Proud to share that I am officially an NIH-funded PI! My F31 predoctoral application has been funded by NICHD. My dissertation will examine the associations b/w maternal stress, epigenetics, and development over the first few years of life.

RT @EmmaRoseHart: Little is known, although much is theorized, about the long-run benefits of boosting children's social-emotional skills.….

RT @EmmaRoseHart: I am excited to share our new paper on the effects of Baby’s First Years unconditional cash transfers on maternal reports….

Check out our work on the Marshmallow Test, recently featured in this article!.

RT @DrDanaSuskind: Important insight in @Nature on how helpful mothers from low-income households find various individual and structural pa….

RT @EmmaRoseHart: Would Dev Psych be better off focusing on interventions that target structures & resources instead of parents? We asked 2….

RT @shannonmdailey: Does a monthly, unconditional cash transfer given to mothers residing in poverty for 1 year have a causal impact on chi….

RT @AllieDWSullivan: The infamous Marshmallow Test study continues to be debunked. Marshmallow-indicated delay of gratification at age 4.5….

Overall, we find little evidence of a causal link b/w delay of gratification and broad measures of adult success. Our hypotheses & analyses were preregistered, and our analytic code is publicly available at

We also challenge researchers to be mindful of construct clarity and measurement! It’s tempting to lump seemingly similar constructs (like delay of gratification) with other skills (e.g., self-control, which has been rigorously tested but uses vastly different methods).

TL;DR- delay of gratification is likely not a helpful skill to target to reduce disparities. This aligns w/ the fadeout observed on other self-reg skills targeted in ECE interventions. See a fabulous meta-analysis by @EmmaRoseHart

We conduct many(!) robustness checks on these findings, including examining moderation by child sex and SES (all null). We discuss the implications of these findings for the field and early intervention efforts.

Extending an analysis by @tw_watts, we found few bivariate correlations between the Marshmallow Test and adult functioning (2 out of 9 outcomes). However, these all become NS with adjustments for the child’s demographics and early home environment.

We utilized the SECCYD study to examine the association between Marshmallow Test performance in preschool and 9 different measures of achievement, health, and behavior at age-26 (n=702).

🚨 New paper out in Child Development! “Delay of gratification and adult outcomes: The marshmallow test does not reliably predict adult functioning” 🧵 .

Thanks to my mentors @KimberlyGNoble @tw_watts @STRscience for your incredible support & guidance!.

RT @STRscience: Thrilled to share my *first* senior-authored manuscript, expertly led by Eryn Adams and w/Chanel, Melina, @mscott6399, @Kim….

RT @Infantstudies: Have you read this from 2023? Cautious optimism for pandemic babies: @Jess_Sperber & @KimberlyGNoble found amt of time a….

RT @BiolPsychology: Online in @biolpsychology "Associations between maternal stress and infant resting brain activity among families residi….

RT @EmmaRoseHart: Thank you so much, @PMorrisPerez!!. Thanks to @tw_watts & @henrikdz for a great session on new work interrogating whether….