Katrina Abela, M.A.

Katrina is a doctoral student in Psychology, Neuroscience, and Behaviour (PNB), and a trainee working under the supervision of Dr. Andrea Gonzalez in the STRoNG families lab within the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioural Neurosciences at McMaster University.

Graduating from McMaster (2020) and Wilfrid Laurier University (2022), Katrina’s research experience and foci include interests in children’s emotional development (i.e., emotion self-regulation), family-based adverse childhood experiences and developmental psychopathology, child resiliency and parenting strategies, and the development of evidence-based preventative intervention oriented toward children and caregivers.

Katrina is passionate about supporting children and families and deepening theoretical understandings of these research themes and their intersections. She hopes to generate research which promote the development and evaluation of accessible programming intended to foster positive child-rearing practices, adaptive emotion self-regulation strategies and adjustment in children, and improve the psychological wellbeing of children and families.