- Major Professors : Dr. Jay Belsky & Dr. Daniel E. Choe
I study parent-child interactions and the co- and self-regulation of parents’ and children’s emotions, physiology, and behavior. I am interested in factors that shape parenting beliefs and behaviors, including parents' own sensitivity to the environment, physiological reactivity, and childhood experiences; child characteristics such as their temperament and self-regulatory capacities; and aspects of the broader sociocultural contexts in which parenting and caregiving occur. I want to better understand the mechanisms underlying intergenerational cycles of harsh caregiving and maltreatment, so action can be taken to disrupt these cycles and promote the health and well-being of children and their caregivers.
Grants & Awards
Jastro-Shields Graduate Research Award (funded $1,921; 2024-2025)
Sigal, M. & Olwert, M.R. (Co-PIs): "Graduate Peer Support- Navigate your way to social fitness!" Healthy UC Davis & Equity in Mental Health Grant. (funded $22,385; 2023-2025)
Jastro-Shields Graduate Research Award (funded $1,427; 2022-2023)
Publications
Choe, D.E., Golden, A.B., & Olwert, M.R. (2025). Advancing research on mobile screen media and young children’s cognitive skills. Academic Pediatrics. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.acap.2024.06.018
Lippmann, M., Olwert, M. R., & Leistner, C. E.. (2024). Emerging adults’ perspectives on consensually nonmonogamous parenting. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 53(1), 321–339. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-023-02720-5
Choe, D. E., Olwert, M. R., & Golden, A. B. (2023). Cognitive and psychophysiological predictors of inductive and physical discipline among parents of preschool-aged children. Journal of Family Psychology. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1037/fam0001140
Conference Presentations
Olwert, M.R., Golden, A.B., & Choe, D.E. Evaluating children's and mothers’ parasympathetic self-regulation and co-regulation throughout different parent-child interaction contexts. Poster presentation at the Society for Research in Child Development, Minneapolis, MN.
Olwert, M.R., Zhang, X., & Belsky, J. Examining children’s differential susceptibility to positive and negative parenting effects: An influence statistics approach. Poster presentation at the Society for Research in Child Development, Minneapolis, MN.
Olwert, M.R., Golden, A.B., & Choe, D.E. (2024). Children’s parasympathetic self-regulation and co-regulation during parent-child interactions. Poster presentation at the Western Psychological Association, San Francisco, CA.
Olwert, M.R., Hart, S.R., Carter, D., Paul, N.R. (2023). A latent profile analysis of body Image and disordered eating attitudes and behaviors in adolescent males. Poster presentation at the Society for Research on Adolescence, San Diego, CA.
Olwert, M.R. & Hart, S.R. (2021) Examining the effects of adverse and positive childhood experiences: A latent class approach. Round-table session at the American Educational Research Association, held virtually.
Lippmann, M., Olwert, M.R., Valadez, J., Leistner, C.E. (2021) College students’ views on consensual nonmonogamy and implications for sexuality education. Presentation at the Society for the Scientific Study of Sexuality, San Juan, Puerto Rico.
Olwert, M.R. (2019) Bilingualism and ASD: How hard could it be? Poster presentation at the Symposium of Student Research and Scholarly Work, held by the College of Behavioral and Social Sciences at California State University, Chico.