Bianca Silva (’26)

Bianca Silva (she/her) is a senior honors student majoring in Psychology and English, with a minor in Human Development and Family Studies. She serves as an undergraduate research assistant in Dr. Erika Lunkenheimer’s Parent-Child Dynamics Lab, which broadly studies the effects of parenting, particularly parental stress, on children’s emotion regulation and coping. Bianca was drawn to this area of research because she noticed that children are some of the most vulnerable members of society, and that the nurturing they receive from birth onwards shapes their life path. She especially enjoys learning about the effects of family dynamics and early environments on children’s cognition, personality, and social habits.

As a research assistant, Bianca primarily works on the Parent Regulation, Engagement, Stress, and Health project, which examines child emotion regulation and stress responses during interactions with their parents. In this role, she leads data collection with children aged 2.5 to 4.5 years old, specifically collecting cortisol samples and administering computerized tasks to assess executive function skills. Additionally, Bianca assists with processing cardiac data derived from a parent-child interaction task, which provides information about children’s physiological stress responses and emotion regulation. Her honors thesis examines variability in how parents interact with their children and how that predicts children’s compliance and self-regulation. Bianca has received several academic honors, including the Liberal Arts Dean’s List and President Walker Award.

Following graduation, Bianca hopes to pursue a postbaccalaureate research position to gain more research experience before applying to clinical psychology doctoral programs. Her long-term goal is to work closely with children and their families as a child clinical psychologist. Outside of research, Bianca enjoys yoga, drawing and painting, and writing poetry and fiction. Her writing has been published in two editions of Kalliope, Penn State’s undergraduate literary magazine.

The CSC wishes Bianca all the best in her future academic pursuits!