I'm real stoked to announce that I will be starting at Suffolk University in Boston, MA as a Clinical Psychology PhD student come this autumn! Really excited to be on this journey and grateful to be joining such a lovely team with the @embraced-lab.bsky.social feat. @barnhartwr.bsky.social 🎉
Meet Katy!
Meet Katy!
@barnhartwr.bsky.social
Future research on social experiences (e.g., body stigma) within community involvement that reinforce harmful body ideals, as well as sources of protection (e.g., community connectedness), is needed to support potential community-level interventions.
Made by the amazing Doria Wohler!
We found that in SMM reporting more within-community stress experiences, LGBTQ+ community involvement was associated with more disordered eating. (2)
New EMBRACED Lab publication led by Dr. Barnhart!
Within-community stress among sexual minoritized men (SMM), such as pressures to compete with each other and body stigma experiences, may clarify why more community involvement is connected to more disordered eating in SMM. (1)
We strongly advocate for and participate in lived experiences research at the intersection of gender identity and mental health.
We see you.
We are here for you.
Your safety and joy matter.
Your existence is not up for debate.
We celebrate the beauty, strength, and joy of trans and gender-diverse people today, and everyday.
We advocate for and participate in research that is inclusive of trans and gender-diverse people. (1)
Manuscript acceptance notice
Oh my gosh!!!! Our paper, which provides evidence from a nationally representative US sample that people who screen positive on an ED screener are more likely to report interest and attempts to access GLP-1s like Ozempic, was just accepted at IJED!
Yes!!! Congrats- and perfect timing. Colleagues and I are pursuing GLP-1 use and body image study :) definitely will be citing this.
Mya presented on Project EMBRACED, a novel single-session intervention addressing identity-based stressors experienced by the LGBTQ+ community and eating disorder symptoms. We are so excited to be entering the pilot stage of this project! More to come on Project EMBRACED! (2)
EMBRACED Lab undergraduate student standing in front of poster presented at MPA 2026 Annual Conference.
Congrats to EMBRACED Lab undergraduate student, Mya Lawrence, clinical psychology PhD candidate, Katy Pasquariello, and graduate student affiliate, @gepnowicki.bsky.social, for a successful poster presentation at the Massachusetts Psychology Association 2026 Annual Conference! (1)
Special thank you to Katy’s committee members, Dave Gansler, Sukanya Ray, and Cheri Levinson.
Major congratulations are in order! Clinical psychology PhD candidate and EMBRACED Lab graduate student, Katy Pasquariello, successfully proposed her dissertation: In Pursuit of Perfection: A Temporal Network Model of Maladaptive Strivings and Disordered Eating!
We are so proud of you, Katy!
📣 Hiring a research coordinator to work on a foundation-funded grant testing a self-guided digital intervention for teens at high risk #eatingdisorders, as well as on a variety of other projects in the lab! Ideal start date in June! Application link to come ASAP but email with interest in meantime!
So excited to officially launch recruitment for my community-engaged pilot study funded by @embracecenter.bsky.social focused on interoception, sleep, and Black maternal mental health! Please share with your networks if you can!
We discuss the potential for unique manifestations of the body ideal in SMM that include a combination of thin and muscular body ideals, rather than as separate processes. Many thanks to Graduate Student Affiliate, Doria Wohler, for the creation of this incredible infographic! (5)
Findings did not support body ideal internalization as an important factor that explained the longitudinal link between appearance pressures and eating disturbances. (4)
Appearance comparisons were also positively associated with more body image disturbances at the 3-month follow-up. We then found that more appearance comparisons and body image disturbances at the 3-month follow-up led to more thin and muscular eating disturbances 6 months later. (3)
Spanning three timepoints, including baseline, 3-month follow-up, and 6-month follow-up, we found that more baseline appearance pressures from peers, family, and media that reinforce body ideals led to more engagement in appearance comparisons 3 months later. (2)
New EMBRACED Lab publication!
Led by clinical psychology PhD student, Katy Pasquariello, and supervised by Dr. Barnhart, we are the first to test the longitudinal assumptions of the tripartite influence model, a prominent sociocultural model of eating disorders, in sexual minoritized men (SMM). (1)
We are sooo back— inspired by YOU!
-Findings remained when controlling for baseline levels of disordered eating, weight status, and general within-community stressors (e.g., pressures to compete among SMM)
Learn more: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1...
-When accounting intraminority stress, namely body stigma experiences among SMM, LGBTQ+ community involvement is prospectively associated with less disordered eating
-LGBTQ+ community involvement may introduce opportunities for body stigma intraminority stress and later disordered eating
(2)
