Category: Uncategorized

  • HEART Lab Students Honored with Awards

    HEART Lab Students Honored with Awards

    Two HEART lab doctoral students received awards in Spring 2026. First, Mahsa Pahlavan Yousefkhani received the Alice Sterling Honig award from the HDFS department. Named in honor of the late professor Emerita Alice Sterling Honig, this award recognizes outstanding scholarship in child development and family studies. Mahsa received this award for her exceptional scholarship during…

  • Featured Article: Age-Varying Associations between ACEs and Alcohol Use

    Featured Article: Age-Varying Associations between ACEs and Alcohol Use

    In a recently published paper in Psychology of Addictive Behaviors, HEART Lab director Dr. Sara Vasilenko and colleagues examined how profiles marked by different types of ACEs before age 12 were associated with later heavy episodic drinking (HED) during adolescence and adulthood. Results suggested that profiles marked by parental alcohol use, violent crime exposure, and…

  • Featured Article: Adverse Childhood Experiences and Adolescent Early Sexual Behaviors

    Featured Article: Adverse Childhood Experiences and Adolescent Early Sexual Behaviors

    Xiafei Wang, the HEART lab Assistant Director and Associate Professor of Social Work at the University of Kentucky recently published a paper in the Journal of Early Adolescence, along with coauthors Kirstin Clear and Sara Vasilenko. This paper focuses on uncovering patterns of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) in 9-11 year-old adolescents, and then examining how…