Profile

What separates people who can thrive in the face of life stress from those who succumb to depression?  How do early and later relationships buffer or exacerbate stress vulnerabilities, and how can people learn to respond more adaptively to daily stressors? Dr. Laurent’s research focuses on (1) defining what we mean by stress “regulation” by relating multiple biological (i.e., neural, neuroendocrine, autonomic) and behavioral stress response facets to psychological symptoms and well-being; (2) identifying developmental paths shaping stress regulation, including prenatal and postnatal influences of parental depression; and (3) determining how practices such as mindfulness can improve stress regulation, and whom such practices are most likely to benefit.  Her work combines stress physiology monitoring, neuroimaging, and/or behavioral observation as people respond to naturalistic stressors that arise within close interpersonal relationships, toward the ultimate goal of interrupting intergenerational cycles of stress dysregulation and depression.

Dr. Laurent is now an Assistant Professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and is no longer accepting new graduate students here at the University of Oregon.

Selected publications:

Hertz, R., Laurent, H.L., & Laurent, S.L. (in press). Attachment mediates effects of trait mindfulness on stress resposes to conflict. Mindfulness.

Laurent, H.K., Nelson, B., Wright, D., De Araujo, M., & Laurent, S. (advance online publication). Dispositional mindfulness moderates the effect of a brief mindfulness induction on physiological stress responses. Mindfulness.

Laurent, H.K., Gilliam, K., Wright, D., & Fisher, P. (2015). Child anxiety symptoms related to longitudinal cortisol trajectories and acute stress responses: Evidence of developmental stress sensitization. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 124, 68-79.

Laurent, H.K. (2014). Clarifying the contours of emotion regulation: Insights from parent-child stress research. Child Development Perspectives, 8, 30-35.

Laurent, H.K., Gilliam, K., Bruce, J., & Fisher, P.R. (2014). HPA stability for children in foster care: Mental health implications and moderation by early intervention. Developmental Psychobiology, 56, 1406-1415.

Laurent, H.K., Leve, L., Neiderhiser, J., Natsuaki, M., Shaw, D., Fisher, P. & Reiss, D. (2014). Stress system development from age 4.5 to 6: Environmental predictors and adjustment implications of HPA stability versus change. Developmental Psychobiology, 56, 340-354.

Laurent, H.K., Laurent, S., Hertz, R., Egan-Wright, D., & Granger, D.A. (2013). Sex-specific effects of mindfulness on romantic partners' cortisol responses to conflict and relations with psychological adjustment. Psychoneuroendocrinology, 38, 2905-2913.

Laurent, H. K., Leve, L. D., Neiderhiser, J. M., Natsuaki, M. N., Shaw, D. S., Fisher, P. A., Harold, G. T., Marceau, K., & Reiss, D. (2013). Effects of parental depressive symptoms on child adjustment moderated by HPA: Within- and between-family risk. Child Development, 84, 528-542.

Laurent, H. K., Leve, L., Neiderhiser, J., Natsuaki, M., Shaw, D., Harold, G., & Reiss, D. (2013). Effects of prenatal and postnatal parent depressive symptoms on adopted child HPA regulation: Independent and moderated influences. Developmental Psychology, 49, 876-886.

Laurent, H. K., & Ablow, J. C. (2012). The missing link: Mothers’ neural response to infant cry related to infant attachment behaviors. Infant Behavior and Development, 35, 1-12.

Laurent, H. K., & Ablow, J. C. (2012). A cry in the dark: Depressed mothers show reduced neural activation to their own infant’s cry. Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, 7, 125-134.

Laurent, H. K., Ablow, J. C., & Measelle, J. (2012). Taking stress response out of the box: Stability, discontinuity, and temperament effects on HPA and SNS across social stressors in mother-infant dyads. Developmental Psychology, 48, 35-45.

Laurent, H. K., Ablow, J. C., & Measelle, J. (2011). Risky shifts: How the timing and course of mothers’ depressive symptoms across the perinatal period shape their own and infant’s stress response profiles. Development and Psychopathology, 23, 521-538.

Laurent, H. K., Stephens, A., & Ablow, J. C. (2011). Neural correlates of mothers’ hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal regulation with their infants. Biological Psychiatry, 70, 826-832.

Laurent, H. K., & Powers, S. I. (2007). Emotion regulation in emerging adult couples: Temperament, attachment, and HPA response to conflict. Biological Psychology, 76, 61-71.