Catherine Wall, PhD
Social Health Psychologist
Virginia Commonwealth University
Bio
In a rapidly evolving world where systems often fail to keep pace with our understanding of human experience and misinformation spreads like wildfire, interdisciplinary psychological research is uniquely positioned to drive meaningful change. My work seeks to integrate principles and theories founded in social, cognitive, and health psychology with insights from fields such as public health, media studies, and political science to tackle critical and current issues.
I have had the fortune to work with numerous wonderful researchers, such as Dr. Amy Krosch at Cornell University and Drs. Eric Benotsch, Caroline Cobb and Andrew Barnes at Virginia Commonwealth University. My experiences and work have constantly straddled the lines between social and health psychology, allowing me the opportunity to examine phenomena through an interdisciplinary lens. This interdisciplinary approach continues to inform my research ideas and methods.
Outside of my research, I am an avid roller derby player, a book lover, a rock climber, and active in community based organizations.
Latest First-Author Publication
“An Environment of Fear No Matter Where I Go”:
A Mixed-Methods Examination of Transgender and Gender Diverse
Experiences While Facing Antitransgender Legislation
Even under the best of circumstances, transgender and gender-diverse (TGD) individuals face well-documented social and health disparities. In recent years, more than 2,000 legislative and policy-based initiatives have aimed to limit the rights of TGD individuals in accessing gender-affirming health care, sports, and public facilities. These legislative efforts represent a structural stressor that compounds the interpersonal stressors that TGD individuals already face, potentially leading to elevated psychological distress. However, TGD individuals exist within a constellation of experiences that can positively and negatively influence psychological distress. Qualitative and quantitative data from TGD participants from the United States (N = 346) were collected in the context of the ongoing antitransgender legislation. Participants answered questions related to interpersonal and structural stressors, community connection, and social support, as well as open-ended questions asking about the impacts of antitransgender legislation. Quantitative data, assessed using psychometric network analysis, suggested that structural stressors related to antitransgender legislation had a significantly stronger relationship with psychological distress than everyday experiences of discrimination. Results further indicated that social support played a vital role in reducing psychological distress. Qualitative data were assessed using reflexive thematic analysis. A thematic framework with four themes was developed: (1) proximal and distal impacts of legislation, (2) mobility and agency, (3) experiences of privilege, and (4) profound psychological distress. Taken together, results demonstrate the existential threat faced by TGD individuals in the current sociopolitical environment while highlighting the important role that systems of social support play in bolstering psychological well-being
Catherine Wall
Virginia Commonwealth University, Department of Psychology
806 W. Franklin St.
Box 842018
Richmond, Virginia 23284-2018