi:10.1007/s10802-022-00972-8
Gee, D.G. & Brieant, A. (2023).Meta-analytic evidence for association of adversity with brain function. JAMA Network Open, 6, e2339966. doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2023.39966
Brieant, A., Vannucci, A., Nakua, H., Harris, J., Lovell, J., Brundavanam, D., Tottenham, N., & Gee, D.G. (2023). Characterizing the dimensional structure of early life adversity in the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development Study. Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience, 61, 101256. doi:10.1016/j.dcn.2023.101256