Dr. Ann Farrell
Dr. Ann Farrell is an Associate Professor in Child and Youth Studies at Brock University. Her research centers on a multidisciplinary understanding of bullying as a complex social problem, including the processes among individual, social, environmental, and cultural factors associated with youth bullying. By understanding these processes, she hopes to mitigate these contributing factors and help to inform more effective bullying and violence prevention.
Previously, Dr. Farrell was a Banting Postdoctoral Fellow and a SSHRC Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Ottawa in Counselling Psychology, Faculty of Education. Dr. Farrell holds a Ph.D. in Psychology (Lifespan Development) and M.A. in Child and Youth Studies from Brock University.
Dr. Farrell recently received the PREVNet Early Career Fellowship 2024, the 2023 Faculty of Social Sciences Early Career Researcher Award, and the Alberti Center for Bullying Abuse Prevention 2021 Early Career Award. She is currently an Associate Editor for the journal Aggressive Behavior, the Archivist for the International Society for Research on Aggression (ISRA), and an Associate Director for the Institute for Lifespan Development Research.
Kayla Lewis
Master’s Student
Kayla is a Master’s student in the Child and Youth Studies program at Brock University. She completed her undergraduate degree in Psychology also at Brock, where she developed a passion for research, especially in the field of developmental psychology. Some of Kayla’s research interests involve bullying and aggression in children and adolescents, mental health and interpersonal problems including anxiety, depression, low self-esteem, etc. She is particularly interested in the main issues affecting children and adolescents to understand how they affect development. A key goal of her research is for it to be implemented in real-world settings to positively impact young people’s development and life trajectories.
Joseph Cino
Master’s Student
Joe is currently a Master’s student in the Child and Youth Studies program at Brock University. He recently graduated from Brock with a Bachelor of Arts in psychology and a minor in statistics. His research focuses on the broader social and environmental factors (e.g., income inequality, neighbourhood violence, school climate, etc.) that influence youths’ involvement in bullying. He also has a strong interest in quantitative methods and applying different statistical models to his research.
Julia Collin-Pereira
Master’s Student
Julia is currently a Master’s student in the child and youth studies program. Her research interests revolve around family dynamics and how different familial relationships/situations affect the behavioural and mental development of young people/children. She is also extremely interested in understanding how parental bullying/emotional abuse impacts child development and intimate relationship building in adolescence. Julia has a deep passion for research and hopes to support and understand how immediate family dynamics affect the development of young people and children.
Jadyne Flores
Honours Thesis Student
Jadyne is a fourth-year Honours thesis student in the Department of Psychology. Her research interests focus on understanding the key factors that influence youth mental health, particularly in relation to social media, peer and family relationships, and changing social environments. She is especially interested in how bullying, aggression, and social interactions have changed with the rise of technology and social media, and how these shifts impact youth emotional well-being, identity, and development. She is also interested in how social, individual, and environmental factors interact over time to shape mental health outcomes. Jadyne hopes to contribute to research that improves support systems and addresses gaps in care to better promote youth mental health.
Mollie Eriksson
Graduate Independent Study Student
Mollie Eriksson graduated from DePaul University (Chicago, IL) with a Bachelor of Science in Neuroscience with minors in Chemistry and Biology in June 2022. She is currently a first year PhD student in Dr. Louis Schmidt’s Child Emotion Lab at McMaster University. Her research focuses on the relationship between personality and psychopathology. Mollie is doing an independent study in our lab looking at personality profiles of extraversion and conscientiousness and its association with internalizing mental health outcomes.
Sierra Barnes
Research Assistant
Sierra is a sixth-year student in the Concurrent Education program in the Primary/Junior stream, who recently completed her Bachelor of Arts majoring in Child and Youth Studies. While she is currently a student in teacher’s college, she is still working alongside Dr. Farrell and the lab students as a research assistant. She recently completed her fourth-year honours thesis under the supervision of Dr. Farrell, looking at neighbourhood and economic conditions and their associations with retrospective bullying victimization through perceptions and regional data. She has a strong interest in environmental influences and their impact on individual experiences and behaviour through an ecological lens.
Daniella Silenzi
Research Assistant
Daniella is a sixth-year student in the Primary/Junior stream of the Concurrent Education program. She recently completed her honours Bachelor of Arts in the Child and Youth Studies department. While completing her Bachelor of Education, she will continue to work as a research assistant in the Empowering Youth Lab alongside Dr. Farrell and the other lab members. Daniella recently completed her fourth-year honours thesis under the supervision of Dr. Farrell, where she sought to understand whether social comparisons made by female-identifying young adults were associated with maladaptive mental health and if this association was influenced by social media use. Using an evolutionary psychology framework, her research interests include social psychology, aggression, personality, body image, gender differences, life satisfaction, self-esteem, and mental health. Her research aims to identify the factors currently affecting the well-being of young adults and to inform meaningful interventions.
Abby Towne
Research Assistant
Abby is currently a fifth-year honours student in the forensic psychology and criminal justice program. Her research interests include psychopathy, youth justice and crime prevention. Last year, she completed her undergraduate honours thesis under the supervision of Dr. Angela Book focusing on psychopathy, compliance, and how personality traits influence decision-making in uncomfortable situations. Abby will continue to explore this research in the following year while also assisting in Dr. Farrell’s lab.
Sabrina Areco
Research Assistant
I am in my fourth year of the Child and Youth studies program and will be completing my fourth year honours thesis this year under the supervision of Dr. Tricia Vause. My research interests surround applied behaviour analysis and assessment in young children, specifically neurodivergent youth to help better understand what interventions can be implemented to improve quality of life for developing children as well as support systems for their accompanying families. I’m particularly interested in supporting youth with Autism Spectrum Disorder using compassionate care alongside behaviour analysis to manage challenging behaviours. I as well developed a strong interest in research and am excited to assist in Dr. Farrell’s lab!
Lab Alumni
Honours Thesis Students
- Julia Collin-Pereira, Child and Youth Studies, 2025-2026
- Joseph Cino, Psychology, 2025-2026
- Abegail Yasis, Forensic Psychology and Criminal Justice, 2025-2026
- Sierra Barnes, Child and Youth Studies, 2024-2025
- Daniella Silenzi, Child and Youth Studies, 2024-2025
Research Assistants
- Katerina Partheniou, Child and Youth Studies, 2024-2025
- Helen David, Psychology, 2023-2026
- Olivia Mueller, Psychology, 2023-2025
- Michelle Juffe, Psychology, 2023-2025
- Grace Markovic, Psychology, 2023-2025
- Lauren Pang, Child and Youth Studies, 2023-2024
- Daley Burnaccioni, Child and Youth Studies, 2023-2024
- Emily Massicotte-Finch, Psychology, 2022-2023