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Tamara Del Vecchio, Ph.D.
Tamara Del Vecchio, Ph.D.
Professor, Department of Psychology
New York State Licensed Psychologist
Dr. Del Vecchio directs the Child and Family Research Group at St. John's University. She earned her Ph.D. from Stony Brook University and her B.A. from the University at Albany. Her research examines how aggressive behavior develops from infancy through the preschool years, with particular focus on the cognitive and emotional processes that shape both parent-child relationships and intimate partner dynamics. Through this work, she investigates how early family experiences influence children's social and emotional development.
www.researchgate.net/profile/Tamara_Del_Vecchio
Research Collaborators
Research Collaborators
Our lab collaborates with our St. John's University colleagues on research projects exploring shared interests in child development and family relationships.
Melissa Peckins, Ph.D.
Melissa Peckins, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, Department of Psychology
Dr. Peckins earned her Ph.D. in Biobehavioral Health from Pennsylvania State University and completed a postdoctoral research fellowship in Developmental Psychology at the University of Michigan. Her research focuses on the biological embedding of childhood adversity and its impact on health and behavior during childhood and adolescence.
Kätlin Peets, Ph.D.
Kätlin Peets, Ph.D.
Research Associate, Department of Psychology
Dr. Peets earned her Ph.D. from the University of Turku, Finland. Her primary research interests are at the intersection of social, personality, and developmental psychology. Much of her work focuses on understanding children’s aggression and problematic social interactions. In addition to her research focus on aggression, she has broadened her research interests to include the study of antecedents and consequences of authenticity in various relationships and the correlates of narcissism during adolescence.
Our Graduate Student Team
Our Graduate Student Team
Cassie Cheeseman
Cassie Cheeseman
Cassie graduated as a student-athlete from the College of the Holy Cross in 2020 with a B.A. in psychology and a minor in neuroscience. Her research interests include how familial factors, parent-child interactions, and early adversity influence developmental outcomes in young children. Clinically, she aims to provide evidence-based interventions to children, adolescents, and families to promote positive adjustment in at-risk youth.
Li Yin Cheok
Li Yin Cheok
Li Yin is currently in the Clinical Psychology Ph.D. Program at St. John's University. She earned her B.M in Music Therapy with a Minor in Psychology at Berklee College of Music, as well as her M.A. in Child Study and Human Development at Tufts University. Her primary research interests include parenting techniques and how they can be used to regulate young children's emotions and mitigate childhood aggression.
Gabriella Damewood
Gabriella Damewood
Gabriella is a doctoral student in the adult track of the Clinical Psychology Ph.D. program at St. John's University. She also completed my B.A. in Psychology at St. John's in 2016. Upon graduation, she joined NYU's Family Translational Research Group where she worked on a multitude of developmental, health psychology, and military projects related to aggression in couples and parent-child dyads. Gabriella is interested in coercive processes and aggression broadly, and how conflict and violence impact family systems.
Nicole Heredia
Nicole Heredia
Nicole is a doctoral student in the Clinical PhD program (Child track). She graduated from the University of Notre Dame in 2023 with a B.S. in Neuroscience in Behavior and a minor in Design Thinking. After graduating, she joined Boston Children’s Hospital as a research assistant where she worked on studies focused on executive function, maternal depression, and the integration of behavioral health into pediatric primary care. She is broadly interested in early childhood development, with a particular focus on understanding externalizing behaviors in toddlerhood and the role of parent–child interactions in shaping developmental outcomes.
Jordan L. Holmen
Jordan L. Holmen
Jordan is a doctoral student in the Clinical PhD program, Child Track. She received her BA in Psychology and a Minor in Applied Psychology from the University of California, Santa Barbara. Her interests include working with youth with mood disorders and studying how parenting can influence toddler development.
Megan Leary
Megan Leary
Megan graduated from the Fordham College at Lincoln Center in 2019 with a B.S. in Psychology, and later received a M.A in Psychological Sciences from the Catholic University of America in 2023. Her primary research interests include toddler aggression and parent-child relationships, specifically how certain parenting practices and styles influence children’s development.
Clarissa Marwali
Clarissa Marwali
Clarissa received her B.A. in Psychology from New York University in 2022 and minored in Child and Adolescent Mental Health Studies (CAMS). Her research interests primarily surround early childhood prosocial behavior development and the relationship between parent and child emotional regulation. She is currently a doctoral student in the Clinical PhD program, Child Track.
Serah Narine
Serah Narine
Serah received her B.A. in Psychology from Binghamton University and is currently a doctoral student in the Clinical Psychology Ph.D. program at St. John’s University. Her research interests focus on toddler aggression and parenting outcomes.
Shira Richards-Rachlin
Shira Richards-Rachlin
Shira attended NYU undergrad where she majored in Applied Psychology and specialized in Child and Adolescent Mental Health Studies (CAMS). Shira is now in the School Psychology PsyD program at St. John’s and is a clinical extern at the NYU Child Study Center. Shira’s research areas include the implementation of evidence-based practices across mental health settings and the relationship between parent/child distress tolerance and accommodation of child (mis)behavior.
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