Francesca Penner, Ph.D.

Education

Postdoctoral Fellowship, Yale Child Study Center, 2021-2023

Ph.D., Clinical Psychology, University of Houston, 2021

Clinical Internship, University of Mississippi Medical Center, 2020-2021

M.Ed., Child Studies, Vanderbilt University Peabody College, 2016

B.A., English Language & Literature, University of Chicago, 2009

Biography

Dr. Penner’s is a licensed clinical psychologist with a focus on children and families. She received a Master’s degree in Child Studies from Vanderbilt University in 2016, followed by a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from the University of Houston in 2021. Her Ph.D. was completed with a concentration in Clinical Child Psychology. Her doctoral research particularly focused on interpersonal factors, such as parent-child attachment, and their role in adolescent psychopathology. Dr. Penner completed a clinical internship at the University of Mississippi Medical Center in 2020-2021, and a research postdoctoral fellowship at Yale Child Study Center from 2021-2023. Her postdoctoral fellowship was supported by NIMH T32 and NIDA F32 funding, which provided her with training in perinatal and addiction research, EEG/ERP methodology, and observational measurement of parent-infant interaction. Dr. Penner joined the Department of Psychology and Neuroscience in fall 2023.

Academic Interests and Research

Dr. Penner’s research is centered around parent mental health and addiction and their effects on parenting, child socio-emotional development, and children’s risk for developing psychopathology. Her lab, the Parenting and Intergenerational Resilience (PAIR) lab, conducts research with parents and parent-child dyads—with special interest in the perinatal period and adolescence—using self-report, behavioral observation, and psychophysiological methods. Her current studies are focused on parents’ emotion regulation, mental health, and addiction during the perinatal period and their associations with later caregiving and infant socio-emotional development.

Representative Publications

Penner, F., Khoury, J. E., Bosquet Enlow, M., & Lyons-Ruth, K. (2023). Threat versus deprivation in mother’s childhood: Differential relations to hair cortisol and psychopathology in pregnancy. Child Abuse & Neglect, 139, 106107. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chiabu.2023.106107

Penner, F., Bunderson, M., Bartz, C., Brooker, R. J., & Rutherford, H. J. (2022). Emotion regulation strategies and perceived stress during pregnancy in expectant mothers and fathers. Journal of Reproductive and Infant Psychology, 0(0), 1–14. https://doi.org/10.1080/02646838.2022.2110224

Penner, F., & Rutherford, H. J. V. (2022). Emotion regulation during pregnancy: A call to action for increased research, screening, and intervention. Archives of Women’s Mental Health. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00737-022-01204-0

Penner, F., Elzaki, Y., Contreras, H. T., Santos, R. P., & Sarver, D. E. (2022). Behavioral, Affective, and Cognitive Parenting Mechanisms of Child Internalizing and Externalizing Problems during the COVID-19 Pandemic. Research on Child and Adolescent Psychopathology. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10802-022-00920-6

Penner, F., Hernandez Ortiz, J., & Sharp, C. (2021). Change in Youth Mental Health During the COVID-19 Pandemic in a Majority Hispanic/Latinx US Sample. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 60(4), 513–523. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaac.2020.12.027

Penner, F., Vanwoerden, S., Borelli, J. L., & Sharp, C. (2020). Discrepancies in Mother-Adolescent Reports of Parenting Practices in a Psychiatric Sample: Associations with Age, Psychopathology, and Attachment. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 48(3), 343–360. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10802-019-00589-4

For a complete list of publications, click here.

Current Grants

Maternal Opioid Use Disorder and Early Caregiving (2023-2025), J.G. Weil Foundation

Role: Co-Principal Investigator

Preventing Abusive Head Trauma in Infancy: Predictive Utility of Prenatal Emotion Regulation (2022-2024), The Colleen Dobbins Foundation

Role: Co-Principal Investigator

Preventing Abusive Head Trauma in Infancy: Predictive Utility of Prenatal Emotion Regulation (2022-2024), The Colleen Dobbins Foundation

Role: Co-Principal Investigator

Awards

2023-2025         NIDA Clinical Research Loan Repayment Award

2022-2023     Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award (NRSA) F32, National Institute on Drug Abuse

2021     David Barlow Award for Excellence in Research, Clinical Psychology Internship Program, University of Mississippi Medical Center

Graduate Student Recruitment

Dr. Penner will not be reviewing Psy.D. or Ph.D. applications for Summer 2025 admission.

Baylor Courses Taught

• PSY 3330 -  Psychopathology