Ph.D. Developmental Psychology, University of Utah, 2021
M.S. Developmental Psychology, University of Utah, 2018
M.A. General-Theoretical Psychology, Fairleigh Dickinson University, 2013
B.A. Clinical Psychology, Allameh Tabatabaei University, Tehran, Iran, 2010

• Infancy and Child Development
• Early Life Adversity
• Developmental Psychopathology
• Parent-child Relationships
• Stress Response Systems
• Risk and Resilience
• Developmental Programing
• Childhood Obesity and Cardiometabolic Disorders

2024 Developmental Psychobiology Early Career Research Editorial Fellowship
2021 Commendation for Excellence in Research, University of Utah
2020 Dissertation Funding Award, Society for Research in Child Development (SRCD)
2019 Clayton Award for Excellence in Graduate Research, University of Utah

The Promoting Empathy and Affiliation in Relationships (PEAR) Study
The PEAR study is NIMH-funded study (R01MH125904) that aims to uncover the biopsychosocial mechanisms that promote positive and affiliative relationships between preschoolers and their parents. The primary aim of this study is to understand how early parent-child relationships influence children’s social-emotional development, including children’s emotions, empathy, and prosociality. In addition, how they may serve as the potential risk for the emergence of callous-unemotional traits.

The Preschool Shyness Study
The Preschool Shyness Study is NIMH-funded randomized controlled trial early intervention study for socially inhibited preschool children (R01MH103253-05). Children with behavioral inhibition tend to be extremely shy and avoid novel situations and social interactions and are at greater risk for development of social anxiety disorder later in life. This study examines two early intervention programs (the Turtle Program and Cool Little Kids) for children ages 45 to 64 months with elevated behavioral inhibition and their parents. In addition, this NIMH-funded study (R03MH123762) explores the neurophysiological predictors of treatment response.

The Durham Child Health and Development Study
The Durham Child Health and Development Study funded by the National Science Foundation is a prospective longitudinal study of 206 children and their families. Participants were first recruited when the children were 3 months old, and subsequently participated in data collection in 6-month increments through 36 months, and again once a year from preschool through second grade. This study examines early risk and factors for child psychopathology across multiple levels of influences, including social, physiological and behavioral.

Shakiba, N., Lynch, S.F., Propper, C. B., Mills-Koonce, W. R., & Wagner, N. J. (2023). Vagal flexibility moderates the links between observed sensitive caregiving in infancy and externalizing behavior problems in middle childhood. Research on Child and Adolescent Psychopathology, 51, 1453-1464. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10802-023-01088-3

Shakiba, N., Perlstein, S., Powell, T., Rodriguez, Y., Waller, R., & Wagner, N. J. (2022). Prospective associations between pandemic-related adversity, harsh parenting, and the development of prosociality across middle- to late-childhood. Developmental Psychology, 59, 538-548. https://doi.org/10.1037/dev0001475

Shakiba, N., Gao, M., Conradt, E., Terrell, S., & Lester, B. M. (2022). Parent-child relationship quality and adolescent health: Testing the differential susceptibility and diathesis-stress hypotheses in African American youths. Child Development, 93, 269-287. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.13667

Shakiba, N., & Raby, K. L. (2021). Attachment dimensions and cortisol reactivity during the strange situation among children adopted internationally. Attachment and Human Development, 25, 89-103. https://doi.org/10.1080/14616734.2021.1896445

Shakiba, N., Ellis, B. J., Bush, N. R., & Boyce, W. T. (2020). Biological sensitivity to context: A test of the hypothesized U-shaped relation between early adversity and stress responsivity. Development and Psychopathology, 32, 641-660. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0954579419000518