Northern Illinois University
Families and Development in Context Lab
Department of Psychology

Research Interests

My research interests include the development of psychopathology in children and adolescents, as well as the broader familial constructs that act as risk or protective factors in low socioeconomic status households.

Publications

Pittman, L. D., Cutright, N. L., McNeela, L. M., Awada, S., Pabis, J. M., Kochanova, K., and Shelleby, E. (2019). Coping strategies and psychological symptoms among children on St. Thomas in the aftermath of Hurricanes Irma and Maria. Journal of Traumatic Stress, 33, 151-160. doi:10.1002/jts.22471

Pabis, J. M., Corning, E. R., Pittman, L. D., McNeela, L. M., Shelleby, E. C., and Cutright, N. L. (In Progress). The relationship between social support and child post-traumatic stress symptoms: The moderating role of age.

Kochanova, K., Pittman, L.D., and McNeela, L. (In Progress). Parenting stress and child externalizing and internalizing problems among low-income families: Transactional associations.

Duffy, S., Grant, K., Lewis, J., Knowlton, E., Simmons, C., Coronado, E., McNeela, L., and Kochanova, K. (2015). Finding specificity between stressors and psychopathology.

Poster Presentations

McNeela, L., Pittman, L.D., Caradec, J., Pabis, J., and Zolinski, S. (2020, March). Coparenting and adolescent psychological symptoms: A transactional analysis. [Paper talk]. Society for Research on Adolescence (SRA), San Diego, CA. (conference canceled)

McNeela, L. and Pittman, L. D. (2020, April). The impact of attributional style on adolescent stress and outcomes. [Paper talk].  92^nd Annual Meeting of the Midwestern Psychological Association (MPA), Chicago, IL. (conference canceled)

McNeela, L., Awada, S. R., Kochanova, K., Pittman, L. D., and Flannery, A. J. (2018, April). Indirect pathways between maternal anxiety and adolescent outcomes through mother-child relationships and home environment. Poster presented at the Society for Research on Adolescence (SRA), Minneapolis, MN.

Awada, S. R., McNeela, L., Shelleby, E. C., and Corning, E. (2017, May). Transactional associations between oppositional/conduct problems, anxiety/depressive symptoms, and verbal ability: A developmental cascade model. Poster presented at the Association of Psychological Science, San Francisco, CA.

Gomez, B., McNeela, L., and Pittman, L. D. (2018, April). Co-parenting as a mediator between marital quality and early adolescents’ anxiety and depressive symptoms. Poster to be presented at the Society for Research on Adolescence (SRA), Minneapolis, MN.

Flannery, A. J., Pittman, L. D., Miles, A., Padgett, E., Kochanova, K., and McNeela, L. (2018, April). Does coparenting within intact families mediate the association between marital conflict and adolescent behavioral problems?

McNeela, L., Awada, S., and Pittman, L. D. (2017, May). The role of parenting stress in parent internalizing symptoms and children’s outcomes: A comparative sample study of mothers and fathers in low-income families. Poster presented at the annual convention for the Association for Psychological Science (APS), Baltimore, MA.

Kochanova, K., Pittman, L. D., McNeela, L., and Flannery, A. J. (2017, April). Parenting stress and child internalizing and externalizing problems among low-income families: Transactional associations. Poster presented at the Society for Research in Child Development (SRCD), Austin, TX.

McNeela, L., Kolbuck, V., Lewis, J., Grant, K.., Adam, E. (2016, April). The moderating effect of family communication on the relation of the experience of threat to attention problems in urban youth. Poster presented at the biennial meeting of the 2016 Society for Research on Adolescence Biennial Meeting, Baltimore, MD.

Lewis, J., McNeela, L., Kolbuck, V., Grant, K., Adam, E. (2016, April). Examining the role of family cohesion in the development of aggression and delinquency in response to violence exposure. Poster presented at the biennial meeting of the 2016 Society for Research on Adolescence Biennial Meeting, Baltimore, MD.