ACTIVITY MATTERS LAB
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Welcome to our lab!

The Activity Matters Lab examines how the role of structure and routine (especially organized activities, after-school, and summer-based programming) serve a protective role in psychological and health-related outcomes, including obesity and obesogenic behaviors among children and adolescents. In particular, we examine structure and routine as they relate to potential disparities in health and wellness, and the role of developmental transitions as points of risk and opportunity. Through ongoing multidisciplinary collaborations with colleagues in the Department of Psychology and Loyola University Stritch Medical Center's Department of Public Health Sciences as well as faculty from other universities across the country, we will continue to develop our program of research in these areas.

Learn about our Projects

ANNOUNCEMENTS

School as a Protective Setting for Excess Weight Gain and Child Obesity: A Meta‐Analysis

November 2020
Graduate student Laura Nicholson, Dr. Dorothy McLeod Loren (former graduate student), former research assistant Alexandra Reifenberg, and Dr. Bohnert, along with colleague Dr. Michael Beets published a meta-analysis examining school as a protective factor for weight gain in the Journal Of School Health.
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Activity Matters Lab Submits Grant Proposal to the Institute of Translational Medicine

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November 2020
See Dr. Bohnert explain the our grant proposal examining relations between sleep, physical activity, affect, and pain in adolescent girls in this video.

Dr. Bohnert Shares Information on Assessing Risk While Resuming Activities in COVID-19

July 2020

Dr. Bohnert answers questions on evaluating risk and resuming activities in the age of COVID-19 in the Chicago Tribune.

Dr. Bohnert Discusses Summer Travel During COVID-19 with the Chicago Tribune

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June 2020
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Check out Dr. Bohnert's advice on summer travel and experiences with family during COVID-19 in the Chicago Tribune. 

Listen to Dr. Bohnert's NPR Interview on How to Handle Stress During the Pandemic

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May 2020
Check out Dr. Bohnert's NPR interview, in which she discusses the importance of nature and novelty to reduce stress during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Binge eating, but not dietary restraint, moderates the association between unhealthy food marketing exposure and sugary food consumption

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May 2020
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Dr. Amy Egbert, along with graduate student Laura Nicholson, former undergraduate research assistant Anna Sroka, Dr. Bohnert, and Loyola colleague Dr. Silton published, "Binge eating, but not dietary restraint, moderates the association between unhealthy food marketing exposure and sugary food consumption" in Eating Behaviors. 

Dr. Bohnert and Graduate Student Liz Rea Publish Book Chapter in The Routledge Handbook of Youth Physical Activity

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May 2020 
Dr. Bohnert and Liz Rea published, "Keeping Kids Active: Summertime Interventions to Address Physical Activity," in The Routledge Handbook of Youth Physical Activity with colleagues Jennette Moreno and Allie Harden at Baylor College of Medicine. The chapter provides an overview of summertime weight gain and how physical activity might influence this weight gain, summarizes existing literature on how physical activity fluctuates during the school year versus summertime and which factors might contribute to these fluctuations, reviews current summertime interventions, and provides recommendations for future research.
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Activity Matters Lab Launches COVID-19 Study 

​May 2020
The Activity Matters Lab is investigating how the COVID-19 pandemic has influenced daily routines and structure in families. We have launched a new study utilizing Amazon Mechanical Turk to understand the impact of this unprecedented event on family’s behavioral routines and how those routines influence child and family well-being. Parents will answer a series of questions related to demographic information, household routines, COVID-19 related stressors as well as family functioning and children’s physical and psychological well-being.

Undergraduate Student Lexi Gremp Presents Independent Research Project at Loyola's Virtual Weekend of Excellence

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April 2020
Undergraduate student Lexi Gremp will present her independent research project, "Implications of Chronodisruption on Physical and Mental Health in College Stuents," at this year's Weekend of Excellence, held online due to COVID-19. 

Lexi's project was also accepted to be be presented at this year's Society of Behavioral Medicine Annual Meeting in San Francisco, CA. 



Examining Childhood Obesity Through the Lens of Developmental Psychopathology: Framing the Issues to Guide Best Practices in Research and Intervention 

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March 2020
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Dr. Bohnert and graduate student Dorothy McLeod Loren, along with their colleague Alison Miller published an article providing a new perspective on examining childhood obesity in March's issue of American Psychologist.

Congratulations to Graduate Students Dorothy McLeod Loren and Laura Nicholson on their SPP Poster Awards!

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March 2020
Congratulations to graduate students Dorothy McLeod Loren and Laura Nicholson! 

Dorothy's poster submission to the Society of Pediatric Psychology annual meeting, "An Ecological Model of Childhood Obesity Development: Identifying Targets for Tailored Intervention," won a Diversity Poster Award. 


Laura's poster submission to the Society of Pediatric Psychology annual meeting, "Neurocognition, Academic, and Psychosocial Functioning among Adolescents with Spina Bifida: The Role of Bedtime Intraindividual Variability," won the Sleep SIG Student Poster Award. 
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Graduate Student Laura Nicholson Presents at the INS Annual Meeting

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  February 2020
 Graduate student Laura Nicholson presented her poster, "Neuropsychological Functioning and Academic Achievement   in Pediatric Sickle Cell Disease: The Influence of Sleep on Performance," at the International Neuropsychological Society   annual meeting in Denver, CO. 

Activity Matters Lab Awarded Loyola University 10K Grant 

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​December 2019
The Activity Matters Lab has been awarded an internal grant from Loyola University to study fluctuations in weight-related behavior across the adolescent transition. The goals of this study are to use self-report as well as objective measures of sleep and physical activity to address key gaps in our understanding of sleep variability and weight outcomes across the menarchal transition by examining changes in two weight-related behaviors (sleep and physical activity) across the menarchal transition and testing bi-directional associations between these two behaviors and zBMI and BMI change. Defining how sleep changes across adolescence has transdiagnostic implications for understanding patterns of individual risk in relation to health outcomes for youth more broadly. This is a collaboration built off the NIH-funded EMPATHY project at Northshore University Health systems. Check out our project description page for more information.

Congratulations to Dr. Bohnert, Laura Nicholson, and Laurel Mertz on their SBM Citation Award!

December 2019
Congratulations to Dr. Bohnert and graduate students Laura Nicholson and Laurel Mertz! Their submission to the Society of Behavioral Medicine 2020 Annual Meeting, "Enhancing Youth's Physical Activity in Urban Neighborhoods via Green Schoolyard Transformations," was recognized as a Citation Abstract, and will be highlighted at the upcoming meeting in April, 2020. 

Dr. Bohnert and Students to Present Research at the 2020 Society of Behavioral Medicine Annual Meeting

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December 2019
Congratulations to Dr. Bohnert, graduate students Liz Rea, Laura Nicholson and Laurel Mertz, and undergraduate student Lexi Gremp for their accepted abstracts at the Society of Behavioral Medicine 2020 Annual Meeting. Dr. Bohnert, Liz, and Lexi will all present their projects at the conference in San Francisco, CA in April. 

Dr. Bohnert will give a presentation titled, "Enhancing Youth's Physical Activity in Urban Neighborhoods via Green Schoolyard Transformations," sharing findings from our Space to Grow research. 

Graduate student Liz Rea will give her presentation, "Keeping Kids Active: Summertime Interventions to Address Physical Activity," as part of a symposium titled, "Examining the science of childhood obesity interventions: Three recent systematic reviews of critical contexts." Dr. Bohnert will be the discussant of this symposium. 

Undergraduate student Lexi Gremp will present her poster titled, "Implications of Chronodisruption on Physical and Mental Health in College Students."

Lab Members Present at Spring Conferences 
April and May 2019
We presented work at the Society of Behavioral Medicine (SBM) annual conference in D.C. In Chicago, our team presented at the Midwestern Psychological Association (MPA) and Loyola's Weekend of Excellence.
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Undergraduate student Alexandra Reifenberg presented data from her honors thesis at SBM.
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Post baccalaureate Veronica Szpak presented her independent research at MPA.
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Undergraduate student Anna Sroka (left) presented data from her independent project at SBM. Graduate student Amy Egbert (right) was there to cheer her on!
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Undergraduate student Natalie Turchmanovych presented data from her honors thesis at Loyola's Weekend of Excellence.
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