Laura Stroud

About

Laura Stroud is a Professor of Psychiatry and Human Behavior, Obstetrics and Gynecology, and Behavioral and Social Sciences at Brown University. She serves as Director and Senior Research Scientist at the Center for Behavioral and Preventive Medicine at The Miriam Hospital, where she is also the Director and Principal Investigator of the COBRE Center for Stress, Trauma, and Resilience (STAR). Additionally, she is the Founding Director of the Maternal-Infant Studies Laboratory and the Child and Adolescent Stress Laboratory at The Miriam Hospital. Dr. Stroud is dedicated to mentoring, co-directing the STAR T32 postdoctoral fellowship program focused on childhood stress, trauma, and resilience, and received the 2023 Faculty Mentoring Award from the Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior. Her research centers on biobehavioral mechanisms of mood and addictive disorders, employing a transdisciplinary, developmental framework that integrates neurobiological and behavioral markers of risk, with particular focus on fetal-infant and adolescent/pubertal transitions. Her work includes novel ultrasound measures of fetal development, biological pathways of maternal stress, substance use, and depression transmission to the fetus and infant, as well as the impact of marijuana and tobacco products on pregnant mothers and infants. During adolescence, her research investigates neural and neuroendocrine biomarkers of depression risk. Dr. Stroud has been continuously funded by the NIH since…

Research topics

• Psychology
• Environmental health
• Medicine
• Clinical psychology
• Developmental psychology
• Biology
• Psychiatry
• Genetics
• Engineering ethics
• Demography

Selected publications

• A systematic review of childhood maltreatment and DNA methylation: candidate gene and epigenome-wide approaches

  Translational Psychiatry · 2021 · 164 citations

  Childhood maltreatment is a major risk factor for chronic and severe mental and physical health problems across the lifespan. Increasing evidence supports the hypothesis that maltreatment is associated with epigenetic changes that may subsequently serve as mechanisms of disease. The current review uses a systematic approach to identify and summarize the literature related to childhood maltreatment and alterations in DNA methylation in humans. A total of 100 empirical articles were identified in…

  DOI

• Electronic Cigarette Use During Preconception and/or Pregnancy: Prevalence, Characteristics, and Concurrent Mental Health Conditions

  Journal of Women s Health · 2020 · 43 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding

  In this sample, 4% of women used e-cigarettes during preconception and/or pregnancy and most also used conventional cigarettes. Increased efforts by providers to screen for tobacco (including use of e-cigarette) and polysubstance use and to provide cessation services could improve outcomes of mothers and children.

  DOI

• How can we build structural resilience? Integration of social-ecological and minority stress models.

  American Psychologist · 2024-11-01 · 16 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  As the United States contends with racism and a social justice reckoning, the need to advance our understanding of how to build structural resilience continues to be pressing. This article proposes a culturally and structurally informed model of resilience for individuals with minoritized identities that integrates social-ecological and minority stress models. First, common stressors and traumas experienced by minoritized individuals at multiple levels of proximal/distal influence are reviewed:…

  PublisherDOI

• Neural activation to peer acceptance and rejection in relation to concurrent and prospective depression risk in adolescent and pre-adolescent girls

  Biological Psychology · 2023-06-21 · 10 citations

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Use and co-use of tobacco and cannabis before, during, and after pregnancy: A longitudinal analysis of waves 1–5 of the Population Assessment of Tobacco and Health (PATH) study.

  Psychology of Addictive Behaviors · 2024-04-18 · 7 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  (see record 2025-40494-001). In Table 1, the Past 30-day cannabis use row now appears as Past 30-day cannabis only use; the Past 30-day tobacco use row now appears as Any past 30-day tobacco use. The Total sample at prepregnancy sample of 344 (50.14%) now appears as 342 (49.85%). Figure 3 also has been updated. All versions of this article have been corrected.] Objective: Co-use of tobacco and cannabis may be prevalent in pregnancy, potentially leading to additional adverse health outcomes. Util…

  PublisherDOI

Recent grants

• NIH Grant R01HD043844

  NIH · $432k · 2007

• Impact of Flavors and Design Features on Patterns of Waterpipe Use and Toxicity in Pregnant Mothers

  NIH · $1.6M · 2016–2022

• NIH Grant R03DA035896

  NIH · $228k · 2017

Frequent coauthors

• Margaret H. Bublitz

  Providence College

  153 shared

• Chrystal Vergara‐Lopez

  Brown University

  149 shared

• Amy L. Salisbury

  Virginia Commonwealth University

  84 shared

• George D. Papandonatos

  Brown University

  73 shared

• Nancy C. Jao

  Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science

  56 shared

• Sharon Y. Lee

  Brown University

  55 shared

• Raymond Niaura

  New York University

  52 shared

• Natasha Sokol

  Providence College

  51 shared

Labs

• Maternal-Infant Studies Laboratory and the Child and Adolescent Stress LaboratoryPI

Education

• B.A., Human Biology

  Stanford University

• Ph.D., Psychology

  Yale University

  1999

• Other

  Brown University

  2001

Awards & honors

• 2023 Faculty Mentoring Award from the Department of Psychiat…
• Bruce Selya Research Excellence Award from Lifespan Hospital…
• Outstanding Early Career Investigator Award from the Nationa…
• 2022 Stephen E. Straus Distinguished Lecturer at the Nationa…

Similar researchers at Brown University

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• Rena Wingh-146
• Lawrence Priceh-132