About The READY Lab at UNCG
The Regulation and Emotional Development in Youth (READY) Lab at UNCG is dedicated to conducting cutting-edge research on how youth's ability to control their emotions, thoughts, and behaviors impact their mental and physical health. Through our research, we strive to make a meaningful impact on the well-being of youth and their families.
Our lab is comprised of a diverse team of dedicated researchers who are passionate about understanding and promoting well-being in youth. Together, we work collaboratively to investigate various aspects of self-regulation, utilizing multidisciplinary approaches to address complex questions in the field.
Meet Our Team
Get to know the individuals who drive our research forward and contribute to the mission of the READY Lab at UNCG.
Dr. Jessica Dollar (She/Her/Hers)
Lab Director
Jessica Dollar is an Assistant Professor in the Psychology Department at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNCG). She received her B.A. in Psychology from UNCG before working at the Center for Developmental Science at UNC-Chapel Hill. She received her Ph.D. in Human Development and Family Studies from The Pennsylvania State University. She returned to North Carolina to complete her postdoctoral training and serve as a Research Scientist at UNCG prior to transitioning to a tenure track position.
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Jessica’s program of research aims to understand the role of emotional and self-regulatory development, with close attention to the role of the social context, in pathways to psychological well-being and physical health across the first two decades of life. Self-regulation difficulties are associated with a constantly expanding array of public health challenges for youth, including increased mental illness and obesity/cardiometabolic risk, lowered physical activity, social functioning, poor sleep, and questions about safe technology engagement. Although it is widely acknowledged that self-regulation is an essential life skill, many notable questions continue to emerge as to how, for whom, and why self-regulation is associated with these risks among today’s youth.
Guided by a developmental science framework, Jessica’s research aims to: a) specify which facets of self-regulation are most important for particular forms of youth functioning (e.g., mental and physical health, social adjustment, safe technology engagement), b) identify mechanisms to explain how adaptive self-regulation skills is associated with fewer risky health behaviors and lower obesity and cardiometabolic risk for youth, as well as c) what developmental processes and mechanisms explain when reward-driven emotions (e.g., positive affect) are associated with risk or well-being. Jessica’s research employs converging observational, physiological, questionnaire, and ecological momentary assessment (EMA) methodologies to effectively capture these key processes and mechanisms in controlled laboratory and naturalistic settings.
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Dr. Dollar will be taking applications for a new graduate student for Fall 2026.