Gabriel Reyes

All Publications

• Brain development How Pokemon helped to explain brain differences NATURE REVIEWS PSYCHOLOGY Reyes, G. 2025

  View details for DOI 10.1038/s44159-025-00485-3

  View details for Web of Science ID 001545978200001

• Caring for Children in Lower-SES Contexts: Recognizing Parents' Agency, Adaptivity & Resourcefulness DAEDALUS Ellwood-Lowe, M. E., Reyes, G., Dejoseph, M. L., Frankenhuis, W. E. 2025; 154 (1): 52-69

  View details for DOI 10.1162/daed_a_02123

  View details for Web of Science ID 001425314200016

• Caring for Children in Lower-ses Contexts: Recognizing Parents' Agency, Adaptivity & Resourcefulness. Daedalus Ellwood-Lowe, M. E., Reyes, G., DeJoseph, M. L., Frankenhuis, W. E. 2025; 154 (1): 52-69

  Abstract

  From public policy to the social sciences, parenting in low-resource contexts is often viewed through a lens of deficit: there is a focus on what parents should be doing differently. We challenge this idea, highlighting the deliberate and rational choices parents with low socioeconomic status often make to navigate their circumstances and give their children the best lives possible under significant constraints. These parenting decisions may go beyond simply ensuring children's survival in harsh contexts. In some cases, they might give children the best shot at upward mobility. This view broadens our scientific understanding of good care, and implies that children may be best served when resources are spent on meeting families' needs, rather than instructing parents on how to care.

  View details for DOI 10.1162/daed_a_02123

  View details for PubMedID 40880727

  View details for PubMedCentralID PMC12383239

• The promise and pitfalls of a strength-based approach to child poverty and neurocognitive development: Implications for policy. Developmental cognitive neuroscience DeJoseph, M. L., Ellwood-Lowe, M. E., Miller-Cotto, D., Silverman, D., Shannon, K. A., Reyes, G., Rakesh, D., Frankenhuis, W. E. 2024; 66: 101375

  Abstract

  There has been significant progress in understanding the effects of childhood poverty on neurocognitive development. This progress has captured the attention of policymakers and promoted progressive policy reform. However, the prevailing emphasis on the harms associated with childhood poverty may have inadvertently perpetuated a deficit-based narrative, focused on the presumed shortcomings of children and families in poverty. This focus can have unintended consequences for policy (e.g., overlooking strengths) as well as public discourse (e.g., focusing on individual rather than systemic factors). Here, we join scientists across disciplines in arguing for a more well-rounded, "strength-based" approach, which incorporates the positive and/or adaptive developmental responses to experiences of social disadvantage. Specifically, we first show the value of this approach in understanding normative brain development across diverse human environments. We then highlight its application to educational and social policy, explore pitfalls and ethical considerations, and offer practical solutions to conducting strength-based research responsibly. Our paper re-ignites old and recent calls for a strength-based paradigm shift, with a focus on its application to developmental cognitive neuroscience. We also offer a unique perspective from a new generation of early-career researchers engaged in this work, several of whom themselves have grown up in conditions of poverty. Ultimately, we argue that a balanced strength-based scientific approach will be essential to building more effective policies.

  View details for DOI 10.1016/j.dcn.2024.101375

  View details for PubMedID 38608359