Betty Lin

My research focuses on clarifying how ecological factors (e.g. stress, poverty, minority status) influence children's social and emotional development beginning as early as the prenatal and early childhood years. I am especially interested in understanding (1) how early stress exposure may calibrate children's developing stress response systems, (2) how children's stress responsivity in turn may transact with child, family and community factors to confer risk, resilience and/or adaptation, and (3) how these processes may contribute to the health disparities we see in disadvantaged populations.

My research addresses how this stress responsivity may manifest behaviorally, such as in children's temperament, and physiologically, such as in children's sympathetic, parasympathetic, and adrenocortical responding. Ultimately, the goal of my research is to clarify the developmental processes that promote health and well-being in children with social disadvantage.