Dr. Stephanie Craig, PhD, C. Psych.

About Dr. Craig

Dr. Stephanie Craig is an Assistant Professor at the University of Guelph and Research Associate in the LaMarsh Centre for Child and Youth Research at York University. She is also a registered Clinical Psychologist in Ontario working with children, adolescents, families, and adults.

Dr. Craig is interested in the development and treatment of severe behavioural and emotional problems in children and youth. She is particularly interested in the development of callous-unemotional (CU) traits (i.e., lack of empathy, callousness) in children and youth. Dr. Craig is working to understand the role of attachment and emotion regulation in the development of primary and secondary CU traits. She is also examining the effect of an attachment-based intervention (Connect Parent Group) on CU traits for youth aged 8-18. The ultimate goal of this line of research is to inform effective interventions for children and youth with primary and secondary CU traits.

Dr. Craig is also the Primary Investigator on the Teens @ Home During COVID project. Alongside her Co-PI, Dr. Ames at the University of Victoria, and Big Brothers, Big Sisters Canada (BBBSC), Dr. Craig continues to follow a cohort of adolescents, including a sample of youth from BBBSC. In this project, Dr. Craig aims to understand whether inequities impact access to supportive relationships, such as mentors, and subsequent behavioural and mental health difficulties. Dr. Craig and her colleagues’ objective is to understand how we can support healthy relationships that then act as a protective factor for adolescent behavioural and mental health problems during and after the COVID-19 pandemic.

Further, Dr. Craig, with collaborators Dr. Carl James, Dr. Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and Harmoni Watson, is also investigating the impact of the Black Lives Matter (BLM) and anti-racism movement on youth. Using a mixed-methods approach, Dr. Craig and her partners are investigating how the anti-racism movement has impacted youth development and identity. They are also interested in understanding youth’s perceptions of, and participation in, the BLM and anti-racism movement.

Finally, Dr. Craig is a post-doctoral fellow on the SENTRYNet project aimed at understanding human-robot interaction (HRI) in the security domain. In particular, Dr. Craig uses her expertise in aggression and de-escalation to work with engineers to understand how and why humans may trust robots and avatars. She is currently working with Dr. Debra Pepler and graduate students on building a model of de-escalation for HRI research.

Dr. Craig’s research has been funded by the Social Science and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC), Canadian Institutes for Health Research (CIHR), Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC), and the University of Victoria.