Danielle S. Molnar

I am a Canada Research Chair (Tier II) in Adjustment and Well-Being in Children and Youth and an Associate Professor in the Department of Child and Youth Studies at Brock University. My training is in personality/social psychology. At the broadest level, my research is focused on understanding the biological, psychological, social, and developmental factors that contribute to health, adjustment, and well-being across the lifespan, with a particular focus on perfectionism during adolescence. Questions of interest in my lab include: How do trait, cognitive, and behavioural elements of perfectionism differentially contribute to health, well-being or adjustment? What processes (e.g., stress, social disconnection) explain the links between perfectionism and adjustment/health/well-being? How is perfectionism related to the quality of the adolescent-parent relationship and does the adolescent-parent relationship affect links between perfectionism and adjustment/health/well-being? I draw from multiple perspectives such as psychology, sociology, immunology, and psychoneuroendocrinology and use multiple methods (e.g., biomarkers, physiological assessments, surveys, photo elicitation, interviews, focus groups) to address the complexity of these research questions.