Mia McLean

Awarded a PhD in Psychology from The University of Queensland, Australia, I am now living and working in NZ. Broadly, I am passionate about understand the biopsychosocial mechanisms underlying relationships between perinatal stressors and childhood internalizing (anxiety, depressive) behaviours. I use longitudinal statistical modelling to understand how trajectories of anxiety/depressive symptom develop in children a) born very preterm (24 – 32 weeks' gestation), and b) children exposed to stress in-utero. A key aim of my work is to understand how positive parent mood and behaviour may act as protective factors in these at-risk populations, aiding physiological stress regulation and brain maturation, to directly impact clinic and community.