Elana Gordis

Areas of Interest: My research examines the effects of family conflict and violence and child maltreatment on children’s adjustment. I am particularly interested in whether the stress of these family variables alters children’s responses to subsequent interpersonal stress, either through sensitization, or alternatively through blunting of stress response systems over time. Further, I examine whether such alterations in children’s responses to stress mediate adjustment outcomes. My research examines multiple stress response systems. I conduct observational studies of behavioral responses to interpersonal stressors and family conflict. I also examine psychobiological responses to interpersonal stressors (for example, autonomic responses via skin conductance and heart rate, and hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis responses via salivary cortisol levels). Specific areas of interest follow.

• Effects of Family Violence on Psychophysiological Arousal
• Family Violence & the Hypothalamic-Pituitary-Adrenal Axis Response
• Chronicity of Violence Exposure & the Biological Stress Response
• The Stress Response in Family Violence and Adjustment Difficulties