Carolyn Ponting, PhD

Research Interests  

• Psychological Interventions for Prenatal Anxiety, Depression, and Traumatic Stress
• Sociocultural Correlates of Mental Health in Latinx Communities
• Acceptability of Evidence Based Psychotherapies among minoritized groups
• Pregnancy specific anxiety
• Rural youth  

Experience and Current Work  

Dr. Carolyn Ponting is a postdoctoral fellow. Her research examines the sociocultural factors that contribute to the risk and alleviation of mental health problems in Latinx families, with an emphasis on pregnant women and children.  One line of her research focuses on better characterizing risk for psychopathology in community samples of individuals with intersecting marginalized identities. She studies how factors like discrimination, acculturative stress, and cultural values such as familism and worked to influence risk profiles for depression, anxiety, and traumatic stress in Latinx families living in under resourced rural areas.     More recently, her research has concentrated on testing the acceptability and efficacy of psychological interventions for prenatal anxiety among Latinas and other ethnic/racial minorities.  As a bicultural and bilingual psychologist, she is interested in identifying practices that enhance treatment responsivity, and ultimately, engagement in evidence-based psychotherapies among ethnically/racially minoritized individuals.  

Dr. Ponting has benefitted from several NIH funding mechanisms that aim to promote researchers from underrepresented backgrounds. She believes that enhancing diversity among clinical and research workforces is vital to health equity. To that end, Dr. Ponting has served on several committees that aim to better support underrepresented students pursuing doctoral degrees including the Academy of Psychological Clinical Sciences Equitable Admissions Workgroup.  

Education and Training  

• APA Accredited Internship, Clinical Psychology Training Program – Public Service and Minority Cluster, University of California, San Francisco

• PhD, Clinical Psychology, University of California, Los Angeles

• MA, Clinical Psychology, University of California, Los Angeles

• BA, Psychology, University of California, Berkeley  

Publications  

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