Sky Cardwell

Sky Cardwell, a second-year Child Clinical student from Little Rock, Arkansas received her undergraduate degree in psychology at the University of Virginia in 2017. As an undergraduate, Sky worked in Dr. Angeline Lillard's Early Development Lab conducting studies examining theory of mind development in young children. Sky further explored her interest in children's socio-emotional development in Dr. Joseph Allen's Virginia Adolescent Research Group studying adolescents' attachment relationships into adulthood. After graduating, Sky sought opportunities to contribute to research with a greater focus on psychopathologies in children and accepted a position in psychiatric clinical trials with Dr. Adelaide Robb at Children's National Medical Center in Washington, D.C. Through these experiences, Sky realized her research interests in developmental psychopathology and how children's ability to regulate their emotions develops in early childhood. These interests led her to join Dr. Pamela Cole's lab where she is a part of the Development of Self-Regulation Dynamics study.

Sky is interested in the interpersonal dynamics of how parents and their young children handle a situation in which children must regulate their own behavior, e.g., waiting for something they really want. Sky's master's project investigates different approaches to capturing the temporal dynamics between how preschool age children's difficulties waiting and their own attempts at self-regulation interact with their mother's efforts to regulate children's behavior. She presented preliminary analyses at the virtual Association of Psychological Science meeting this past summer and submitted new analyses to the virtual Society for Research in Child Development meeting for April 2021. In the future, Sky plans to continue studying the development of children's self-regulation, how parents contribute to this development, and how best to measure the temporal dynamics involved.

When she is not taking courses, providing therapy to clients, and working on her research, Sky enjoys spending time with friends and family, playing with her pup, Ollie, and indulging in great food, music, and movies.