Current Projects:
Shifting to belongingness: The Role of cognitive Updating
Imagine the pain of a situation where you are excluded from your social group. It sometimes feels like it can last forever.
However, our environment is not static and is constantly changing. It is possible that the one who excluded us, in the beginning, will include us later on. Therefore, we must adapt accordingly to behave properly.
Emotions have evolved to serve specific functions that aid organisms to respond to demands in ways that are goal-relevant and context-dependent. However, there are individual differences in the sensitivity of the mechanisms that allow this response to the environment. These mechanisms are called "emotion context-sensitivity".
In this study, we will examine which components of emotional response emotion context-sensitivity affects. In addition, we want to find out which abilities allow us to demonstrate emotional context-sensitivity effectively.
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Suicidality among children and adolescents
Our study examines the risk factors for suicidality among children and adolescents at school. We collect data from suicide risk assessments of students at Ma'ale Adumim EPS (Educational Psychological Service) from the last 6 years.
The study aims to map the referrals to the EPS starting with the implementation of the Suicide Prevention Program at the Ministry of Education, and to identify various risk factors, while examining differences between ages (children vs adolescents) and periods (before vs after Covid-19 pandemic).
Providing care to a child with cancer: The predictors of the course of parental stress
Parents of cancer diagnosed children face one of the most difficult life events.
While the majority of parents adapt well, a subset report elevated levels of symptoms including post-traumatic stress symptoms (PTSS), depressive symptoms, and anxious symptoms.
Previous studies underscore the importance of assessing parental distress and adjustment following pediatric cancer diagnosis.
In this study we explore stress related characteristics that may put some parents at risk for less favorable outcomes. Our goal is to investigate the course and predictors of mental health symptoms among parents of children with cancer during the six months post-diagnosis.
Difficulties in emotional regulation among adolescents: The moderating role of parental empathy
Our current study focuses on adolescents and their parents. We examine whether adolecents' difficulties in emotional regulation may lead to internalizing problems such as anxiety and depression.
Additionally, we analyze whether the parents' ability to emphatize might buffer this process.
Parent's Stress-Coping processes while dealing with their child's depression and/or suicidality
Data from recent years has shown a disturbing increase in the number of adolescents experiencing suicidal ideations, non-suicidal self-injury, and suicide attempts. Adolescents' suicidality significantly affects their parents and is associated with parents elevated depression, anxiety, and insomnia symptoms.
Previous studies have mostly explored parents' role in the development of their child's suicidal behavior, including how parents' mental state is associated with their involvement in their child's treatment, all from a child-focused perspective.
In this study, we would like to illuminate parent’s subjective experience by investigating how the parent stress-appraisal-coping process may affect caregiver trajectories for illness-related stress.
The emotional battle throughout the cancer trajectory: From surviving treatments to facing the fear of recurrence
Coping with cancer is a long-term process, from receiving the diagnosis and facing harsh treatments, hopefully to early recovery and long-term survivorship. Patients in the treatment phase suffer from anxiety and depression, but even after successfully completing this phase, those emotional difficulties continue to exist among cancer survivors. The current research program has two broad objectives: (1) to investigate how social support and self-compassion are associated with anxiety and depression levels differently during treatment and survivorship phases, (2) to investigate psychological factors that can impact the association between fear of cancer recurrence and anxiety, depression, and quality of life among survivors.