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Undergraduate Research at UMass Dartmouth
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Initially I started working in the Child Emotion Center
as a volunteer, but my interest in research compelled
me to participate at a greater level. I first assisted
with a National Institute of Health (NIH) – funded
study that examines multiple factors associated
with emotional differences in preschool-aged
children. Later, this complex study of child emotion
gave me the opportunity to train on various behavioral,
cognitive, and biological assessments. Given
the multitrait-multimethod design employed by
the study, I was exposed to various forms of data
collection, including child interviews, physiological
assessments, teacher- and parent-reports, as well
as behavioral measures. The behavioral measures
are very expansive, with many tasks spanning the
realm of various emotions. The interview measures
tap into child receptive language skills and knowledge
of their own and others’ emotions.
Most importantly, the OUR summer grant and CAS
Dean’s fellowship provided an opportunity to examine
questions on how language comprehension
and emotion knowledge relate to peer rejection and
externalizing behavior. Preliminary findings from my
research indicate that children with lower recognition
of emotional faces and emotional situations
were more likely than other children to be rejected
by their peers. Furthermore, a child’s tendency
to attribute anger to non-anger faces was also
associated with greater peer rejection. In addition,
language comprehension was related to emotion
knowledge and attention problems.
During this period I also submitted an abstract to
present some of the preliminary results from the
study at the biennial meeting of the Society for
Research in Child Development (SRCD) in Austin,
This cumulative exposure to the preparation and
implementation of the study in Dr. Locke-Arkerson’s
lab prepared me to engage in an individual research
project. The summer grant I received from OUR and
the CAS Dean’s summer research fellowship provided
me with the funds to examine unique research
questions within this complex study on child emotion.
I independently carried out all roles required to
conduct this research project. I was invested in all
aspects of the study from the beginning (participant
recruitment) to the end (participant compensation).
I interacted with many of the school staff and
families that so kindly volunteered to participate in
this important research on child emotion.
Cronister-Morais administering the Peabody Picture Vocabulary
test as an assessment of receptive language during an
interview with a preschool-aged child, 2016