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Camelia E. Hostinar

Education

  • Ph.D., University of Minnesota, Institute of Child Development, 2013
  • M.A., Child Psychology, University of Minnesota, 2010
  • B.S., Psychology, Honors College, Towson University, 2008

About

Camelia Hostinar is a developmental psychologist who studies how the social environment shapes health, with a focus on the activity of the stress-response and immune systems. She is probing the pathways linking early-life stress to later risk for disease and investigating protective processes that could short-circuit these adverse trajectories.

She operates the Social Environment and Stress (SES) Lab, in which she welcomes the participation of graduate students with interest in this area of study.

She also is affiliated with the UC Davis Center for Poverty Research.

Research Focus

Dr. Hostinar investigates the ways in which childhood poverty and other forms of early-life adversity influence later development and health. She has particular interest in protective factors that may buffer children and adolescents from chronic stress and subsequent physical or mental health problems. Her work examines developmental processes at multiple levels of analysis, incorporating endocrine and immune biomarkers, electrophysiological data, genetic assays, and behavioral measures. She seeks to improve understanding of the role of early-life stress in shaping self-regulatory skills, and to illuminate how stress-buffering processes such as supportive social relationships exert their effects.

Selected Publications

Hostinar, C. E., Ross, K. M., Chen, E., & Miller, G. E. (in press). Early-life socioeconomic disadvantage and metabolic health disparities. Psychosomatic Medicine. doi: 10.1097/PSY.0000000000000455

Hostinar, C. E., Ross, K. M., Chan, M., Chen, E., & Miller, G. E. (in press). Threat vigilance and socioeconomic disparities in metabolic health. Development and Psychopathology.

Hostinar, C. E., Nusslock, R., & Miller, G. E. (in press). Future directions in the study of early-life stress, physical and emotional health: Implications of the neuroimmune network hypothesis. Journal of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology. [Epub: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/15374416.2016.1266647]

Hostinar, C. E., Davidson, R. J., Graham, E. K., Mroczek, D. K., Lachman, M. E., Seeman, T. E., & Miller, G. E. (2017). Frontal brain asymmetry, childhood maltreatment, and low-grade inflammation at midlife. Psychoneuroendocrinology, 75, 152-163. 
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.psyneuen.2016.10.026

Hostinar, C. E., Lachman, M. E., Mroczek, D., Seeman, T. E., & Miller, G. E. (2015). Additive roles of childhood adversity and recent stressors in explaining inflammation at midlife: Findings from the MIDUS study. Developmental Psychology, 51(11), 1630-1644.

Hostinar, C. E., Johnson, A. E., & Gunnar, M. R. (2015). Early social deprivation and the social buffering of cortisol stress responses in late childhood: An experimental study. Developmental Psychology, 51(11), 1597-1608.

Hostinar, C. E. (2015). Recent developments in the study of social relationships, stress responses, and physical health. Current Opinion in Psychology, 5, 90-95.

Hostinar, C. E., Ross, K. M., Chen, E., & Miller, G. E. (2015). Modeling the association between lifecourse socioeconomic disadvantage and systemic inflammation in healthy adults: The role of self-control. Health Psychology, 34(6), 580-90.

Hostinar, C. E., Johnson, A. E., & Gunnar, M. R. (2015). Parent support is less effective in buffering cortisol stress responses for adolescents compared to children. Developmental Science, 18(2), 281-297.

Hostinar, C. E., McQuillan, M. T., Mirous, H. J., Grant, K. E., & Adam, E. K. (2014). Cortisol responses to a Group Public Speaking Task for Adolescents: Variations by age, gender, and race. Psychoneuroendocrinology, 50, 155-66.

Hostinar, C. E., Cicchetti, D., & Rogosch, F. A. (2014). Oxytocin receptor gene polymorphism, perceived social support, and psychological symptoms in maltreated adolescents. Development and Psychopathology, 26(2), 465-77.

Hostinar, C. E., Sullivan, R. M., & Gunnar, M. R. (2014). Psychobiological mechanisms underlying the social buffering of the HPA axis: A review of animal models and human studies across development. Psychological Bulletin, 140(1), 256-282.

Hostinar, C. E., & Gunnar, M. R. (2013). The developmental effects of early life stress: A review of current theoretical frameworks. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 22(5), 400-406. 

Hostinar, C. E., & Gunnar, M. R. (2013). Future directions in the study of social relationships as regulators of the HPA axis across development. Journal of Clinical Child & Adolescent Psychology, 42(4), 564-75.

Hostinar, C. E., Stellern, S. A., Schaefer, C., Carlson, S. M., & Gunnar, M. R. (2012). Associations between early life adversity and executive function in children adopted internationally from orphanages. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA, 109(2), 17208-12. 

Teaching

Camelia Hostinar teaches subject matter related to developmental psychology, health psychology, and research methods.

Awards
  • Association for Psychological Science Rising Star Award, 2015
  • Outstanding Dissertation Award, Society for Research in Child Development, 2015
  • NIH F32 Award (Postdoctoral NRSA), National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, 2014
  • Newsworthy Abstract, American Psychosomatic Society Annual Meeting, 2014
  • Eva O. Miller Fellowship, University of Minnesota, 2010