Zaharah Zaidi

Zaharah Zaidi (she/her) is a third-year graduate student in the Child Clinical Psychology program at Penn State. Zaharah attended the University of Southern California for her undergraduate studies, where she received a B.A. in psychology and global studies. Zaharah’s undergraduate honors thesis examined the experiences of Moroccan Muslim immigrants in Spain, specifically the impact of immigration policies on integration, belonging, and psychological well-being. She also worked on the Family Studies Project with Dr. Gayla Margolin, using audio recordings from young adult couples’ daily interactions to predict relationship conflict and better understand how to mitigate that conflict. Additionally, Zaharah contributed to research on interventions for youth involved in gang violence and volunteered on youth advisory boards for school-based projects. To gain experience with youth and families needing a higher level of care, she later completed a postbaccalaureate position at Brown University focused on youth suicidality and family relationships. While there, she worked at an inpatient unit supporting foster-care youth, with a focus on trauma and mental health.

Taken together, these experiences culminated in an interest in understanding the impact of trauma on the development of psychopathology, particularly in underserved populations. Zaharah was specifically drawn to Penn State’s Child Clinical program because of its dynamic integration of research and clinical practice, emphasis on developmental training, and research being conducted on mental health in underserved populations. Zaharah’s master’s thesis examined pathways from lifetime trauma exposure to adult psychopathology. She examined how the type of trauma, as well as how the individual appraises their traumatic experience, shapes these pathways. Her findings indicated that lifetime trauma exposure was positively related to adult psychopathology, particularly for individuals who reported high levels of guilt. Further, direct interpersonal trauma was the strongest predictor of psychopathology.

Zaharah’s future research will broadly examine how traumatic events and race-based stress influence youth mental health, as well as how parents and peers can either attenuate or worsen these effects. Her long-term goal is to work at an academic medical center where she can continue both research and clinical work serving high-risk youth.