معرفی
Dr. Laelia Benoit is a Clinical Fellow (PGY-3) in the Solnit Integrated Training Program in Child, Adolescent, and Adult Psychiatry at the Yale Child Study Center. She is a French and Brazilian Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist who completed her medical training in France and came to the U.S. in 2021 as a Fulbright Visiting Research Scholar. Dr. Benoit maintains dual affiliations with Yale University and the French NIH (Inserm, CESP, Centre de Recherche en Epidémiologie et Santé des Populations) and serves as co-director of the QUA Lab, a collaborative research initiative between the Yale Child Study Center and CESP in France.
Dr. Benoit's educational background includes:
- PhD from Paris-Cité University (2020)
- Residency in Public Health and Sociology from Paris Saclay University (2018)
- MA from Greater Paris Public Hospitals (2016)
- MSc in Sociology of Health from Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (2015)
- MSc in Psychology (Child and Adolescent Development; Transcultural Psychology) from Université Paris Nord (2015)
- MD from Paris Sorbonne University (Pierre et Marie Curie School of Medicine) (2011)
Dr. Benoit's research program centers on the intersection of youth mental health and environmental challenges, with particular emphasis on how climate change impacts the psychological wellbeing of children and adolescents across different cultural contexts. Her work employs qualitative (Grounded theory), social science, and mixed-methods approaches to understand school refusal, access to care for minorities, and early intervention strategies for conditions like autism and psychosis. She advocates for citizen research approaches that actively involve adolescents, parents, professionals, and family support groups in the research process to ensure relevance and applicability of findings to real-world settings. Her current project assesses climate change's impact on children's mental health across three countries (US, Brazil, and France).
Her scholarly contributions demonstrate a clear trajectory toward understanding ecological mental health impacts, with recent publications focusing on climate emotions, anxiety, and actions among youth across different cultural contexts. Her methodological innovations include developing "selfie" video interventions to address climate anxiety among adolescents and employing sequence analysis to understand trajectories of school refusal.
Dr. Benoit's research excellence has been recognized with several prestigious awards:
- Yale International Physician-Scientist Resident and Fellow Research Award (2023)
- Fulbright Scholarship (2021)
- Monahan Foundation Award (2021)
- Inserm Award (2016)
- Paris Public Hospital AP-HP Award (2016)
As an educator, Dr. Benoit teaches qualitative methods for researchers and psychological/social science skills for caregivers and school professionals at Yale University, Universidade de São Paolo, and the University of Paris, with a focus on reducing health care inequities. Her work extends beyond traditional academic boundaries through media engagement, including features in Le Monde and the Montreal Gazette discussing how to talk with children about climate change.
As co-director of the QUA Lab (Qualitative and Mixed Methods Lab), Dr. Benoit leads a collaborative research initiative between Yale Child Study Center and CESP in France. The lab focuses on developing and applying qualitative research methodologies to address complex questions in child and adolescent psychiatry, with particular attention to approaches that capture the nuanced experiences of young people facing mental health challenges in the context of global environmental changes.
