iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Dr. Cait Cavanagh @caitcavanagh.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

TAKE HOME MESSAGE: Positive parenting practices strengthen parent–child relationships, particularly for justice-involved Latine youth. Culturally responsive, strengths-based interventions among Latine families involved in the juvenile justice system may be most effective.

000

Dr. Cait Cavanagh @caitcavanagh.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Youth gender also moderated the effects, with autonomy granting and warmth more strongly associated with relationship quality for boys than for girls. Parent gender did not moderate associations.

100

Dr. Cait Cavanagh @caitcavanagh.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

3 types of positive parenting were each significantly associated with higher parent–child relationship quality. Youth arrests --> lower relationship quality, but positive parenting practices were more strongly associated with relationship quality among arrested youth than among non-arrested youth!

100

Dr. Cait Cavanagh @caitcavanagh.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Culturally embedded values inform parenting. Among 160 Latine parent–adolescent dyads in El Paso, we test whether positive parenting practices are associated with parent–child relationship quality, and whether the association differs by youth justice involvement and gender.

100

Dr. Cait Cavanagh @caitcavanagh.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

We also define "developmental mismatch" as misalignment between adolescents’ developmental needs and legal environments. And of course, we identify research and policy directions that center youth and support developmentally responsive systems.

010

Dr. Cait Cavanagh @caitcavanagh.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

We frame the U.S. legal system as a pervasive developmental context shaping youth development and show how legal involvement reshapes development across families, schools, and neighborhoods.

100

Dr. Cait Cavanagh @caitcavanagh.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

🚨New article alert! Integrating developmental and antiracist perspectives into juvenile legal system research. This is a good one-- it came out of a packed room, overtime, lively discussion at the @srcdorg.bsky.social Anti-Racist Developmental Science Summit. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

sciencedirect.com

Integrating developmental and antiracist perspectives into juvenile legal system research

Legal system involvement can reshape youth development by altering the settings, relationships, and opportunities through which development unfolds. I…

110

Dr. Cait Cavanagh @caitcavanagh.bsky.social · 29/07/2026

🚨New article alert! Led by my good friend and former labmate, Cortney Simmons. Come for the review of developmental and legal research on how legal policies are misaligned w/adolescent development; stay for our ideas for more developmentally informed approaches! journals.sagepub.com/doi/epub/10....

journals.sagepub.com

Sage Journals: Discover world-class research

Subscription and open access journals from Sage, the world's leading independent academic publisher.

000

Reposted by Dr. Cait Cavanagh

Pam Davis-Kean, PhD @umpamdk.bsky.social · 03/04/2026

The NSF 2027 budget has noted that they will close out the Social, Behavioral, and Economic Science Program (SBE). This is not a good thing. nsf-gov-resources.nsf.gov/files/FY-202...

22552394

Reposted by Dr. Cait Cavanagh

Jeremy Berg @jeremymberg.bsky.social · 16/03/2026

NSF Update through March 13, 2026 1/2

A line graph of the number of NSF awards in fiscal 2026 compared to fiscal years 2021-2025. The fiscal year 2026 is well below the other curves and increasing only very slowly.

28805390

Dr. Cait Cavanagh @caitcavanagh.bsky.social · 19/03/2026

In other words, the YLS displayed poor predictive validity, especially for those involved in family-related violence and girls, despite girls' high overall rates of recidivism. The YLS may be missing key factors that matter for girls dealing with family conflict or dysfunction.

000

Dr. Cait Cavanagh @caitcavanagh.bsky.social · 19/03/2026

Results were not what we expected-- the YLS was a poor predictor of recidivism for youth (both boys AND girls) with both domestic AND non-domestic assault and battery petitions.

100

Dr. Cait Cavanagh @caitcavanagh.bsky.social · 19/03/2026

🚨New article alert! Led by doc student Tash Chlebuch. Youth (esp girls) w/family dysfunction are increasingly adjudicated for domestic violence (DV). But does the YLS accurately predict recidivism for youth with DV charges? And is accuracy moderated by gender? www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

sciencedirect.com

Can the Youth Level of Service/Case Management Inventory predict recidivism for youth adjudicated of domestic assault and battery?

The Youth Level of Service/ Case Management Inventory is a popular and extensively studied juvenile risk assessment tool. Although many studies suppor…

100

Reposted by Dr. Cait Cavanagh

Sean Westwood @seanjwestwood.bsky.social · 18/11/2025

AI presents a fundamental threat to our ability to use polls to assess public opinion. Bad actors who are able to infiltrate panels can flip close election polls for less than the cost of a Starbucks coffee. Models will also infer and confirm hypotheses in experiments. Current quality checks fail

421297

Dr. Cait Cavanagh @caitcavanagh.bsky.social · 12/02/2026

🚨New article alert! This review explores how adolescent development shapes youth trust as a distinct precursor to adult trust, highlighting the need for more ecologically valid and interdisciplinary approaches to studying trust. link.springer.com/article/10.1...

link.springer.com

A developmental psychological perspective on youth trust - Discover Psychology

Discover Psychology - Adolescence is a critical developmental period marked by significant social, emotional, and cognitive changes that profoundly impact trust. This paper examines how these...

041

Reposted by Dr. Cait Cavanagh

Lisette de Jonge-Hoekstra @lisette-djh.bsky.social · 12/02/2026

Want to know more about how Developmental Psychology and Ecological Psychology go hand in hand? Read our new paper! www.frontiersin.org/journals/psy... This paper marks finishing our special issue on Resources for Developmental Ecological Psychology. The issue includes nice and diverse studies.

frontiersin.org

Frontiers | Editorial: Resources for developmental ecological psychology: organicism, epigenetics, relational development, dynamic systems

Phenomenology, exemplified, for example, by Colwyn Trevarthen's (1978) and Dan Zahavi's (2015) work.It is now widely accepted that the frameworks gu...

021

Dr. Cait Cavanagh @caitcavanagh.bsky.social · 02/01/2026

TAKE-HOME MESSAGE FOR PRACTITIONERS: JJ-involved girls with histories of sexual victimization may be perceived as more aggressive depending on who conducts the assessment; trauma-informed training could help prevent defensive, trauma-related behaviors from being misclassified as criminogenic risk.

011

Dr. Cait Cavanagh @caitcavanagh.bsky.social · 02/01/2026

TAKE-HOME MESSAGE FOR RESEARCHERS: juvenile risk assessments can reflect assessor bias; officer characteristics (like gender) may alter how trauma-exposed girls are evaluated in the justice system.

100

Dr. Cait Cavanagh @caitcavanagh.bsky.social · 02/01/2026

Male POs (but not female POs) rated sexually victimized girls as having more serious personality risks than girls without victimization histories. The effect was marginal because of power issues (few victimized girls were supervised by male officers) but consistent.

110

Dr. Cait Cavanagh @caitcavanagh.bsky.social · 02/01/2026

Using official records, we examined how probation officers scored girls on the “personality” domain of the YLS juvenile risk assessment (e.g., impulsivity, aggression, lack of remorse). Sexually victimized girls were NOT rated as having worse personality problems once accounting for other risks.

100

Dr. Cait Cavanagh @caitcavanagh.bsky.social · 31/12/2025

Also, follow me on Goodreads for some “legendary reviews”* *journal editors, note that my reviewer skills do not extend outside leisure reading 😉

000

Dr. Cait Cavanagh @caitcavanagh.bsky.social · 31/12/2025

I read 66 books in 2025! I circled my favorites. What did you enjoy reading this year? I’m looking for recommendations!

110

Reposted by Dr. Cait Cavanagh

Eileen Clancy 🧿 @clancyny.bsky.social · 31/10/2025

A Nature poll found that 75% of U.S. researchers are considering leaving the country. Guyz, even the *historians* are leaving or contemplating / likely to go. Including, at least 3 historians that I know of in my subfield. 😢

pbs.org

Top researchers consider leaving U.S. amid funding cuts: 'The science world is ending'

A poll from the journal Nature found that 75% of researchers in the U.S. are considering leaving the country. That includes a man who’s been dubbed the "Mozart of Math." Stephanie Sy examines what’s b...

1111977765

Dr. Cait Cavanagh @caitcavanagh.bsky.social · 30/10/2025

I had so much fun talking about career path, approach to research, and current projects with the MSU Psychology Club! Plus I honestly got some of the toughest questions I’ve ever gotten in my career— these students are deep thinkers!

020

Dr. Cait Cavanagh @caitcavanagh.bsky.social · 29/10/2025

Happy fall semester from the ADJust Lab!

120

Dr. Cait Cavanagh @caitcavanagh.bsky.social · 24/10/2025

Check out my piece in The Conversation about a new law in Detroit aimed to curb youth violence. But might it have unintended negative consequences? And what approaches might be more effective? Learn more here: theconversation.com/detroit-pare...

theconversation.com

Detroit parents face fines if their children break curfew − research shows the policy could do more harm than good

The fines of $250 for a first offense and $500 for a second hit low-income families the hardest.

141

Dr. Cait Cavanagh @caitcavanagh.bsky.social · 21/10/2025

What this means for practitioners (*cough, cough* law makers and enforcers at all levels): Alienating immigrants from the justice system via draconian local immigration enforcement may have the unintended consequence of reduced public safety and inequitable access to resources.

010

Dr. Cait Cavanagh @caitcavanagh.bsky.social · 21/10/2025

What this means for academics: General and specific attitudes toward legal actors may be informed by distinct experiences and should be considered separately. Immigrants may see police, not judges, as the “face” of the law, so legal actors should also be considered separately.

100

Dr. Cait Cavanagh @caitcavanagh.bsky.social · 21/10/2025

Attitudes toward judges were neither associated with documentation status nor family deportations, suggesting that the association is unique to police during an era when police are increasingly involved in immigration enforcement.

110

Dr. Cait Cavanagh @caitcavanagh.bsky.social · 21/10/2025

Undocumented women had negative SPECIFIC attitudes toward police (i.e., stemming from their experience with police), while undocumented women who had experienced family deportations had negative GENERAL attitudes toward police (i.e., considering the police as an abstract group).

110

Dr. Cait Cavanagh @caitcavanagh.bsky.social · 21/10/2025

🚨New article alert! Aaaand it’s a timely one! We tested how Latina immigrants' attitudes toward police and judges differed based on their documentation status and history of family deportations. Check it out here: journals.sagepub.com/eprint/BNE9D... Or read the explainer 🧵 below...

131

Reposted by Dr. Cait Cavanagh

alec karakatsanis @equalityalec.bsky.social · 12/08/2025

The capitulation of universities—one after another after another after another without a shared strategy to fight the fascist assault together—is a historical blunder that will also end these elite institutions as ostensible places of genuine knowledge seeking.

310227

Reposted by Dr. Cait Cavanagh

Joé McKen @joemcken.net · 08/08/2025

Science is effectively dead in the US for at least the next 3½ years, and will then take another several years to even get started again. Canceled research doesn’t just uncancel itself, and scientists who find opportunity elsewhere won’t just come flocking back. The damage is generational.

321425583

Reposted by Dr. Cait Cavanagh

Anthony Perillo, Ph.D. @anthonyperillo.bsky.social · 22/07/2025

If you missed @caitcavanagh.bsky.social’s discussion of adolescent development & legal system issues, her Law & Mental Health Series talk is available on our YouTube channel: youtu.be/RlFj6bu0A3E?...

youtu.be

Law and Mental Health: Adolescent Development and the Juvenile Justice System

YouTube video by UNM Dept of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences

021

Dr. Cait Cavanagh @caitcavanagh.bsky.social · 22/07/2025

Great discussion today as part of the University of New Mexico Law & Mental Health series! Thanks @anthonyperillo.bsky.social for the invite and to the participants for joining the conversation.

230

Dr. Cait Cavanagh @caitcavanagh.bsky.social · 15/07/2025

I’m very proud of Dr. LaBerge and we will all miss her in the lab. Can’t wait to cheer her on as her career develops!

000

Dr. Cait Cavanagh @caitcavanagh.bsky.social · 15/07/2025

Her dissertation examines the predictive validity of a commonly used juvenile risk assessment tool for dual-system youth. As with all her work, it was rigorous (collecting/cleaning the data took months, let alone all the new analyses she self-taught for post-doc robustness checks) and actionable!

100

Dr. Cait Cavanagh @caitcavanagh.bsky.social · 15/07/2025

Alyssa is a natural leader and a hard worker. Although this early bird will never understand her night owl ways, she has been incredibly productive, balancing many publications, community-engaged research, and a passion for teaching so strong that she earned a fellowship to train others in pedagogy!

100

Dr. Cait Cavanagh @caitcavanagh.bsky.social · 15/07/2025

A huge congratulations to the newly-minted DOCTOR @alyssa-laberge.bsky.social! Alyssa has worked with me for 7 years, first as a master’s student and then as a PhD student. Her growth as a scholar, teacher, and person has been such a joy to witness. She’s on to a TT position at UW LaCrosse!

152

Reposted by Dr. Cait Cavanagh

ProPublica @propublica.org · 14/07/2025

The number of extreme weather disasters has jumped fivefold worldwide over the past 50 years, and the number of deaths has nearly tripled, according to the World Meteorological Organization.

propublica.org

The Texas Flash Flood Is a Preview of the Chaos to Come

Climate change is making disasters more common, more deadly and far more costly, even as the federal government is running away from the policies that might begin to protect the nation.

291007414

Reposted by Dr. Cait Cavanagh

Jess Calarco @jessicacalarco.com · 10/07/2025

Deporting childcare workers is a backhanded way to force US-born White women out of the workforce and into stay-at-home motherhood, where they'll become easier targets for conservative propaganda campaigns.

11273111

Reposted by Dr. Cait Cavanagh

Amy Diehl, Ph.D. @amydiehl.bsky.social · 07/07/2025

In a study of professors, women got 378 new work requests over 4 weeks vs 118 for men. Women spent more time on service, advising & teaching; men on research. Orgs should track who is taking extra duties & ensure they are rewarded and distributed fairly. www.forbes.com/sites/kimels...

forbes.com

Being Too Helpful At Work Can Hurt Your Career—Here’s How To Say No

Women are more likely to take on behind-the-scenes duties at work—extra tasks like onboarding or event planning—and it's hurting their careers. Here's how to say no.

311500590

Reposted by Dr. Cait Cavanagh

Dr. Jens Foell @jensfoell.de · 28/05/2025

US science is being taken apart brick by brick.

912745

Reposted by Dr. Cait Cavanagh

Carl T. Bergstrom @carlbergstrom.com · 24/05/2025

tl;dr — this EO co-opts the language of open science to implement a system of political control wherein presidential appointees are given broad latitude to designate any number of reasonable scientific activities and inferences as scientific misconduct, and to penalize those involved accordingly.

whitehouse.gov

Restoring Gold Standard Science

By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, including section 7301 of title 5, United

10024491048

Reposted by Dr. Cait Cavanagh

Carl T. Bergstrom @carlbergstrom.com · 22/05/2025

Harvard today, your institution tomorrow. It's all part of the Project 2025 plan to destroy high education in America. All leading US universities depend on federal funding and tuition dollars from international students. They severely curtailed the former. Now they're eliminating the latter.

The Trump administration on Thursday halted Harvard University’s ability to enroll international students, taking aim at a crucial funding source for the nation’s oldest and wealthiest college in a major escalation in the administration’s efforts to pressure the elite school to fall in line with the president’s agenda.

461513628

Reposted by Dr. Cait Cavanagh

Anna Kornbluh @annakornbluh.bsky.social · 18/05/2025

say it again: 4 million people work in higher ed, the largest employer in 10 states, second largest employer in 10 more, and in 60 of the 100 biggest cities ROI for NIH and NSF for local economies is conservatively 4x, often close to 10x demolishing higher education is economic sabotage

6547941843