{"id":226469,"date":"2025-03-24T07:18:55","date_gmt":"2025-03-24T11:18:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=226469"},"modified":"2025-03-13T15:07:25","modified_gmt":"2025-03-13T19:07:25","slug":"meet-the-undergraduate-researcher-kayvona-brown-clas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2025\/03\/meet-the-undergraduate-researcher-kayvona-brown-clas\/","title":{"rendered":"Meet the Undergraduate Researcher: Kayvona Brown, CLAS"},"content":{"rendered":"

Though she\u2019s in her last semester at UConn, Kayvona Brown (\u201825 CLAS) isn\u2019t slowing down anytime soon. Her research is just too important.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Brown, who is from Stamford, is a truly interdisciplinary scholar: a psychological sciences major with minors in sociology and women’s, gender, and sexuality studies (WGSS). Over her four years at UConn, she found a way to braid together her interests in psychology and supporting the health and development of women and children of color, especially Black mothers and children.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Now, she is poised to pursue a Ph.D. in clinical or developmental psychology and \u201ccontinue to make a difference in my community, with the people around me who don\u2019t often get their voices heard.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

On Trauma, Pain, and Healing<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Brown\u2019s current research revolves around pain and post-traumatic stress \u2013 and ultimately, healing — among sexual assault survivors.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Countdown<\/p>\n

\u201cTypically, when we study PTSD, we are looking at veterans, survivors of natural disasters; those types of traumas, not necessarily sexual assault,\u201d she says. \u201cFor people who do not have this experience, it can be a really taboo topic, and we don\u2019t necessarily do a lot of that research within psychology.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

She adds, \u201cAs a survivor myself, I really wanted to understand the biopsychosocial effects on my whole body.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Brown\u2019s research has been supported by the national <\/span>McNair Scholars<\/span><\/a> program, a prestigious initiative designed to prepare undergraduate students for doctoral studies through involvement in research and other scholarly activities.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The first research project Brown helped complete investigated how people of various gender identities experienced pain, as well as how they described this pain to male or female clinicians. She worked with Teresa Graziano ’24 Ph.D., and <\/span>Natalie J. Shook<\/span><\/a>, a professor in the School of Nursing.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhen it comes to reporting pain, there\u2019s a lack of research on transgender and nonbinary individuals,\u201d Brown says. This project sought to fill this gap, exploring the complex gender dynamics between patients and clinicians, as well as how hormone replacement therapy can affect patients\u2019 physiological experiences of pain.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In November 2024, Brown was one of just eight students nationwide selected to share her research with the National Science Foundation and the Board of the US Department of Education at the annual McNair conference, hosted at the University of Maryland – Baltimore County.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The more we learn about these symptom clusters, the more we can make better and improved treatments that are personalized for specific clusters<\/span>.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

She presented her poster \u201cRelations between PTSD Symptoms Clusters and Pain within Recent Sexual Assault Survivors: An Examination of Racial Differences,\u201d which she had previously shared at the <\/span>Fall Frontiers in Undergraduate Research<\/span><\/a> exhibition at UConn Storrs.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

This work explored how PTSD symptoms impact the experience of pain for sexual assault survivors. Overall, she found that women sexual assault survivors with greater PTSD symptoms tend to have greater reported pain severity and pain interference (the degree to which pain interferes with daily life). Brown also found a significant difference in the experience of pain between white and nonwhite survivors, with survivors of color reporting higher pain levels.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cPain and PTSD are highly comorbid \u2013 they go hand in hand,\u201d Brown says.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Brown is specifically intrigued by the way that PTSD symptoms tend to manifest in what are called \u201csymptom clusters.\u201d The DSM-5 defines four distinct clusters: intrusion (intrusive thoughts, nightmares, and flashbacks), avoidance (avoidance of potentially triggering situations), negative alterations in cognition or mood, and hyperarousal (reactivity, hypervigilance, and difficulty relaxing). Each individual with PTSD will experience different symptoms across these categories.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u201cThe more we learn about these symptom clusters, the more we can make better and improved treatments that are personalized for specific clusters,\u201d Brown says.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Brown\u2019s research is part of a growing tradition in the field of psychology that recognizes the interplay between people\u2019s everyday experiences and their psychological and physiological symptoms. For instance, research has shown that <\/span>experiencing racism can lead to heightened levels of chronic stress<\/span><\/a>, which in turn can cause and exacerbate adverse health outcomes.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Bringing it Home<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"A
Brown presents her research at UConn’s Undergraduate Fall Frontiers in Research symposium. (Courtesy of Kayvona Brown)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

For Brown, just exploring this link through research wasn\u2019t enough \u2013 she also wanted to try to help stop the cycle at its source. So she joined the UConn Women\u2019s Center <\/span>Violence Against Women Prevention Program<\/span><\/a> (VAWPP) and started doing direct outreach in her community.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

With the VAWPP and its associated One Love program, Brown has spoken with students in First-Year Experience (FYE) classrooms and student athletes. She leads presentations on gender-based violence and how it can manifest in different environments, as well as intimate partner violence prevention and healthy relationships.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Presenting her research on this subject to the Board of Education was a full-circle moment, Brown recalls.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe were able to really connect, and I was able to share my story and share the stories of millions of other women,\u201d she says. \u201cAnd I remember people coming up to me and saying, that was really impactful. I realized that was something that I really wanted to continue to pursue.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Currently, Brown is working on a research project entitled \u201cThe Impact of Self-Blame on PTSD Symptom Clusters in Interpersonal Trauma-Exposed Violence.\u201d This work is taking with Board of Trustees Distinguished Professor <\/span>Crystal Park<\/span><\/a>, in her Spirituality, Meaning, and Health Lab.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

She is also working in the lab of <\/span>Marketa Burnett<\/span><\/a>, an assistant professor of Human Development & Family Sciences and Africana Studies. With Burnett, she\u2019s supporting a one-of-a-kind research initiative dedicated to exploring the hopes and dreams African American parents have for their daughters, as well as how these hopes show up in their parenting styles. The project\u2019s title is \u201c\u2018Getting her to see herself the way I see her\u2019: Exploring Black Caregivers\u2019 Hopes and Dreams for their Daughters.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

One variable the research team is investigating is how Black parents are supporting their daughters in dreaming big by encouraging both creative expression and STEM ambitions.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of parents don\u2019t teach [girls] that STEM is an option for them,\u201d Brown says, \u201cand if they do, they\u2019re teaching them to do nursing or become a doctor. But there are other types of STEM, like getting your Ph.D. and being a scientist.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Soon enough, Brown will be taking the next step in her academic journey to do just that.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A McNair Scholar and community advocate with a passion for supporting survivors<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":175,"featured_media":226470,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2226,1877,2231,156,2373,2076,99,2235,2306,2458],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[2413],"class_list":["post-226469","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-clas","category-nur","category-health-well-being","category-profile","category-psychological-sciences","category-research","category-student-life","category-today-homepage","category-uconn-voices","category-undergraduates"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-10 06:21:33","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226469","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/175"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=226469"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226469\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":226907,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226469\/revisions\/226907"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/226470"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=226469"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=226469"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=226469"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=226469"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=226469"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}