Research Experience

Doctoral Dissertation

August 2021-May 2022

Title: Observed Adolescent Disclosure to Parents: The Roles of Parental Responses, Adolescent Adjustment, and Culture

​

In the final year of my graduate studies, I received the President's Dissertation Year Fellowship from the University of California to assist me with the completion of my dissertation. As part of my dissertation, my colleagues and I worked with local hospitals to recruit Latinx families with adolescents diagnosed with type 1 diabetes. This project provided me with valuable opportunities to collaborate with other experts in the field, conduct research in collaboration with two different children’s hospitals, and gain knowledge of advanced statistical techniques (e.g., mediation analysis). I led a manuscript based on this data examining associations between observed adolescent disclosure, parental behavioral responses, and diabetes management (Disla, Main et al., under review). Findings from this research project were presented at various national conferences.

​

I also extended my research on disclosure in real-time interactions to more diverse (and younger) samples (Disla, 2022). My advisor and I were invited to collaborate on a multi-site NIH grant examining parent-child discourse patterns in a large sample of racially diverse low-income families using the Early Head Start dataset. Within this larger project, I examined pre-adolescents’ disclosure to parents during conflict discussions among African American, Spanish-speaking Hispanic, English-speaking Hispanic, and European American families.

Doctoral Research

September 2015-May 2022

Titles: The effect of mothers’ emotion‐related responses to adolescent disclosures and adolescent perspective taking on the timing of future disclosures; Timing of observed adolescent disclosure during mother-adolescent conversations: The role of maternal emotions and adolescent age; Observed Adolescent Disclosure to Parents: The Roles of Parental Responses, Adolescent Adjustment, and Culture

​

During my doctoral program, I had the opportunity to participate in several research projects. For my first independent project, I developed and implemented a novel coding scheme to measure adolescent disclosure during observed mother-adolescent interactions and subsequently tested which maternal behaviors predicted the timing of these disclosures (Main, Disla et al., 2019, Emotion). In this study, my colleagues and I tested (1) whether maternal emotions were associated with the time to adolescents’ spontaneous emotional disclosures and (2) whether these associations varied as a function of adolescent age. For this study, mother and adolescents participated in a conflict discussion and both adolescent emotional disclosures and maternal emotions were coded second-by-second. This was the first study to examine both observed adolescent emotional disclosure and observed parental behaviors in real-time interactions. 

I also conducted a follow-up study  (Disla, Main et al., 2019, Social Development) that builds upon the previous study by examining not just how maternal behavioral responses impact the timing of adolescent’s initial disclosure but also examining its impact on subsequent adolescent disclosures throughout real-time interactions. This research has gained recognition outside of academia by being featured in the Wall Street Journal. Both of these studies were presented as both oral talks and posters at the multiple national and international conferences.

​

​

Master's Thesis

September 2015-May 2018

Title: Observed Adolescent Disclosure and Maternal Emotions During Mother-Adolescent Conflict Discussions

​

While pursuing my Master of Arts Degree at the University of California, Merced, I worked under the guidance of Dr. Alexandra Main. While working on my Master's thesis, I created a novel coding manual, coded videos using Mangold INTERACT (version 16), trained a team of research assistants, analyzed data in meaningful ways, and wrote a manuscript. This study examined which maternal emotion behaviors encourage or hinder adolescents’ informational and emotional disclosure in real-time during mother-adolescent conflict discussions (Disla, 2018). This study was presented both orally and through poster presentations at national conferences.

McNair Research Fellowship

Sept 2013-May 2015

Title: Overparenting: A Cross-Cultural Analysis

​

In collaboration with Dr. David Pillemer and a graduate student mentor, I conducted primary source research through the use of online surveys. The study examined memory narratives and attitudes felt towards different forms of support received by students from collectivist and individualistic cultures. This fellowship provided me with valuable opportunities in conducting quantitative research and analysis. It also furthered my interest in conducting research and played a key role in my decision to pursue a research career.