Family Ties: Staying Connected

Faculty from UNCG’s Child and Family Research Network, Jasmine DeJesus and Michaeline Jensen (Psychology) along with Esther Leerkes (Human Development and Family Studies) join Curator of Collections Elaine D. Gustafson to share suggestions for ways families with young children and teens can stay healthy and connected at this time of year.

This event is held in conjunction with Ties that Bind exhibition on view at the Weatherspoon Art Museum through February 14, 2021.

Jasmine DeJesus
In her research, Dr. DeJesus examines the development of children’s social attitudes, their reasoning about social and cultural groups, the development of food preferences and eating behavior, and children’s early health concepts. DeJesus is especially interested in food as an aspect of children’s social and cultural world, an important arena for parent-child interaction, and a topic with public health relevance across the lifespan.

Michaeline Jensen
Increasingly, social connections are occurring not just face to face, but through digital communication technologies. Dr. Jensen’s research recognizes this shift in communication patterns and leverages modern tools (e.g. Ecological Momentary Assessment via smartphone, text message analysis, and social media) to elucidate the role of technology in relationship maintenance, mental health, and substance use among young people.

Esther Leerkes
Dr. Leerkes research demonstrates that how mothers respond when their babies cry is a unique predictor of young children’s ability to regulate their emotions and the quality of their relationships with their mothers, both of which have life-long implications for well-being. But, crying is a stressor that many parents find aversive. Her work has focused on identifying the factors that help mothers respond supportively when their babies cry.

Image: Marion Post Wolcott, Titus Oakley family stripping, tying, and grading tobacco in their bedroom, Granville County, North Carolina, 1939 (printed c. 1980), gelatin silver print, 11 x 14 in. Weatherspoon Art Museum. Museum purchase with funds from the Laura Weill Cone Acquisition, 2010.