Event

Part of the BCTR’s Talks at Twelve Series.

Stress exposure is a transdiagnostic risk factor for a range of health problems, behaviors, and disparities. Stress exposure is difficult to mitigate given its heterogeneity (e.g., adverse life events) and scale (e.g., SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, societal racial biases). Given these challenges, clinical scientists have focused on developing programs targeting malleable individual characteristics relating to how one copes with stressors. Foremost among novel approaches for stress reduction are mindfulness-based programs (MBPs). MBPs are causally related to wide-ranging health benefits, and evidence suggests that salutary effects are attributable to alterations to stress appraisal and reactivity. This presentation will describe the relations between stress, MBPs, and health in youth. The talk will conclude by presenting findings from recent studies highlighting future directions for developing targeted MBP for at-risk adolescent populations, and contextual factors to consider in implementation research evaluating MBPs in school settings.

Joshua C. Felver, Ph.D., ABPP, is an extension associate of the ILR School’s Yang Tan Institute and a visiting scholar in the Bronfenbrenner Center for Translational Research. He is a licensed psychologist with specialist board certification from the American Board of Professional Psychology. He took his Ph.D. in School Psychology from the University of Oregon, and completed a pre-doctoral internship in pediatric psychology at Harvard Medical School and a postdoctoral fellowship in child clinical psychology at Alpert Medical School of Brown University. Prior to joining Cornell University, he was faculty and director of clinical training in the Psychology Department at Syracuse University. His programmatic research involves developing, implementing, and exploring biomechanisms of mindfulness-based programs in school and community settings to address health disparities in diverse and at-risk populations. He has written more than 35 peer-reviewed publications, is the co-author of the book “Mindfulness in the Classroom” (New Harbinger Publications), and is an associate editor for the journal Mindfulness.