Laura Cousins is a fifth year doctoral student in Clinical Psychology at Georgia State University. Laura received a B.A. in Psychobiology from Occidental College. Prior to starting graduate school, Laura worked as a Research Project Coordinator for the Pediatric Pain Program in the Department of Pediatrics at UCLA’s David Geffen School of Medicine, under the supervision of Drs. Lonnie Zeltzer and Subhadra Evans. These projects included randomized controlled trials evaluating the feasibility and acceptability of an Iyengar Yoga intervention for adolescents and young adults with Irritable Bowel Syndrome and Rheumatoid Arthritis and an R01 examining how families with and without chronic pain respond to laboratory pain tasks.
Laura’s primary areas of research focus are in pediatric psychology, pediatric pain, and child health. Laura is specifically interested in utilizing a strengths-based approach to examine psychosocial factors and mechanisms that contribute to resilience in youth with pain and other chronic health conditions. Laura has been an international trainee member of Pain in Child Health (PICH), a Strategic Training Initiative in Health Research through the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, since 2012.
Representative Work:
Peer-Reviewed Articles
Cousins, L. A., Kalapurakkel, S., Cohen, L. L., & Simons, L. E. (in press). Resilience resources and mechanisms in pediatric chronic pain. Journal of Pediatric Psychology.
Cousins, L. A., Cohen, L. L., & Venable, C. (in press). Risk and resilience: The protective role of optimism in youth with chronic pain. Journal of Pediatric Psychology.
Cohen, L. L., Rodrigues, N., Lim, C. S., Bearden, D. J., Welkom, J. S., Joffe, N. E., McGrath, P. J., & Cousins, L. A. (2015). Automated parent-training for preschooler immunization pain relief: A randomized controlled trial. Journal of Pediatric Psychology, 40(5), 526-534.
Reed-Knight, B., Lee, J. L., Cousins, L. A., & Mee, L. (2015). Intellectual and academic performance in children undergoing solid organ pre-transplant evaluation. Pediatric Transplantation, 19, 229-234.
Dess, N. K., Chapman, C. D., Cousins, L. A., Monroe, D., & Nguyen, P. (2013). Refeeding after acute food restriction: differential reduction in preference for ethanol and ethanol-paired flavors in selectively bred rats. Physiology & Behavior, 109, 80-87.
Evans, S., Cousins, L., Tsao, J. C. I., Subramanian, S., Sternlieb, B., & Zeltzer, L. K. (2011). A randomized controlled trial examining Iyengar yoga for young adults with rheumatoid arthritis: a study protocol. Trials, 12(1), 19.
Evans, S., Cousins, L., Tsao, J. C. I., Sternlieb, B., & Zeltzer, L. K. (2011). Protocol for a randomized controlled study of Iyengar yoga for youth with irritable bowel syndrome. Trials, 12(1), 15.
Book Chapters and Other Publications
Cohen, L. L., Cousins, L., & Martin, S. (2014). Procedural pain distraction. In W. Zempsky, B. Stevens, P. McGrath, & S. Walker (Eds.), Oxford textbook of paediatric pain (pp. 553-559). Oxford, England: Oxford University Press.
Cousins, L. A. (2013, December). What’s new in pediatric chronic pain. Special Interest Group on Pain in Childhood Newsletter.
Cohen, L. L., Cousins, L. A., & Martin, S. R. (2013). Acute pain in children: Procedural. In R. F. Schmidt & G. F. Gebhart (Eds.), Encyclopedia of pain (2nd ed., Vol. 1, pp. 48-54). Heidelberg, Germany: Springer.
Cousins, L. A. (2013, January/February). Great expectations: Enhancing resilience among children with chronic pain. Pain Science Division Newsletter, 3-5.
Evans, S., Cousins, L., & Zeltzer, L. K. (2012). Complementary and alternative medicine use in children with cancer. In S. Kreitler, M. W. Arush, & A. Martin (Eds.), Pediatric psycho-oncology: Psychosocial aspects and clinical interventions (2nd edition) (pp. 135-142). New York: Wiley-Blackwell.
Poster and Paper Presentations
Cousins, L. A., Cohen, L. L., & Venable, C. (2015, October). Parent-child agreement in the context of pediatric pain. Poster to be presented at the 10th International Forum on Pediatric Pain, Nova Scotia, Canada.
Cousins, L. A., Cohen, L. L., & Venable, C. (2015, May). The influence of caregiver catastrophizing on child chronic pain outcomes: The mediational role of child pain beliefs. Poster presented at the 10th International Symposium on Pediatric Pain, Seattle, Washington.
Cousins, L. A., Cohen, L. L., & Venable, C. (2015, April). The power of positive thinking: Exploring predictors of optimism in youth with chronic pain. Poster presented at the Society of Pediatric Psychology Annual Conference, San Diego, California.
Cousins, L. A., Cohen, L. L., & Venable, C. (2014, May). The differential roles of optimism and pessimism in youth with chronic pain. Poster presented at the 35th Canadian Pain Society Annual Scientific Meeting, Quebec City, Canada.
Cousins, L. A., Cohen, L. L., & Venable, C. (2014, March). The benefits of optimism: A positive approach to pediatric chronic pain. Poster presented at the Society of Pediatric Psychology Annual Conference, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Reed-Knight, B., Lee, J. L., Cousins, L. A., & Mee, L. (2014, March). Intellectual and academic performance in children undergoing solid organ pre-transplant evaluations. Poster presented at the Society of Pediatric Psychology Annual Conference, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Bishop, M. N., Cousins, L. A., & Cohen, L. L. (2014, March). Approach-avoidance coping and children’s immunization distress. Poster presented at the Society of Pediatric Psychology Annual Conference, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Cousins, L. A., Cohen, L. L., & Venable, C. (2013, October). Application of a risk-resilience model in pediatric chronic pain. Poster presented at the 9th International Forum on Pediatric Pain, Nova Scotia, Canada.
Cousins, L. A., Cohen, L. L., Martin, S. R., Mougianis, I. D., Gamwell, K. L. (2013, June). Effectiveness of a biofeedback computer game during children’s fracture care. Poster presented at the 9th International Symposium on Pediatric Pain, Stockholm, Sweden.
Cousins, L. A., Cohen, L. L., Bearden, D. J., Lim, C. S., Joffe, N. E., Welkom, J. S., & McGrath, P. J. (2013, April). Evaluating an automated parent-training program on children’s engagement in distraction during immunizations. Poster presented at the National Conference in Pediatric
Psychology, New Orleans, Louisiana.
Feinstein, A. B., Gamwell, K., Cousins, L. A., Masuda, A., Cohen, L. L., Stiles, M., Angeles-Han, S., & Prahalad, S. (2013, April). Yoga intervention for an adolescent female with polyarticular juvenile idiopathic arthritis: An ABAB single case design. Poster presented at the National Conference in Pediatric Psychology, New Orleans, Louisiana.
Feinstein, A. B., Cohen, L. L., Masuda, A., Angeles-Han, S., Gamwell, K., Cousins, L., Rouster-Stevens, K., Vogler, L., & Prahalad, S. (2012, November). DVD-based yoga intervention for adolescent girls with juvenile idiopathic arthritis. Paper presented at the American College of Rheumatology Annual Meeting, Washington D.C.
Evans, S., Cousins, L., Tsao, J., & Zeltzer, L. (2011, May). A pilot study of Iyengar yoga for young people with irritable bowel syndrome. Poster presented at the 30th Annual Scientific Meeting of the American Pain Society, Austin, Texas.
Evans, S., Cousins, L., Tsao, J. C. I., Sternlieb, B., & Zeltzer, L. K. (2010, November). A pilot study of Iyengar yoga for young people with irritable bowel syndrome (ibs). Poster presented at the UCLA Oppenheimer Endowment Awards and Clinical Translational Seed Grants (CTSG) Reception, Los Angeles, California.
Cousins, L., Cuevas, M., Ross, P., Wong, A., Van Horn-Gaitlin, H., Blair, R., et al. (2010, August). Parenting stress in childhood cancer survivors with neurocognitive late effects. Poster presented at the 118th annual convention of the American Psychological Association, San Diego, California.
Evans, S., Cousins, L., Moieni, M., Tsao, J. C. I., Sternlieb, B., & Zeltzer, L. K. (2010, February). Yoga research at the pediatric pain program: A pilot study of Iyengar yoga for young adults with rheumatoid arthritis. Poster presented at the 1st annual conference of the UCLA Collaborative Centers for Integrative Medicine, Los Angeles, California.
Dess, N. K., Cousins, L. A., Monroe, D. C., & Chapman, C. D. (2009, August). Deprivation-induced hyperactivity suppresses intake of alcohol and alcohol-paired flavors. Poster presented at the 117th annual convention of the American Psychological Association, Toronto, Canada.
Cousins, L. A. (2008, August). Activity-based anorexia and ethanol intake among LoS and HiS rats. Poster presented at the Occidental College Summer Research Conference, Los Angeles, California.
Cousins, L. A., Uy, B. D., & White, C. A. (2006, November). Genetic strategies to identify genes that regulate synapse stability and axon transport. Poster presented at the 14th annual Southern California Conference for Undergraduate Research (SCCUR) at Occidental College, Los Angeles, California.
