Biobehavioral Processes and Health
Child and Adolescent Health
Contexts of Human Development
Parenting & Caregiving

Dr. Perry focuses on the development of self-regulatory processes, particularly the regulation of emotion, during infancy and early childhood. Her work is grounded in a developmental science perspective which emphasizes the interconnected structure of developmental domains, the longitudinal nature of development, and the social environment as a critical developmental context.

She uses biopsychosocial models to investigate how development across levels of functioning (i.e., biological, behavioral, environmental) build upon and integrate with one another to contribute to the early emergence of children’s emotional and behavioral regulation. In addition, she explores the specific developmental pathways though which the early ability to regulate emotion and behavior serve as mechanisms to support subsequent adaptive social functioning and mental health. Finally, Dr. Perry's work aims to better understand how early caregiver relationships shape, and are shaped by, young children’s neurobiology, stress reactivity, social skills, and regulatory capabilities.

Her research program addresses questions of developmental process and uses a multi-method design by including multiple psychophysiological assessments (i.e., autonomic, hormonal, and neural), child observation, and both child-reported and parent-reported measures.