Undergraduate Research Student Panel

Undergraduate research panelists include:

Allison Hollender, The COVID-19 Era: Effects of Online Learning on Overcontrolled Youth
Mentor: Kirsten Gilbert

Maggie Chen, Effect of Parental Overprotection on Child Overcontrol
Mentor: Kirsten Gilbert

Prior literature indicates that self-control is an adaptive factor in young children and is protective against onset of psychopathology. However, while self-control can prove beneficial for youth well-being, excessive amounts of self-control, or “overcontrol”, can lead to maladaptive tendencies such as perfectionism, criticism, and compulsive checking behaviors. Research shows that overcontrolled children are prone to more internalizing symptoms of psychopathology and are at risk for psychiatric disorders including social anxiety disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, anorexia nervosa, and depression. While the personality phenotype of overcontrol writ-large has received some examination in the literature, overcontrolled youth remain an understudied population and warrant further investigation.

In this panel, we endeavor to remedy this gap by discussing some of the etiology, moderators, and outcomes of this phenotype through our exploration of the effects of overprotective parenting behaviors and online learning on a group of community children oversampled for overcontrol. Our population of interest were assessed at 5-6 years old at baseline and 7-8 years old at a two-year follow-up session.