Chrystyna D. Kouros
Assistant Professor of Psychology
Ph.D., University of Notre Dame, 2008

TEL 214.768.2655
EMAIL ckouros (add @smu.edu to all email addresses)
OFFICE 310C Hyer Hall
CURRICULUM VITAE click to view

The goal of my research is to advance our understanding of the mechanisms that account for individual differences in trajectories of depressive symptoms and depression in the context of family stress. My training is in developmental psychopathology and my research lies at the intersection of developmental and clinical psychology. Specifically, my program of research examines (a) how symptoms of depression predict later diagnoses, including sex differences in symptom trajectories, and (b) the role of children’s responses to family stressors -- at the physiological, emotional, and behavioral level -- in their symptom trajectories. Among family stressors, I have a particular interest in children’s exposure to marital conflict and parental psychopathology. Another research interest of mine is examining the interplay between relationship functioning (e.g., conflict, satisfaction) and depressive symptoms among married and dating couples.

Kouros, C. D., & Cummings, E. M. (2011). Transactional relations between marital functioning and spouses’ depressive symptoms. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 81, 128-138.

Kouros, C. D., & Garber, J. (2010). Dynamic associations between mothers’ depressive symptoms and children’s depressive and externalizing symptoms. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 38, 1069-1081.

Kouros, C. D., Cummings, E. M., & Davies, P. T. (2010). Early trajectories of interparental conflict and externalizing problems as predictors of social competence in preadolescence. Development and Psychopathology, 22, 527-538.

Papp, L. M., Kouros, C. D., & Cummings, E. M. (2010). Emotions in marital conflict interactions: Empathic accuracy, assumed similarity, and the moderating context of depression. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 27, 367-387.

Kouros, C. D., & Cummings, E. M. (2010). Longitudinal associations between husbands’ and wives’ depressive symptoms. Journal of Marriage and Family, 72, 135-147.

El-Sheikh, M., Kouros, C. D., Erath, S., Cummings, E. M., Keller, P. S., & Elmore-Staton, L. (2009). Marital conflict and children’s externalizing behavior: Interactions between parasympathetic and sympathetic nervous system activity.Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development , 74, 1-101.

Papp, L. M., Kouros, C. D., & Cummings, E. M. (2009). Demand/withdraw patterns in marital conflict in the home. Personal Relationships, 16, 285-300.

Kouros, C. D., Papp, L. M., & Cummings, E. M. (2008) Interrelations and moderators of longitudinal links between marital satisfaction and depressive symptoms among couples in established relationships. Journal of Family Psychology, 22, 667-677.

Kouros, C. D., Merrilees, C. E., & Cummings, E. M. (2008). Marital conflict and children’s emotional security in the context of parental depression. Journal of Marriage and Family, 70, 684-697.

Cummings, E. M., Kouros, C. D., & Papp, L. M. (2007). Marital aggression and children’s responses to everyday interparental conflict. European Psychologist, 12, 17-28.