Erika D Felix
Biographic Data
| ID | 5507585 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Erika D Felix |
| GIVEN NAMES | Erika D |
| FAMILY NAME | Felix |
| SIGNATURE | FELIX E D |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of California, Santa Barbara |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-6853-2108 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 26 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 38 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 26 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2003 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 3 |
The social lives of adults living alone during a public health emergency: Implications for future infectious disease outbreaks.
Public health restrictions during infectious disease outbreaks can have a significant impact on the social lives of all individuals given public health guidance related to quarantining, shelter-in-place, and social distancing. These impacts may be felt differently or more profoundly by people who live alone. However, minimal research or public health guidance focused on the needs of individuals living alone. In this qualitative study, eight focus…
Everything is in twos”: A qualitative study of the mental health of adults who lived alone during the pandemic
Results provide insight into the range of mental health experiences and the sources of mental health changes among individuals of all ages who lived alone. By tailoring interventions and outreach to single-person households, program developers and mental health providers can help mitigate the effects of isolation and encourage more adaptive responses during future public health emergencies. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reser…
Preparing for future public health emergencies through elevating the voices of those who lived alone during the pandemic
Single-person households comprise a significant proportion of the population and their experiences during the restrictions associated with the COVID-19 pandemic are critical to improving practices for future public health emergencies. This study assessed the experience of living alone, perceptions of the public health guidance, and recommendations based on the lived experience of participants. Eight focus groups were conducted with participants (…
The Influence of Media Exposure to Incidents of Mass Violence on Parenting Behavior
Promoting Early School Success: Protective Factors and Parental Engagement as Pathways to Kindergarten Readiness
Kindergarten readiness is shaped by both family and school contexts, highlighting the importance of an ecological perspective on early learning. The current study examined whether parental engagement mediates the relationship between parents' protective factors (e.g., social support) and children's kindergarten readiness when controlling for parental education. Participants included 853 kindergarten students whose readiness was assessed using the…
“It just felt like another thing to do”: Examining teacher barriers and motivators to utilizing trauma‐informed resources during Covid‐19
Given that over two‐thirds of children in the United States are exposed to at least one traumatic event by age 16, it is imperative that schools support these students with trauma‐informed practices and resources. The current study investigated factors that affected teacher use of trauma‐informed resources within two school districts in California during the COVID‐19 pandemic. The specific research questions included assessing how intrinsic barri…
Social-cognitive mediators of the relationship of media exposure to acute mass violence and distress among adolescents
OBJECTIVE: Traditional and social media coverage of acute mass violence (AMV; e.g., terrorism, mass shootings) create an environment where the possibility of being the victim of AMV is constantly portrayed and this media exposure has been linked to distress among people not directly affected. We explored how initial emotional reactions to media exposure to AMV, threat perception, and core beliefs may mediate the media exposure to current anxiety …
Psychosocial influences on posttraumatic growth among university students following a mass murder
on posttragedy adjustment. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved)
Excessive Screen Media Use in Preschoolers Is Associated with Poor Motor Skills
Excessive screen media use exposure is a robust childhood predictor of sedentary behavior. The association between excessive exposure to sedentary behaviors (e.g., screen media use) and motor skills and how this association differs across sociodemographic strata is an important knowledge gap that needs to be addressed. The study aims to investigate the association of motor skills and screen media use in preschool children, taking into account soc…
Factors affecting mental health service use among university students following an episode of mass violence
Prior experience with MH services may help survivors engage in services following a disaster. As disaster MH service models tend to target outreach to those with the greatest exposure, this may be why those survivors had greater MH service use. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved)
Exploring Latinx Youth Experiences of Digital Dating Abuse
Digital dating abuse (DDA), which is the use of social media and mobile phones to abuse a dating partner, is a common and harmful form of dating violence among youths. To date, this issue has not been studied among Latinx youths. The current study examined DDA among a sample of 70 Latinx youths with dating experience, using survey data on participants’ experiences with traditional forms of offline dating violence, DDA victimization and perpetrati…
The influence of flood exposure and subsequent stressors on youth social-emotional health
Most disaster mental health research focuses on the relationship between disaster exposure and distress, often neglecting its influence on social-emotional health, despite implications for resilience and well-being after the disaster. Following multiple floods in Texas, a sample of 486 youth aged 10-19 years old (M = 13.74 years, SD = 2.57; 52.9% male) completed measures of disaster exposure, life stressors since the disaster, and social-emotiona…
Measuring media exposure to acute mass violence
Analyses support that the factor structure of the measure was consistent across male and female participants. Implications on measuring media exposure to acute mass violence will be discussed. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved)
Dating and Sexual Violence Research in the Schools: Balancing Protection of Confidentiality with Supporting the Welfare of Survivors
Highlights Youth may not report dating or sexual abuse if they have concerns about confidentiality. No procedures exist to support research participants who are adolescent survivors of abuse. We conducted a structured ethical decision‐making process to solve our ethical dilemma. Our novel protocol helps balance participant confidentiality with survivor welfare
University student voices on healing and recovery following tragedy
Perceived resource loss is important in understanding the impact of the trauma on mental health and could be a part of intake for supportive services. Given that it was the students with greater prior trauma exposure and depression symptoms who were more likely to have clinical distress posttragedy, targeted outreach to current and former university counseling center clients to "check in" may be helpful to reach those who may be in most need. (Ps…
The Role of Social Support on Mental Health After Multiple Wildfire Disasters: Social Support and Mental Health After Wildfires
Disasters can erode mental health (MH), even if it does not reach mental illness. This study explored the direct or moderating role of social support on MH after multiple wildfires, with attention to evacuation status and participant sex. Participants (N = 402) responded to a random digit dial telephone survey about their disaster exposure, current MH, MH at the time of the fire, social support, and life stressors since the disaster. For the evac…
Family functioning and posttraumatic growth among parents and youth following wildfire disasters
A conceptual model was used to investigate how demographic characteristics, perceived fire stress, aspects of the recovery environment (life stressors since the disaster, social support), mental health, and coping influences parent and youth reports of family functioning and posttraumatic growth (PTG) following multiple wildfires. Participants included 50 parent-youth dyads (M = 14.5 years) who had been evacuated because of the fire, many of whom…
Long-Term Stability of Screening for Behavioral and Emotional Risk
The practice of screening students to identify behavioral and emotional risk is gaining momentum, with limited guidance regarding the frequency with which screenings should occur. Screening frequency decisions are influenced by the stability of the constructs assessed and changes in risk status over time. This study investigated the 4-year longitudinal stability of behavioral and emotional risk screening scores among a sample of youth to examine …
The role of peers in the relation between hurricane exposure and ataques de nervios among Puerto Rican adolescents
Although a relation between disaster exposure and ataques de nervios ( ataques ) has been established in adult samples, little is known about this among youth, including factors that may moderate this relation. This study examined the role of the peer context in the relation between exposure to Hurricane Georges and experiencing a past year and lifetime ataques among a representative community sample of 905 youth (N = 476 boys and 429 girls; ages…
School and Community Influences on the Long Term Postdisaster Recovery of Children and Youth Following Hurricane Georges
Disasters affect the school and community microsystems in which children and youth recover. This study explored characteristics of the school (school violence, teachers’ attitudes) and community microsystem (neighborhood climate, neighborhood monitoring, community violence) that may affect the disaster exposure and internalizing psychopathology relationship in children and youth aged 12–27 months after Hurricane Georges hit Puerto Rico. A represe…
The impact of uncertainty and communal coping on mental health following natural disasters
Feelings of uncertainty are a central feature of the disaster experience. Surprisingly, though, there is very little systematic quantitative research about the impact of uncertainty on disaster survivors. Moreover, communal coping has increasingly received attention as a potential buffer of the negative effects of stressors but that literature is also limited in its application to disasters. This investigation applies research in the domain of un…
Getting precise and pragmatic about the assessment of bullying: The development of the California Bullying Victimization Scale
Accurate assessment of bullying is essential to intervention planning and evaluation. Limitations to many currently available self-report measures of bullying victimization include a lack of psychometric information, use of the emotionally laden term "bullying" in definition-first approaches to self-report surveys, and not assessing all components of the definition of bullying (chronicity, intentionality, and imbalance of power) in behavioral-bas…
Peer victimization within the ethnic context of high school
Risk for peer victimization varies by ethnicity, but few studies explore how the ethnic context of the school can affect this. Using a large sample of schools and high school students, we used hierarchical linear modeling to explore victimization risk by ethnicity within the ethnic context of the school. Models predicted total, physical, verbal, and sexual harassment victimization. At the student level, the model included sex, ethnicity, and the …
Community violence exposure and aggression among urban adolescents: Testing a cognitive mediator model
Past research has shown that exposure to violence leads to aggressive behavior, but few community‐based studies have examined theoretical models illustrating the mediating social cognitive processes that explain this relation with youth exposed to high rates of violence. This study examines the impact of community violence on behavior through cognitive mediators: normative beliefs about aggression and self‐efficacy to control aggression. Self‐rep…
Relations among school connectedness, hope, life satisfaction, and bully victimization
This study investigates the role of school connectedness in mediating the relation between students' sense of hope and life satisfaction for three groups: Bullied Victims, Peer Victims, and Nonvictims. Students in grades 5 to 12 ( N = 866) completed the California Bully/Victim Scale, School Connectedness Scale, Children's Hope Scale, and Students' Life Satisfaction Scale. Multigroup latent mean analysis revealed significant group mean differences…
Peer victimization within the ethnic context of high school
Risk for peer victimization varies by ethnicity, but few studies explore how the ethnic context of the school can affect this. Using a large sample of schools and high school students, we used hierarchical linear modeling to explore victimization risk by ethnicity within the ethnic context of the school. Models predicted total, physical, verbal, and sexual harassment victimization. At the student level, the model included sex, ethnicity, and the …
Community violence exposure and aggression among urban adolescents: Testing a cognitive mediator model
Past research has shown that exposure to violence leads to aggressive behavior, but few community‐based studies have examined theoretical models illustrating the mediating social cognitive processes that explain this relation with youth exposed to high rates of violence. This study examines the impact of community violence on behavior through cognitive mediators: normative beliefs about aggression and self‐efficacy to control aggression. Self‐rep…
Getting precise and pragmatic about the assessment of bullying: The development of the California Bullying Victimization Scale
Accurate assessment of bullying is essential to intervention planning and evaluation. Limitations to many currently available self-report measures of bullying victimization include a lack of psychometric information, use of the emotionally laden term "bullying" in definition-first approaches to self-report surveys, and not assessing all components of the definition of bullying (chronicity, intentionality, and imbalance of power) in behavioral-bas…
The Role of Social Support on Mental Health After Multiple Wildfire Disasters: Social Support and Mental Health After Wildfires
Disasters can erode mental health (MH), even if it does not reach mental illness. This study explored the direct or moderating role of social support on MH after multiple wildfires, with attention to evacuation status and participant sex. Participants (N = 402) responded to a random digit dial telephone survey about their disaster exposure, current MH, MH at the time of the fire, social support, and life stressors since the disaster. For the evac…
Dating and Sexual Violence Research in the Schools: Balancing Protection of Confidentiality with Supporting the Welfare of Survivors
Highlights Youth may not report dating or sexual abuse if they have concerns about confidentiality. No procedures exist to support research participants who are adolescent survivors of abuse. We conducted a structured ethical decision‐making process to solve our ethical dilemma. Our novel protocol helps balance participant confidentiality with survivor welfare
Cross-Generational Parenting Influences on Psychosocial Functioning of Adolescent Mothers in Substitute Care
This study examined the cross-generational influence of adolescent parenthood on psychosocial functioning with a random sample of adolescent mothers in state substitute care due to child abuse or neglect in their family of origin. Participants reported if their main parenting figure was an adolescent parent or not, their educational attainment, and their level of parenting stress. Participants whose main parenting figure was an adolescent parent …
Cross-Generational Parenting Influences on Psychosocial Functioning of Adolescent Mothers in Substitute Care
This study examined the cross-generational influence of adolescent parenthood on psychosocial functioning with a random sample of adolescent mothers in state substitute care due to child abuse or neglect in their family of origin. Participants reported if their main parenting figure was an adolescent parent or not, their educational attainment, and their level of parenting stress. Participants whose main parenting figure was an adolescent parent …
Relations among school connectedness, hope, life satisfaction, and bully victimization
This study investigates the role of school connectedness in mediating the relation between students' sense of hope and life satisfaction for three groups: Bullied Victims, Peer Victims, and Nonvictims. Students in grades 5 to 12 ( N = 866) completed the California Bully/Victim Scale, School Connectedness Scale, Children's Hope Scale, and Students' Life Satisfaction Scale. Multigroup latent mean analysis revealed significant group mean differences…
Community violence exposure and aggression among urban adolescents: Testing a cognitive mediator model
Past research has shown that exposure to violence leads to aggressive behavior, but few community‐based studies have examined theoretical models illustrating the mediating social cognitive processes that explain this relation with youth exposed to high rates of violence. This study examines the impact of community violence on behavior through cognitive mediators: normative beliefs about aggression and self‐efficacy to control aggression. Self‐rep…
Getting precise and pragmatic about the assessment of bullying: The development of the California Bullying Victimization Scale
Accurate assessment of bullying is essential to intervention planning and evaluation. Limitations to many currently available self-report measures of bullying victimization include a lack of psychometric information, use of the emotionally laden term "bullying" in definition-first approaches to self-report surveys, and not assessing all components of the definition of bullying (chronicity, intentionality, and imbalance of power) in behavioral-bas…
Peer victimization within the ethnic context of high school
Risk for peer victimization varies by ethnicity, but few studies explore how the ethnic context of the school can affect this. Using a large sample of schools and high school students, we used hierarchical linear modeling to explore victimization risk by ethnicity within the ethnic context of the school. Models predicted total, physical, verbal, and sexual harassment victimization. At the student level, the model included sex, ethnicity, and the …
The impact of uncertainty and communal coping on mental health following natural disasters
Feelings of uncertainty are a central feature of the disaster experience. Surprisingly, though, there is very little systematic quantitative research about the impact of uncertainty on disaster survivors. Moreover, communal coping has increasingly received attention as a potential buffer of the negative effects of stressors but that literature is also limited in its application to disasters. This investigation applies research in the domain of un…
School and Community Influences on the Long Term Postdisaster Recovery of Children and Youth Following Hurricane Georges
Disasters affect the school and community microsystems in which children and youth recover. This study explored characteristics of the school (school violence, teachers’ attitudes) and community microsystem (neighborhood climate, neighborhood monitoring, community violence) that may affect the disaster exposure and internalizing psychopathology relationship in children and youth aged 12–27 months after Hurricane Georges hit Puerto Rico. A represe…
Long-Term Stability of Screening for Behavioral and Emotional Risk
The practice of screening students to identify behavioral and emotional risk is gaining momentum, with limited guidance regarding the frequency with which screenings should occur. Screening frequency decisions are influenced by the stability of the constructs assessed and changes in risk status over time. This study investigated the 4-year longitudinal stability of behavioral and emotional risk screening scores among a sample of youth to examine …
The role of peers in the relation between hurricane exposure and ataques de nervios among Puerto Rican adolescents
Although a relation between disaster exposure and ataques de nervios ( ataques ) has been established in adult samples, little is known about this among youth, including factors that may moderate this relation. This study examined the role of the peer context in the relation between exposure to Hurricane Georges and experiencing a past year and lifetime ataques among a representative community sample of 905 youth (N = 476 boys and 429 girls; ages…
The Role of Social Support on Mental Health After Multiple Wildfire Disasters: Social Support and Mental Health After Wildfires
Disasters can erode mental health (MH), even if it does not reach mental illness. This study explored the direct or moderating role of social support on MH after multiple wildfires, with attention to evacuation status and participant sex. Participants (N = 402) responded to a random digit dial telephone survey about their disaster exposure, current MH, MH at the time of the fire, social support, and life stressors since the disaster. For the evac…
Family functioning and posttraumatic growth among parents and youth following wildfire disasters
A conceptual model was used to investigate how demographic characteristics, perceived fire stress, aspects of the recovery environment (life stressors since the disaster, social support), mental health, and coping influences parent and youth reports of family functioning and posttraumatic growth (PTG) following multiple wildfires. Participants included 50 parent-youth dyads (M = 14.5 years) who had been evacuated because of the fire, many of whom…
University student voices on healing and recovery following tragedy
Perceived resource loss is important in understanding the impact of the trauma on mental health and could be a part of intake for supportive services. Given that it was the students with greater prior trauma exposure and depression symptoms who were more likely to have clinical distress posttragedy, targeted outreach to current and former university counseling center clients to "check in" may be helpful to reach those who may be in most need. (Ps…
Dating and Sexual Violence Research in the Schools: Balancing Protection of Confidentiality with Supporting the Welfare of Survivors
Highlights Youth may not report dating or sexual abuse if they have concerns about confidentiality. No procedures exist to support research participants who are adolescent survivors of abuse. We conducted a structured ethical decision‐making process to solve our ethical dilemma. Our novel protocol helps balance participant confidentiality with survivor welfare
Measuring media exposure to acute mass violence
Analyses support that the factor structure of the measure was consistent across male and female participants. Implications on measuring media exposure to acute mass violence will be discussed. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved)
Excessive Screen Media Use in Preschoolers Is Associated with Poor Motor Skills
Excessive screen media use exposure is a robust childhood predictor of sedentary behavior. The association between excessive exposure to sedentary behaviors (e.g., screen media use) and motor skills and how this association differs across sociodemographic strata is an important knowledge gap that needs to be addressed. The study aims to investigate the association of motor skills and screen media use in preschool children, taking into account soc…
Factors affecting mental health service use among university students following an episode of mass violence
Prior experience with MH services may help survivors engage in services following a disaster. As disaster MH service models tend to target outreach to those with the greatest exposure, this may be why those survivors had greater MH service use. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved)
Exploring Latinx Youth Experiences of Digital Dating Abuse
Digital dating abuse (DDA), which is the use of social media and mobile phones to abuse a dating partner, is a common and harmful form of dating violence among youths. To date, this issue has not been studied among Latinx youths. The current study examined DDA among a sample of 70 Latinx youths with dating experience, using survey data on participants’ experiences with traditional forms of offline dating violence, DDA victimization and perpetrati…
The influence of flood exposure and subsequent stressors on youth social-emotional health
Most disaster mental health research focuses on the relationship between disaster exposure and distress, often neglecting its influence on social-emotional health, despite implications for resilience and well-being after the disaster. Following multiple floods in Texas, a sample of 486 youth aged 10-19 years old (M = 13.74 years, SD = 2.57; 52.9% male) completed measures of disaster exposure, life stressors since the disaster, and social-emotiona…
Psychosocial influences on posttraumatic growth among university students following a mass murder
on posttragedy adjustment. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved)
Social-cognitive mediators of the relationship of media exposure to acute mass violence and distress among adolescents
OBJECTIVE: Traditional and social media coverage of acute mass violence (AMV; e.g., terrorism, mass shootings) create an environment where the possibility of being the victim of AMV is constantly portrayed and this media exposure has been linked to distress among people not directly affected. We explored how initial emotional reactions to media exposure to AMV, threat perception, and core beliefs may mediate the media exposure to current anxiety …
“It just felt like another thing to do”: Examining teacher barriers and motivators to utilizing trauma‐informed resources during Covid‐19
Given that over two‐thirds of children in the United States are exposed to at least one traumatic event by age 16, it is imperative that schools support these students with trauma‐informed practices and resources. The current study investigated factors that affected teacher use of trauma‐informed resources within two school districts in California during the COVID‐19 pandemic. The specific research questions included assessing how intrinsic barri…
Preparing for future public health emergencies through elevating the voices of those who lived alone during the pandemic
Single-person households comprise a significant proportion of the population and their experiences during the restrictions associated with the COVID-19 pandemic are critical to improving practices for future public health emergencies. This study assessed the experience of living alone, perceptions of the public health guidance, and recommendations based on the lived experience of participants. Eight focus groups were conducted with participants (…
The Influence of Media Exposure to Incidents of Mass Violence on Parenting Behavior
Promoting Early School Success: Protective Factors and Parental Engagement as Pathways to Kindergarten Readiness
Kindergarten readiness is shaped by both family and school contexts, highlighting the importance of an ecological perspective on early learning. The current study examined whether parental engagement mediates the relationship between parents' protective factors (e.g., social support) and children's kindergarten readiness when controlling for parental education. Participants included 853 kindergarten students whose readiness was assessed using the…
The social lives of adults living alone during a public health emergency: Implications for future infectious disease outbreaks.
Public health restrictions during infectious disease outbreaks can have a significant impact on the social lives of all individuals given public health guidance related to quarantining, shelter-in-place, and social distancing. These impacts may be felt differently or more profoundly by people who live alone. However, minimal research or public health guidance focused on the needs of individuals living alone. In this qualitative study, eight focus…
Psychology (22 works) · Medicine (17 works) · Clinical Psychology (14 works) · Poison control (12 works) · Psychiatry (11 works) · Developmental psychology (9 works) · Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Research (9 works) · Social Psychology (9 works) · Environmental health (8 works) · Suicide prevention (8 works)