People

Lab Director

Dr. Danielle Molnar (PhD Psychology, Brock University)
I am a Canada Research Chair (Tier II) Adjustment and Well-Being in Children and Youth and an Associate Professor in the Department of Child and Youth Studies at Brock University. My training is in personality/social psychology. My research focuses on the biological, psychological, social, and developmental factors that contribute to adjustment and well-being across the lifespan, with a particular focus on how perfectionism is related to health, adjustment, and well-being during adolescence. I strongly support transdisciplinary research and my own research spans across domains from psychology and sociology to biology and immunology. I also really enjoy working with members of the community, ensuring that we get the word out on young people’s, parents’ and educators’ experiences with perfectionism, including its costs and consequences.

I have a passion for statistics and a solid background in quantitative methods. I love to teach foundational statistics courses at both the graduate and undergraduate level and is particularly interested in statistical modeling, dyadic data analysis, and longitudinal data analyses.

On a personal level, I love spending time with my family, Alice Cooper and rock music in general, F1 racing (Forza Ferrari!), playing scrabble, books of all kinds, and traveling (especially visiting beautiful sunny beaches).

Graduate Students

Melissa Blackburn

Melissa is currently a second year Ph.D. student in Child and Youth Studies. She has completed her Honours B.A as well as her M.A. in Child and Youth Studies under the supervision of Dr. Molnar; she is excited to continue working with the DPHWB lab in her doctoral studies! Broadly, her program of research focuses on the relationships between perfectionism and mental health and well-being among teenagers. More specifically, she is interested in the links between perfectionism, mental health and feelings of disconnection from others as well as the potential protective role of self-compassion in these relationships.

Vanessa Zarb

Vanessa is a first year Child and Youth Studies Master’s student. She recently completed an individual thesis, under the supervision of Dr. Danielle Molnar, on how the COVID-19 pandemic has influenced youth’s subjective well-being through school delivery and social connection. Vanessa’s passion for research stems from a quantitative perspective and she hopes to continue her research through an MA and PhD.

Lab Affiliates & Research Assistants

Dr. Natalie Spadafora
Dr. Natalie Spadafora is a post-doctoral fellow at the Offord Centre for Child Studies at McMaster University, working under the supervision of Dr. Magdalena Janus. Her current post-doctoral work has been focused on investigating kindergarten educator perspectives of the learning situation during the first school shutdowns due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Natalie completed her graduate degrees in the Department of Child and Youth Studies at Brock University under the supervision of Drs. Marini and Volk. Her research to date takes a psychoeducational perspective, investigating issues to do with child and adolescent development, with an emphasis on peer relationships and antisocial behavior (e.g., bullying, classroom incivility). She is also interested in factors that impact the teaching and learning of youth.

Natalie Tacuri

Natalie is a second year PhD student in the Department of Integrated Studies in Education and Institute for Gender, Sexuality, and Feminist Studies at McGill University. She completed her Honours Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts in the Department of Child and Youth Studies under the supervision of Dr. Dawn Zinga and Dr. Danielle Molnar to conduct research on competitive dancers at the postsecondary level. Natalie’s research interests include competitive dance, sport as art, student-athletes, sexualization, feminist theories and methodologies, and girlhood studies.

Hanna Puffer

Hanna is a first year Master’s student in the Psychology department at Brock. She completed her undergraduate thesis at Brock under the supervision of Dr. Hodson and is continuing her graduate work with him as well. Her research interests include prejudice reduction, discrimination, and attitudes towards women’s participation in transactional sex. She is excited to start her graduate studies while staying involved with the DPHWB lab.

Mirella Rocca

Mirella is a fourth year student in the Psychology research stream at Brock. She is currently completing her co-op term with the DPHWB lab. Mirella’s research interests include perfectionism and stress in students as well as an individual’s cognition and behaviour’; essentially what makes a person think and act the way they do. Mirella hopes to continue working in research for her future studies.

Lexie Halleran

Lexie is currently a fourth year student undertaking a combined major in Child and Youth Studies and Psychology. She will be completing an honours thesis under the supervision of Dr. Danielle Molnar and Dr. Dawn Zinga. She has an array of interests but is predominantly focused on personality psychology, clinical psychology and mental health. After her undergraduate degree, she plans to use her knowledge and skills gained from the lab to pursue further studies in clinical psychology. Outside of school, Lexie loves reading, her cats, and spending time outside.

Georgia Cronin

Georgia is in her second year of her undergraduate studies in Medical Sciences at Brock. She initially heard about the lab through their dance research, as she is part of the Badgers Dance Pak. The areas of research investigated by the DPHWB lab allow me to further explore dance and perfectionism, which she sees in her day-to-day life. I am excited about gaining insight into how a lab runs and what conducting research entails.

Grace Cumming

Grace is currently in her third year of the Medical Sciences program at Brock. She is excited about the opportunity to contribute to the DPHWB lab and gain research experience. Grace plans on attending medical school or pursuing a master’s degress after completing her undergraduate studies.

MITACS Interns

Audilia Kalyana

Audilia is currently a third year student at the University of Hong Kong in the Bachelor of Arts and Sciences program. The research-based and interdisciplinary nature of her program attracted her to work the DPHWB lab to further pursue her interests and refine her qualitative and quantitative research skills. Broadly, she is interested in studying perfectionism and its effects on mental health and dis/connection, along with potential cultural factors that may play a role within these relationships.

Estefano Villafañe Ocampo

Estefano is a final year student in Sociology at the Universidad del Valle. He is currently working with the lab through the MITACS internship program with Brock University. As both a dancer and a student in the realm of social sciences, he is interested in the powerful combination of these topics. He is currently involved with researching parent-child dyads within a dance context, with a focus on quantitative research methods.