Research Associate

Research interests

My interests are primarily in the areas of developmental psychopathology and behaviour genetics. Within these domains I aim to integrate investigation of the role of positive and negative family relationships on children's early social development and psychopathology; the development of intervention programmes for high-risk children; and the application of advanced modelling techniques in the analysis of longitudinal data.

Recent Publications

Leve, L.D., Harold, G.T., Van Ryzin, M.J., Elam, K.K., & Chamberlain, P. (2010). Girls’ tobacco and alcohol use during early adolescence: Prediction from trajectories of depressive symptoms across two studies. Journal of Child & Adolescent Substance Abuse, (in press).

Elam, K.K., Carlson, J.M., DiLalla, L.F., & Reinke, K.S. (2010). Emotional faces capture spatial attention in 5-year-old children. Evolutionary Psychology, 8, 754-767.

DiLalla, L.F., Elam, K.K., & Smolen, A. (2009). Genetic and gene-environment interaction effects on preschoolers’ social behaviors. Developmental Psychobiology, 51, 451-464.

Recent Presentations

Harold, G. T., Elam, K. K., Rice, F., Thapar, A. (2011). Disentangling genetic and family environmental influences in the link between parent depression and child depression. Paper presented at Shaping the Research Agenda of Depression Prevention. Netherlands Institute of Mental Health Research, Utrecht, Holland.

Elam, K. K., Leve, L., Harold, G. T., Neiderhiser, J., Shaw, D., Natsuaki, M., Scaramella, L., & Reiss, D. (2011). Parenting influences in children at high versus low genetic risk: Exploring growth in behavior problems over time. Paper presented to the Behavior Genetics Association, Newport, RI, June 2011.

Teaching

PS3027 - Quantitative Behavior Genetics and Developmental Psychopathology

Supervisor

Professor Gordon T. Harold