معرفی
Alva Tang is an Assistant Professor at the University of Texas at Dallas' School of Behavioral and Brain Sciences. She holds a PhD in Developmental Psychology from McMaster University (2017) and a BSc in Psychology from the University of Toronto (2012). Her research examines developmental trajectories in social-emotional functioning, with particular focus on how individual differences in temperament and early adversity exposure influence mental and physical health outcomes across the lifespan.
Dr. Tang's interdisciplinary research program investigates neural, biological, and social mechanisms underlying developmental risk and resilience. She employs multiple methods including EEG, behavioral observations, and longitudinal designs to study how factors like shyness, social avoidance, and caregiving quality affect outcomes from childhood through adulthood. Her work has important implications for prevention strategies targeting mental health disorders and cardiometabolic risk.
Her publication portfolio demonstrates consistent focus on developmental psychopathology, with recent work examining neurobiological mechanisms linking early temperament to later anxiety/depression, effects of childhood adversity on cardiometabolic health, and foster care interventions. Research utilizes sophisticated neuroimaging, physiological assessment, and longitudinal modeling techniques.
- Director of Laboratory for Healthy Social-Emotional Development
- Recipient of multiple grants including from National Institutes of Aging and Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada
- Serves as faculty mentor for graduate students and research trainees
