Catie Connolly

Catie Connolly is a PhD Candidate in Developmental and Psychological Sciences. She received her BA in Psychology and English Literature from Columbia University in 2018.

Her research examines diverse development of social-emotional skills in early childhood, and equitable measurement and assessment tools to capture all children’s skills. Catie’s work through the SFUSD-Stanford Research Practice Partnership incorporates perspectives from children, parents, teachers, and trained outside assessors to form a cohesive understanding of social-emotional development in racially/ethnically, socioeconomically, and linguistically diverse populations. 

Her research aims to promote equity and anti-racism beginning with the equitable measurement of children’s foundational social-emotional skills in early childhood. More generally, she is especially interested in better understanding the development of emotion regulation processes in early childhood and the role of family systems in sibling-to-sibling social-emotional development.

Selected Publications:

Connolly, C., & Obradović, J. (2026). Understanding diverse preschoolers’ knowledge of self-regulation and social emotion regulation strategies. Social Development. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/sode.70034

McDoniel, M.E., Connolly, C., Steyer, L., & Obradović, J. (2025). Impacts and mechanisms of preschool dosage: Why are two years better than one? Early Childhood Research Quarterly. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0885200625001024

Obradović, J., Finch, J. E., Connolly, C., Siyal, S., & Yousafzai, A. K. (2022). The unique relevance of executive functions and self‐regulation behaviors for understanding early childhood experiences and preschoolers’ outcomes in rural Pakistan. Developmental science, 25(6), e13271. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/desc.13271

Connolly, C., Strouse, E., & Obradović, J. (under review). Children’s knowledge of emotion regulation strategies predict social-emotional competencies during preschool and the transition to kindergarten. Developmental Psychology.

Strouse, E., Connolly, C., & Obradović, J. (under review). The role of gender and race in children’s empathy skills across the preschool year. Early Childhood Research Quarterly.

Omar, J., Thennakoon, K., Connolly, C., & Obradović, J. (under review). Teachers under strain: The role of racial equity mindsets and well-being in shaping early childhood educator emotion beliefs. Early Childhood Education Journal.