Jessica Borelli 
Associate Professor of Psychological Science | UC Irvine
Irvine, CA, UNITED STATES
Jessie Borelli's research focuses on the links between close relationships and mental health
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Biography
Jessie Borelli is an Associate Professor of Psychological Science at University of California, Irvine. She is a clinical psychologist specializing the field of developmental psychopathology; her research focuses on the links between close relationships, emotions, health, and development, with a particular focus on risk for anxiety and depression.
Jessie Borelli also maintains a small private practice where she sees children, adolescents, adults, couples and families, with a specialization in the areas of anxiety disorders, eating disorders, adoption, and parenting (www.compass-therapy.com).
Areas of Expertise (7)
Attachment
Parenting
Developmental
Mental Health
Health
Clinical
Parent-Child Relationships
Education (2)
Yale University: PhD, Clinical Psychology
UC Berkeley: BA
Links (6)
Media Appearances (4)
Quarantine parenting
UCI News online
2020-05-05
Jessica Borelli, UCI associate professor of psychological science and a licensed clinical psychologist specializing in parent-child relationships, offers a few tips for “quarantine parenting.”
UCI Podcast: Mental health and self-isolation
UCI News online
2020-04-29
Jessica Borelli, UCI associate professor of psychological science, studies the links between close relationships, emotions, health and development, with a particular focus on the risk for anxiety and depression. In this special UCI Podcast, she discusses how to stay safe and sane during social distancing. Major disruptions in your daily bodily rhythms can be a sign that something is wrong, so Borelli recommends taking advantage of home confinement to maintain your health and add fun family activities to the mix.
How to Decipher the Emotions Behind Your Child’s Behaviors
Greater Good Magazine online
2019-06-25
Some version of this battle occurred daily over a very long three weeks, during which I tried five different types of brushing implements—from wide-toothed combs to wet brushes—three different kinds of spray-on conditioners, myriad forms of distraction (songs, books, TV), and, of course, the promise of lots of rewards. Yet nothing worked, for this kiddo did not want to have her hair combed. It was no use.
The Triple Bind: Moms Who Work
Psychology Today online
2018-09-27
Steve Hinshaw argues that adolescent girls face an impossible situation—a triple bind—striving for perfection in far too many realms than it is possible to achieve.
Research Grants (1)
A Comprehensive Parent-Child Prevention Program for Youth Violence: The YEA/MADRES Program
Centers for Disease Control - National Center for Injury Prevention and Control $1,025,178
2017 - 2020 Principal Investigator: Nancy Guerra, Ph.D. Co-Principal Investigator: Jessica L. Borelli, Ph.D.
Articles (8)
Jessica L. Borelli, Arietta Slade, Corey Pettit, Dana Shai
2020 Reflective functioning (RF) is a construct that has gained tremendous traction in the developmental psychology literature, demonstrating robust associations with parent–child attachment and interactional quality. Although theorists argue that RF should have meaningful links with relationship quality across the life span, to date this construct has not been applied to the study of adult romantic partnerships.
2020 COVID-19 presents humanity with its greatest social, economic, and medical challenges of the 21st century. Because COVID-19 has already begun to precipitate huge increases in mental health problems, we believe that clinical psychological science must play a leadership role in guiding a national response to this secondary crisis.
Borelli, J. L., Stern, J. A., Marvin, M. J., Smiley, P. A., Pettit, C., & Samudio, M.
2020 Parental child-focused reflective functioning (RF)—understanding children’s behavior as a function of mental states—and parental empathy—understanding, resonating with, and feeling concern for children’s emotions—have each been linked to sensitive caregiving and children’s attachment security in separate studies, but they have been neither directly compared nor have researchers tested whether they interact in predicting child outcomes.
2019 In times of need, people seek comfort and support from close others. Support provision is an integral component of attachment relationships, one that is linked with physical and psychological well‐being. Successful support provision is believed to be grounded in transactions of sensitive, caring behavior between caregivers and support seekers and to serve a profound regulatory function.
2018 Research documents bidirectional associations between parental overcontrol (OC) and children's anxiety; OC may place children at risk for anxiety and also may occur in response to children's requests for help. However, to date no studies have examined children's or parents' in-the-moment emotional responses to OC.
2017 The transition to parenthood is a watershed moment for most parents, introducing the possibility of intra-individual and interpersonal growth or decline. Given the increasing number of dual-earner couples in the United States, new parents’ attitudes towards employment (as well as the ways in which they balance employment and personal demands) may have an impact on their overall well-being.
2017 Mothers with histories of alcohol and drug addiction have shown greater difficulty parenting young children than mothers with no history of substance misuse. This study was the second randomized clinical trial testing the efficacy of Mothering From the Inside Out (MIO), a 12-week mentalization-based individual therapy designed to address psychological deficits commonly associated with chronic substance use that also interfere with the capacity to parent young children.
2017 Theorists argue that parental reflective functioning (PRF) is activated in response to emotions, potentially supporting parenting sensitivity even when arousal is high. That is, when parents become emotionally reactive when interacting with their children, those who can use PRF to understand their children's mental states should be able to parent sensitively, which, in turn, should promote children's ability to understand their own mental states.
