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David Bridgett headshot (Photo credit: NIU)

David Bridgett

Professor, Director of the Psychological Services Center He/him/his

Summary

Dr. Bridgett joined the faculty at the University of ÁùºÏ±¦µä, Reno in January 2024. He is recruiting an incoming graduate student for Fall 2024.

After completing his undergraduate and Master’s degrees, Dr. Bridgett completed his doctoral work at Washington State University and his clinical internship and postdoctoral fellowship at Yale University, School of Medicine, in the Child Study Center. He started his academic career at Northern Illinois University (NIU) where he started and ran the Emotion Regulation and Temperament Lab from August, 2009 until December, 2023. During his time at NIU, he also served as Director of Clinical Training from 2022 until the end of 2023.

Dr. Bridgett’s research broadly focuses on the intersection of biological (e.g., stress response) and environmental influences (e.g., parent and family influences) that shape children’s regulatory (e.g., executive functioning, emotion regulation) and affective (e.g., fear, shyness, anger) processes early in development. These outcomes are of interest because of their role as transdiagnostic individual difference risk factors for myriad health and mental health outcomes. As a part of his focus on self-regulation, he also is interested in how parent self-regulatory processes, like executive functioning, shape children’s home environment and the quality of the caregiving children receive – influences that ultimately affect children’s regulatory outcomes. Finally, Dr. Bridgett’s research also has increasingly focused on children’s health-related behavior and health outcomes (e.g., weight status), particularly as these behaviors and outcomes are shaped and influenced by family processes (e.g., caregiver behavior; children’s access to and use of digital media devices) and children’s individual differences (e.g., executive functioning).

In addition to maintaining an active research laboratory, Dr. Bridgett collaborates with teams nationally (e.g., Baylor College of Medicine, Temple University, UMass, Amherst, Washington State University) and internationally (e.g., University of Turku, Finland) and is regularly invited to present his research to academic audiences. Additionally, he is on the editorial boards of several prominent journals, currently serves as Associate Editor for the Journal of Family Psychology and the Infant Mental Health Journal and has served as an Ad-Hoc member of several NIH review groups. Finally, and among the most rewarding aspects of his career, Dr. Bridgett enjoys serving as a mentor to undergraduate and graduate students, and to early career scientists.

Research interests

  • Executive Functioning
  • Emotion Regulation
  • Temperament & Affect
  • Children’s Externalizing and Internalizing Difficulties
  • Stress Response
  • Parenting Behavior and Family Dynamics
  • Caregiver Behavioral and Physiological Response to Infant Distress
  • Developmental Psychopathology

Courses taught

  • Developmental Psychopathology (PSYC 645/315; Northern Illinois University)
  • Clinical Research Methods (PSYC 608; Northern Illinois University)
  • Practicum in Clinical Psychology (PSYC 654; Northern Illinois University)
  • Theory and Assessment of Intellectual Functioning (PSYC 640; Northern Illinois University)
  • Research Lab in Psychopathology (PSYC 413; Northern Illinois University)

Education

  • Ph.D. in Psychology (Clinical), Washington State University, 2008
  • M.A. in Psychology (Clinical), Stephen F. Austin State University, 2002
  • B.S. in Psychology, Midwestern State University, 1999

Grants

Leveraging Passive Objective Assessment Methods of Preschooler’s Media Use to Examine Multiple Paths of Influence on Sleep, Executive Function and Weight Status

  • Project Leader: Teresia O’Connor, MD
  • Subproject Title: Longitudinal Associations of Preschoolers’ Technology and Digital Media (TDM) Use and Executive Functioning: A Mechanism Linking TDM with Young Children’s Weight Status
  • Subproject PIs: Alexis Wood, PhD, David J Bridgett, PhD, and Sheryl Hughes, PhD
  • Agency: National Institute of Child Health and Human Development; P01HD109876
  • Years: 2022-2027

Characterizing top-down dimensions of appetite self-regulation among preschoolers

  • PI: Jennifer Fisher, PhD
  • Co-Investigators: David J Bridgett, PhD, and Sheryl Hughes, PhD
  • Agency: National Institute of Child Health & Human Development; R21HD109362
  • Years: 2023-2025

Reactions to Prolonged Infant Crying in Parents at Risk for Child Physical Abuse

  • PI: Julie Crouch, PhD
  • Co-Investigators: David J Bridgett, PhD, Joel Milner, PhD
  • Agency: National Institute of Child Health and Human Development; R15HD080041
  • Years: 2015-2018

Maternal Self-Regulation and Parenting: Contributions to Infant Self-Regulation

  • PIs: David J Bridgett, PhD, and Linda Mayes, MD
  • Agency: National Institute of Child Health and Human Development; R21HD072574
  • Years: 2011-2014

Selected publications

  • Hakanen, H., Nolvi, S., Flykt, M., Kataja, E., Eskola, E., Pelto, J., Bridgett, D. J., Karlsson, H., Karlsson, L., Korja, R. C. (In Press). Mother-infant interaction and maternal postnatal psychological distress associate with negative emotional reactivity among infants and toddlers. Infant Behavior and Development.
  • Ollas-Skogster, D., Rautakoski, P., Bridgett, D. J., Kataja, E., Karlsson, H., Karlsson, L., & Nolvi, S. (2023). Associations between observed and reported infant negative affectivity, fear and self-regulation and early communicative development – evidence from the FinnBrain Birth Cohort Study. Infancy, 28, 410-434.
  • Shelleby, E. C., Pittman, L. D., Bridgett, D. J., Keane, J., Zolinski, S., & Caradec, J. (2022). Associations between local COVID-19 case rates, pandemic-related financial stress and parent and child functioning. Journal of Family Psychology, 36, 932-942.
  • Nolvi, S., Tuulari, J. J., Pelto, J., Bridgett, D. J., Eskola, E., Lehtola, S. J., Hashempour, N., Korja, R., Kataja, E., Saunavaara, J., Parkkola, R., Lähdesmäki, T., Scheinin, N. M., Karlsson, L., Lewis, J. D., Fonov, V. S., Collins, D. L., & Karlsson, H. (2021). Newborn amygdala volumes and the development of self-regulation from early infancy to toddlerhood. Neuropsychology, 35, 285-299.
  • Martin, R. C. B., Bridgett, D. J., Mayes, L. C., & Rutherford, H. J. V. (2020). Maternal working memory, emotion regulation, and responding to infant distress. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 71, 101202.
  • Petrenko, A., Rosinski, L., McKay, E. R., Kanya, M. J. & Bridgett, D. J. (2019). Effects of infant negative affect and contextual factors on infant regulatory capacity: The moderating role of infant sex. Infant and Child Development, 28, e2157.
  • Nolvi, S., Bridgett, D. J., Korja, R., Kataja, E., Niina, J., Karlsson, H., & Karlsson, L. (2019). Trajectories of maternal pre- and postnatal anxiety and depressive symptoms and infant fear: Moderation by infant sex. Journal of Affective Disorders, 257, 589-597.
  • Lelakowska, G., Kanya, M. J., Balassone, B., Savoree, S., Boddy, L. E., Power, T. G., & Bridgett, D. J. (2019). Toddlers’ impulsivity, inhibitory control, and maternal eating-related supervision in relation to toddler BMI: Direct and interactive effects. Appetite, 142, 104343.
  • McKay, E. R., Rosinski, L., Rutherford, H. J. V., Mayes, L. C., & Bridgett, D. J. (2019). Maternal positive responses to a distressed infant simulator predict subsequent negative affect in infants. Infant Behavior and Development (Special Section), 56, 101299.
  • Bridgett, D. J., Ganiban, J. M., Neiderhiser, J. M., Natsuaki, M. N., Shaw, D. S., Reiss, D., & Leve, L. D. (2018). Contributions of mothers’ and fathers’ parenting to children’s self-regulation: Evidence from an adoption study. Developmental Science, 21, e12692.
  • Holzman, J. B., & Bridgett, D. J. (2017). Heart rate variability indices as bio-markers of top-down self-regulatory mechanisms: A meta-analytic review. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, 74, 233-255.
  • Bridgett, D. J., Kanya, M. J., Rutherford, H. J. V., & Mayes, L. C. (2017). Maternal executive functioning as a mechanism in the intergenerational transmission of parenting: Preliminary evidence. Journal of Family Psychology (Special Section), 31, 19-29.
  • Bridgett, D. J., Burt, N. M., Edwards, E. S., & Deater-Deckard, K. (2015). Intergenerational transmission of self-regulation: A multidisciplinary review and integrative conceptual framework. Psychological Bulletin, 141, 602-654.