Cassia McIntyre
Cassia is the former Lab Manager of the Autism and Developmental Disabilities Lab and is currently a Clinical Psychology Master's student at 丁香园AV. She first joined the ADDL as a Research Engagement student in January 2020 where she helped primarily with the 2020 Camp for People with Intellectual Disabilities by conducting semi-structured interviews on physical activity barriers and facilitators with youth and adults with intellectual disability. Cassia has since completed a Directed Studies course under the supervision of Dr. Grace Iarocci where she investigated how alexithymia and autistic traits relate to caregiver reactions to their child鈥檚 negative emotional expressions.
Cassia is also a Senior Research Assistant in the where she completed her B.A. (Honours) degree in Psychology under the supervision of Dr. Marlene Moretti. For her Honours thesis, she examined child maltreatment as a risk factor for high-risk teens' engagement in dating violence and risky sexual behaviour, and the role of parent-child attachment security in reducing this risk.
Cassia鈥檚 research interests include attachment, developmental psychopathology, developmental disabilities and quality of life, the experiences of siblings of individuals with developmental disabilities, and interpersonal violence.
Outside of research and academics, Cassia has volunteered as a Writing and Learning Peer Educator with the , and as a Youth Educator with Vancouver Coastal Health鈥檚 sexual health education program, .
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