Education

• Ph.D., University of Minnesota, Institute of Child Development, 2013
• M.A., Child Psychology, University of Minnesota, 2010
• B.S., Psychology, Honors College, Towson University, 2008

About

Camelia Hostinar is an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychology and a member of the Center for Mind and Brain and the Center for Poverty and Inequality Research. Dr. Hostinar studies how the social environment shapes health, with a focus on the activity of stress-response systems. She is examining the pathways linking early-life stress to later disease and investigating protective processes that could modify these adverse trajectories.

She directs the Social Environment and Stress (SES) Lab, in which she welcomes the participation of graduate students with an interest in this area of study.

Research Focus

Dr. Hostinar researches the pathways by which childhood poverty and other forms of early-life adversity influence later development and health. She is particularly interested in protective factors that may buffer children and adolescents from chronic stress and subsequent physical or mental health problems. Her research examines developmental processes at multiple levels of analysis, incorporating endocrine and immune biomarkers, electrophysiological data, genetic assays, and behavioral measures. She seeks to improve understanding of the role of early-life stress in shaping self-regulatory skills and to illuminate how stress-buffering processes such as supportive social relationships exert their effects.

Lab

Hostinar Lab

Publications

Hostinar, C. E., & Velez, G. (2024). Generation COVID: Coming of age amid the pandemic. Current Opinion in Psychology, 55, 101725. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.copsyc.2023.10172567. 

Yoo, A., Li, F., Youn, J., Guan, J., Guyer, A. E., Hostinar, C. E., & Tagkopoulos, I. (2024). Prediction of Adolescent Depression from Prenatal and Childhood Data from ALSPAC Using Machine Learning. Scientific Reports, 14, 23282, https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-024-72158-9

Parenteau, A. M., Hang, S., Swartz, J. R., Wexler, A. S., & Hostinar, C. E. (2024). Clearing the air: A systematic review of studies on air pollution and childhood brain outcomes to mobilize policy change. Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dcn.2024.101436

Hang, S., Jost, G. M., Guyer, A. E., Robins, R. W., Hastings, P.D., & Hostinar, C. E. (2024). Understanding the development of chronic loneliness in youth. Child Development Perspectives, 18(1), 44–53. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdep.12496

Alen, N. V., Shields, G. S., Nemer, A., D’Souza, I., Ohlgart, M., & Hostinar, C. E. (2022). A systematic review and meta-analysis of the association between parenting and child autonomic nervous system activity. Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews, 139, 104734. doi: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2022.104734

Hostinar, C. E., Nusslock, R., & Miller, G. E. (2018). Future directions in the study of early-life stress, physical and emotional health: Implications of the neuroimmune network hypothesis. Journal of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology, 47(1), 142-156. doi: 10.1080/15374416.2016.1266647

Hostinar, C. E., Davidson, R. J., Graham, E. K., Mroczek, D. K., Lachman, M. E., Seeman, T. E., & Miller, G. E. (2017). Frontal brain asymmetry, childhood maltreatment, and low-grade inflammation at midlife. Psychoneuroendocrinology, 75, 152-163. 
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.psyneuen.2016.10.026

Hostinar, C. E., Lachman, M. E., Mroczek, D., Seeman, T. E., & Miller, G. E. (2015). Additive roles of childhood adversity and recent stressors in explaining inflammation at midlife: Findings from the MIDUS study. Developmental Psychology, 51(11), 1630-1644.

Hostinar, C. E., Johnson, A. E., & Gunnar, M. R. (2015). Early social deprivation and the social buffering of cortisol stress responses in late childhood: An experimental study. Developmental Psychology, 51(11), 1597-1608.

Hostinar, C. E. (2015). Recent developments in the study of social relationships, stress responses, and physical health. Current Opinion in Psychology, 5, 90-95.

Hostinar, C. E., Ross, K. M., Chen, E., & Miller, G. E. (2015). Modeling the association between lifecourse socioeconomic disadvantage and systemic inflammation in healthy adults: The role of self-control. Health Psychology, 34(6), 580-90.

Hostinar, C. E., Sullivan, R. M., & Gunnar, M. R. (2014). Psychobiological mechanisms underlying the social buffering of the HPA axis: A review of animal models and human studies across development. Psychological Bulletin, 140(1), 256-282.

Hostinar, C. E., & Gunnar, M. R. (2013). The developmental effects of early life stress: A review of current theoretical frameworks. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 22(5), 400-406.

Hostinar, C. E., Stellern, S. A., Schaefer, C., Carlson, S. M., & Gunnar, M. R. (2012). Associations between early life adversity and executive function in children adopted internationally from orphanages. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA, 109(2), 17208-12.

Teaching

Camelia Hostinar teaches subject matter related to developmental psychology, health psychology, and research methods.

Awards

• 2024, College of Letters and Science Lab Safety Award ($1,000) 
• 2022-2025, Dean’s Faculty Fellow, UC Davis College of Letters and Science
• 2023, Academic Senate Distinguished Undergraduate Teaching Award, UC Davis 
• 2022, Boyd McCandless Award, American Psychological Association (Division 7) 
• 2019, Society for Research in Child Development Early Career Contributions Award
• 2015, Association for Psychological Science Rising Star Award
• 2015, Outstanding Dissertation Award, Society for Research in Child Development, 2015
• 2014, NIH F32 Award (Postdoctoral NRSA), National Institute of Child Health and Human Development