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Research Area:

Psychological Science - Developmental

Research Interests:

My research explores how and why children’s relationships with attachment figures and the parenting children experience are related to their social and emotional development (e.g., emotion regulation, anxiety, peer relationships), with a focus on children 9-14 years old. A specific focus of recent work is developing and testing models which can help us understand how attachment, in combination with other risk and protective factors, may predict the development of anxiety symptoms. I am also interested in questions regarding the nature of attachment (e.g., which social partners can function as attachment figures?) and measurement work on the best approaches to assessing attachment in middle childhood. A new direction in research is exploring children's relationships with pets, and whether children can compensate for inadequate relationships with parents and peers.

Publications:

• Koehn, A. J., & Kerns, K. A. (2022).  Validating the supervision partnership as a phase of attachment.  Journal of Early Adolescence, 42, 482 - 513. 
• Gastelle, M., & Kerns, K. A. (2022). A systematic review of representational and behavioral measures of parent-child attachment available for middle childhood. Human Development, 66, 1-29. 
• Kerns, K. A., Obeldobel, C. A., Kochedorfer, L. B., & Gastelle, M. (2023).  Attachment security and character strengths in early adolescence.  Journal of Child and Family Studies, 32, 2789–2803. 
• Flykt, M., Gastelle, M., Punamaki, R., & Kerns, K. A. (2022). Signs of disorganization in middle childhood attachment narratives. Merrill-Palmer Quarterly. 
• Brumariu, L. E.,Waslin, S. M., Gastelle, M., Kochendorfer, L. B., & Kerns, K. A. (2022, online). Anxiety, academic achievement, and academic self-concept: Meta-analytic syntheses of their relations across developmental periods. Development and Psychopathology 
• Kerns, K., A., van Dulmen, M. H. M., Kochendorfer, L. B., Obeldobel, C.A., Gastelle, M., & Horowitz, A. (2023).  Assessing children’s relationships with pet dogs: A multi-method approach.  Social Development, 32, 98-116. 
• Kerns, K.A., Kochendorfer, L. B., Obeldobel, C. A., & Brumariu, L. E. (2023).  Parent-child attachment and emotion regulation dynamics in late middle childhood.  Merrill-Palmer Quarterly, 69, 84 - 117.  
• Obeldobel, C. A., Brumariu, L. E., & Kerns, K. A. (2023).  Parent-child attachment and dynamic emotion regulation: A systematic review.  Emotion Review, 15, 28 - 44.       
• Kerns, K. A., Van Dulmen, M. H. M., Kochendorfer, L. B., Gastelle, M., Obeldobel, C. A., & Horowitz, A. (2023).  Are children’s relationships with pet dogs uniquely related to children’s social and emotional competence and adjustment?  Human Animal Interactions.  
• Kerns, K. A., Obeldobel, C. A., House, H., Kochendorfer, L. B., White, A., & Gastelle, M. (2023). Children’s experiences of positive affect with a pet dog: A multi-method study.  Human Animal Interactions.