Faculty Directory
Shalini Sivathasan
Assistant Professor
Shalini Sivathasan
Ph.D.
Contact
Email: shalini.sivathasan@bc.edu
ORCID 0000-0002-7324-5039
Education
- Ph.D., McGill University
- M.A., New York University
- BSc (Hons), University of Toronto
Research Interests
Neurodiversity; Disparities in accessible and affirming care; Developmental and lifespan approaches; Emotional and behavioral health
Expertise
- Equity and Social Justice
- Social & Emotional Development
- Disabilities & Special Education
Department
Profile
Dr. Shalini Sivathasan (she/her) is an Assistant Professor in the Counseling, Developmental, and Educational Psychology department at Boston College. She completed her Ph.D. in School/Applied Child Psychology at McGill University in Canada and an APA-accredited clinical internship in Health Service Psychology (Pediatrics) at the Marcus Autism Center at Emory University and the Children's Healthcare of Atlanta. Dr. Sivathasan is trained as a child psychologist, having specialized in psychodiagnostic, psychoeducational, and early autism assessment, as well as in cognitive-behavioral interventions for diverse child and adolescent populations. She then gained additional training in mental health and suicide risk assessments among autistic adults through a postdoctoral fellowship in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Pittsburgh.
Currently, Dr. Sivathasan directs the Intersections Lab (https://intersectionslab.org/). Her research interests broadly center around improving behavioral health outcomes and access to care among people with multiple marginalized identities (e.g., autism and neurodevelopmental disabilities, racial/ethnic minorities, LGBTQIA+, and socioeconomic disparities). She hopes to leverage expert knowledge through collaborations with people with lived experiences, families, community partners, and professionals to develop personalized and systems-level interventions for marginalized children, adolescents, and adults across the lifespan.
Select Publications
Sivathasan, S.*, Eldeeb, S.*, Northrup, J., Antezana, L., Ionadi, A. A., Wakschlag, L. S., Mazefsky, C. A. (2023). Early childhood aggression in autistic and non-autistic preschoolers: Prevalence, topography, and relationship to emotional reactivity. Journal of the American
Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Open. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaacop.2023.12.003
Kushner, E.*, Sivathasan, S.*, McQueen, E., White, S., Berry, R., Sharp, W.C., Klaiman, C. (2023). Prevalence of caregiver-reported feeding concerns in children with ASD in a tertiary-care clinic. Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics. https://doi.org/10.1097/DBP.0000000000001208
Sivathasan, S., Dahary, H., Burack, J. A., Quintin, E. M. (2023). Basic emotion recognition of children on the autism spectrum is enhanced in music and typical for faces and voices. PLOS ONE. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0279002
Dahary, H., Sivathasan, S., Quintin, E. M. (2022). The processing of emotions in faces and music by adolescents with autism spectrum disorder with lower and higher verbal cognitive ability. Journal on Developmental Disabilities. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.6603452
Sivathasan, S., Philibert-Lignières, G., Quintin, E. M. (2021). Individual differences in autistic traits, personality, and emotional responsiveness to music in the general population. Musicae Scientiae. https://doi.org/10.1177/1029864920988160
Sivathasan, S., Palma Fernandes, T., Burack, J. A., Quintin, E. M. (2020). Emotion processing in autism spectrum disorder: A review of the relative contributions of alexithymia and verbal IQ. Research in Autism Spectrum Disorders, 77, 101608. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rasd.2020.101608
Yatham, S., Sivathasan, S., Yoon, R., da Silva, T. L., Ravindran, A. V. (2018). Depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress disorder among youth in low and middle-income countries: A review of prevalence and treatment interventions. Asian Journal of Psychiatry, 38, 78-91. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ajp.2017.10.029
*joint-first authors*
Grants & Fellowships
COVID-19 Research Grant, Autism Science Foundation (2021)
Doctoral Research Fellowship, Joseph-Armand Bombardier Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) (2017-2020)
Graduate Research Grant, Organization for Autism Research (2016-2017)