Associate Professor, Undergraduate Director
Research and/or Creative Works
The central goal of my research is to explore specific aspects of raising children that pose unique challenges to parents. I am particularly interested in ways that parents discuss difficult issues with their children, such as how to cope with stress and how to interact with people from backgrounds that are different from their own (such as people of different ethnicities, religions, or physical abilities). My lab also investigates the role that biological factors, such as autonomic stress reactivity, might play in this process.
The UVM Family Development Lab is currently focusing on three goals:
- Parent Socialization of Coping. Teaching children how to effectively manage stress, also known as socialization of coping, is a critical task for parents and a central focus of my work. We have studied socialization of coping in children, adolescents, and emerging adults. Our research team recently developed a novel methodology for obtaining observational measures of parent socialization of coping as it occurs in real-time.
- Parents of Emerging Adults. I am particularly interested in the unique role that parents may play during the developmental period of emerging adulthood (ages 18-27), a transitional period between adolescence and adulthood in which youth gradually take on independent adult roles in society. With data collected in my lab at UVM, I have contributed several studies to the burgeoning literature on the effects of parents in emerging adulthood.
Parent-Child Discussions. In collaboration with Dr. Sylvia Perry at Northwestern University, my research group examines how White parents communicate messages to their children about race, racism, whiteness, and white supremacy.
Publications
Recent Publications
Abaied, J. L., Perry, S. P., Cheaito, A., & Ramirez, V. (2022). Racial socialization messages in White parents’ discussions of current events involving racism with their adolescents. Journal of Research on Adolescence, 32(3), 863-882.https://doi.org/10.1111/jora.12767
Perry, S. P., Skinner-Dorkenoo, A. L., Abaied. J. L., & Waters, S. (2022). Applying the evidence we have: Support for having race conversations in White U.S. families. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 17(3), 895-900.https://doi.org/10.1177/17456916211029950
Stanger, S. B., & Abaied, J. L. (2022). Predictive utility of a novel observational assessment of child coping. Social Development, 31(2), 265-280. https://doi.org/10.1111/sode.12559
Abaied, J. L., & Perry, S. P. (2021). Socialization of racial ideology by White parents. Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology, 27(3), 431–440. https://doi.org/10.1037/cdp0000454
Perry, S. P., Skinner-Dorkenoo, A. L., Wages III, J. E., & Abaied, J. L. (2021). Systemic considerations in child development and the pursuit of racial equality in the United States. Psychological Inquiry, 32(3), 180-186. https://doi.org/10.1080/1047840X.2021.1971453
Perry, S. P., Skinner, A. L., & Abaied. J. L. (2019). Bias awareness predicts color conscious racial socialization methods among White parents. Journal of Social Issues, 75, 1035-1056. https://doi.org/10.1111/josi.12348
Sanders, W., Parent, J., Abaied, J. L., Forehand, R., Coyne, S., & Dyer, J. (2018). The longitudinal impact of aggressive and prosocial media content on adolescent development: Moderation by psychophysiology. Journal of Adolescent Health, 63, 459-465. doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jadohealth.2018.05.019
Abaied, J. L., Stanger, S. B., Wagner, C., Sanders, W., Dyer, W. J., & Padilla-Walker, L. (2018). Parasympathetic and sympathetic reactivity moderate maternal contributions to emotional adjustment in adolescence. Developmental Psychology, 54(9), 1661-1673. doi: https://doi.org/10.1037/dev0000507
Associations and Affiliations
Affiliated Faculty, Developmental Psychopathology Concentration

Education
- B.A. Hamilton College, 2004
- M.A. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2007
- Ph.D. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2010
Contact
- (802) 656-4032
Dewey Hall, 210B