Psychology

COVID Lockdown Disrupted Preschoolers’ Social Skills, Trailblazing Research Shows

January 29, 2025

Lockdowns. Social distancing. Shuttered schools and businesses. The COVID-19 pandemic and its sweeping disruptions set off a stampede of “what it’s doing to us” research, focused largely on schoolchildren. How were students’ academics affected? Their mental health? Their...

Three women stand next to each other in a mock courtroom.

Latinas in Law: Alumnae Advocate for Immigrants in Valley

Linda Barreto ('08), Jessica Jaramillo Perez ('14) and Alejandra Tenorio Zurita ('20) all knew at a young age that they wanted to become lawyers. What they didn't know, however, was...

Five Students Earn NSF Graduate Research Fellowships

Two UC Merced doctoral students and three undergraduate alumni have each earned a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship (NSF-GRFP). The fellowships are highly competitive, with...

Linda Barreto is the first Latina in Fresno County to pass the Immigration Law Legal Specialist Exam

Alumna Becomes First Latina in Fresno County to Pass Immigration Law Legal Specialist Exam

As a first-generation Latina, Linda Barreto says she understands the importance of perseverance and determination to prevail in life. It’s a mindset that has led her to become the youngest and...

Baby Formula Shortages and COVID-19 Led to Risky Feeding Practices, Study Suggests

Amid the coronavirus pandemic, the majority of parents struggling to find baby formula have resorted to dangerous feeding practices for their infants, which could negatively impact the health of...

Pack of Natural American Spirit cigarettes

Study on Cigarette Packs' Native American Imagery Raises Questions About Safety, Cultural Misappropriation

Most people are familiar with the adage "a picture is worth a thousand words." However, the message conveyed by an image may not always be factual. Authors of a study recently...

Most ranked graduate programs see progress in the 2023 U.S. News Best Graduate Schools rankings.

UC Merced Grad Programs See Uptick in U.S. News Rankings

Twelve of UC Merced’s graduate programs and one of its schools are among the best in the country in the U.S. News & World Report 2023 Best Graduate Schools rankings, according to results...

UC Merced, Stanislaus State Awarded $1.4 Million to Help Snuff Out Tobacco Use

UC Merced's Nicotine and Cannabis Policy Center (NCPC) and California State University, Stanislaus, are partnering on a large project as part of California Endgame's goal to end...

Workshops Train Researchers in the Art of Getting Grants

It’s one thing to push the frontiers of discovery through research into complex subjects. It’s quite another to align your work with the funding priorities of numerous federal programs,...

An edited image shows a man standing in a cemetery.

Interaction of Faces, Postures and Scenes Affect Emotion Perception, Study Shows

What happens if you take a person's happy face, put it on an angry-looking body and place that in front of a disgusting scene? What do people see? What emotion do people perceive when you mix and...