Critical Actions, Regulation of Emotions, and Self Worth: The CARES Study

PI: Dr. Hagan. This study focused on different conceptualizations of self-worth and examined how self-worth might buffer the effects of different risk factors known to impact mental health negatively, including suicidal behavior. Engagement in civic action and identity belongingness (LGB, ethnoracial identities) were examined as potential contributors to self-worth or protective factors against suicidal ideation. Following the CARES study, there was a one-year follow-up on a subset of the sample titled CARES-II. CARES-II had a focus on how the political climate surrounding the 2024 election impacted coping strategies and mental health outcomes.

Coping and Racial Trauma During COVID-19

PI: Emily Wu (M.S. Clinical) and Dr. Hagan. Conducted during the first year of the pandemic, this online cross-sectional study focused on the effects of coping with both race-based trauma during the pandemic and COVID-19-related social isolation. Information on race-based trauma, coping strategies, COVID-19 stressors, and mental health was collected along with data on social media exposure. 

​Emotion Regulation and COVID-19

PIs: Dr. Hagan and Dr. Gaurav Suri. This cross-sectional study  focused on the quality and intensity of negative emotions and regulation of emotions in an ethnically diverse sample of college students during the COVID-19 pandemic. This study measured common coping strategies for different vulnerable groups during the COVID-19 pandemic. This data was collected during the first year of the pandemic, when the pandemic was hitting its second wave in the United States.

Stress and Coping in Ethnic Minority, Immigration-Affected Families

Economic, interpersonal, and traumatic stressors challenge all family relationships; immigration-affected ethnic minority young adults in the United States experience additional threats to mental health as a result of structural barriers to education and resources for health and well-being. Independent investigations at SFSU as well as collaborations with the UC Promise program based at University of California, Irvine are underway to examine the impact of different stressors (interpersonal, structural, political, historical) on mental health functioning in young adults and families. 

Relevant Publications:
  • Hagan, M.J., Lara, J., & Montanes, M.C. (2021). Childhood adversity, socioemotional functioning and generalized anxiety in young adults from mixed immigration status families. Child Abuse & Neglect.
  • Enriquez, L.E., Chavarria, K., Rodriguez, V.E., Ayón, C., Ellis, B.D., Hagan, M.J., Jefferies, J., Lara, J., Hernandez, M.M., Murillo, E.G., Nájera, J.R., Offidani-Bertrand, C., Fujimoto, M.O., Ro, A., Rosales, W.E., Sarabia, H., López, A.K.S., Valadez, M., Valdez, Z., Pierce, S.V. (2021). Toward a Nuanced and Contextualized Understanding of Undocumented College Students: Lessons from a California Survey. Journal of Latinos and Education, 1–17.

​The Biological Embedding of Traumatic Stress:​ Implications for Mental Health & Intervention

Dr. Hagan was the Co-Investigator of a pilot study based at the UCSF Child Trauma Research Program, under the leadership of Dr. Nicole Bush and Dr. Alicia Lieberman, designed to test whether an empirically validated parent-child psychotherapeutic treatment improves biological functioning (e.g., neuroendocrine system functioning, inflammatory processes, cellular aging) in young, traumatized children and their biological mothers. Dr. Hagan's work focuses on the associations between parent-child relationship functioning, chronic levels of cortisol activity, and markers of inflammation.
Relevant Publications: 
  • Hagan, M.J., Coccia, M., Rivera, L., Epel, E., Aschbacher, K., Lieberman, A.F., & Bush, N.R. (2021). Longitudinal hair cortisol in low-income young children: A useful biomarker of symptom change? Psychoneuroendocrinology.
  • Aschbacher, K., Cole, S., Hagan, M.J., et al. (2021). An immunogenomic phenotype predicting behavioral treatment response: Toward precision psychiatry for mothers and children with trauma exposure. Brain Behavior and Immunity.
  • Aschbacher, K., Hagan, M.J., Stein, I.M., Rivera, L., Cole et al. (2021). Adversity in early life and pregnancy are immunologically distinct from total life adversity: Macrophage-associated phenotypes in women exposed to interpersonal violence. Translational Psychiatry.

Psychophysiology and Interpersonal Experiences in Young Adult Women

PI: Dr. Melissa Hagan. Consultants: Dr. Charmayne Hughes and Dr. Sarah Holley as Consultants. This was an empirical study that explored the association between quality of interpersonal experiences in childhood family environments and different types of aggression in ethnically diverse women between the ages of 18 and 35. Physiological data was collected, along with an extensive questionnaire. The goal of the study was to explore the associations between early adversity and young adult aggression and a possible mediation or moderation with patterns of biological stress response.
Relevant Publications:
  • ​​Hagan, M.J. , Waters, S.F., Holley, S., Moctezuma, L., & *Gentry, M. (2020). The interactive effect of family conflict history and physiological reactivity on different forms of aggression in young women. Biological Psychology, 153.