Professor Jude Cassidy
The Regulation of Stress in the Developing Child: Biological and Caregiving Processes
September - December 2016
Who is Jude Cassidy?
Jude Cassidy is a Professor in the department of Psychology at the University of Maryland (USA) and director of the Maryland Child and Family Development Laboratory. Previously, she worked as an associate Professor at Pennsylvania State University and as a Visiting Associate Professor at the University of Virginia, where she also obtained her PhD in Developmental Psychology.
Jude Cassidy is the co-editor of the Handbook of Attachment and is also a consulting editor and co-editor for various scientific journals in developmental psychology. She spent her sabbatical at Radboud University’s Behavioural Science Institute (BSI), where she collaborated with prof. Carolina de Weerth.
What is her research project about?
Prof. Cassidy’s principal research interests are social development, social cognition, family relationships, emotion regulation and early interventions. In Nijmegen, she joined Radboud University’s BIBO study, which follows infants from birth until age 10 years, and is unique because of its origin in pregnancy and the inclusion of intensive multi-disciplinary assessments in the first year of life: from temperament, maternal sensitivity, attachment, co-sleeping, and breastfeeding to the stress response system and circadian functioning, health, and intestinal microbiota.
Prof. Cassidy added the examination of an important novel component to the BIBO study: the extent to which children’s confidence in the availability of a secure base when needed both predicts children’s stress regulation capacities and serves as a moderator of links between stressors and healthy functioning.
Her project at Radboud University was aimed at advancing scientific understanding of children’s mental and physical health, to provide teaching and mentorship related to developmental science to Radboud students and researchers, and to open doors to future opportunities for collaboration.
During her Radboud Excellence professorship period
In October 2016, Jude Cassidy gave a Spotlight Talk at the Behavioural Science Institute.
Read more
- Prof. Cassidy's personal page
- About her work for Maryland Child & Family Development Lab