Kathryn Smith

Kathryn Smith is an Assistant Professor at USC specializing in eating disorders and pediatric obesity. Her research employs ecological momentary assessment (EMA) to investigate real-time relationships between affective states, weight-related stress, and disordered eating behaviors across developmental stages. She focuses on neural correlates of binge eating in children, food addiction mechanisms, and post-bariatric surgery eating regulation.

Dr. Smith's work identifies moderators like sleep duration and impulsivity that influence loss-of-control eating. She develops validated EMA tools for binge-eating symptom measurement and examines hormonal contributors to disordered eating in adolescents. Her studies inform lifespan-specific interventions for binge-eating disorder.