Krysta Andrews is currently a Postdoctoral Fellow working with Drs. Andrea Gonzalez and Terry Bennett in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioural Neurosciences at McMaster University and the Offord Centre for Child Studies.
She received her undergraduate degree at Queen’s University in Biology and a Master’s degree in Social Work at the University of Toronto. As a registered social worker, Krysta has experience working with children and families who have experienced various forms of trauma and adversity as well as facilitated both voluntary and court-mandated psychoeducational programs on the effects of trauma, emotion regulation strategies, and developing healthy relationships.
Krysta completed her doctoral degree in the Neuroscience Graduate Program at McMaster University where her research focused on early proximal risk factors such as household chaos, maternal distress, and parenting challenges as they related to children’s executive functioning, stress hormone levels, and behavioural outcomes. She also completed a Mitacs Elevate funded postdoctoral fellowship to explore neurobiological mechanisms of intergenerational transmission of trauma and to evaluate interventions for trauma-exposed individuals.
Krysta’s current research interests include understanding the effects of early adversity on children’s cognitive, physiological and behavioural outcomes, increasing access to parenting and mental health programs for marginalized communities, and evaluating the efficacy of evidence-based preventative interventions in supporting, educating, and strengthening families.
Her topic objectives are the following:
- To discuss the direct and indirect effects of household chaos and parenting behaviours on children’s executive functioning using multiple methods
- To discuss the role that parents’ history of maltreatment plays in predicting parent and child psychopathology and household chaos
- To discuss future research and knowledge translation considerations including expanding the contextual risk foci (e.g., food insecurity) explored and evaluating the effectiveness of evidence-based family interventions and ways to increase access to such programs for marginalized communities