Welcome!
I am currently a research postdoctoral fellow at the University of California—Irvine (UCI) School of Medicine in the Noel Drury, M.D. Institute for Translational Depression Discoveries.
I trained as a research psychologist at the University of Southern California (USC), where I obtained a PhD in Clinical Science (2025).
I completed an American Psychological Association-accredited Internship at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior (2025).
About
scarden8@hs.uci.edu
I am a psychology researcher. I am currently a postdoctoral fellow in the UCI School of Medicine. I graduated with my PhD in Clinical Science from USC in 2025. I completed my American Psychological Association-accredited clinical internship at UCLA Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior. In addition to my research and coursework, I have facilitated psycho-educational classes for high-risk parents through my lab’s community-research partnership with Eisner Health, an agency providing health services to under-resourced families in Los Angeles.
I completed my BAs in Psychology and Art (practice) at the University of California, Los Angeles (2016). After graduation, I spent two years working as a Post-baccalaureate Intramural Research Training Award (IRTA) Fellow in Dr. Ellen Leibenluft’s lab at the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). At NIMH, I studied the pathophysiology and treatment of childhood psychopathology.
My research uses interdisciplinary methodologies to assess the intersection of biological and social processes impacting parent caregiving behaviors. My research follows two lines of inquiry. In one line of inquiry, I use neuroimaging and hormonal assays to clarify neurocognitive and endocrine processes supporting caregiving, focusing on fatherhood. In my second line of inquiry, I use self-report measures, sleep actigraphy, and neuroimaging to assess how socially modifiable health behaviors (e.g., accessing paid family leave following the birth of a child, sleep quality) relate to parent caregiving behavior.
Publications
2025
Cárdenas, S.I., Truong, V., Rosas, Flores, G., Yeh, F.C., Saxbe, D.E., Rajagopalan, V. (2025) Risky early family environment, white matter organization, and effective parenting in expectant fathers. Development and Psychopathology, 1-8. Advanced online publication. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0954579425100679
Kim, K.Y., Stoddard, J., Cárdenas, S.I., Khosravi, P., Kircanski, K., Jones, M., Pine, D.S., Brotman, M.A., Haller, S.P. (2025). Sensitivity and bias in face-emotion labeling: Replication and extension to youth with irritability and anxiety. JAACAP Open. 19(1): nsae034. https://doi.org/10.1093/scan/nsae034
Newsome, P., Vaccaro, A.G., Cárdenas, S.I., Waizman, Y.H., Aviv, E.C., León, G.A., Marshall, N.A., Kaplan, J.T., Saxbe, D.E. (2025). First-time fathers' distinct neural processing of their own infant, an unfamiliar infant, and romantic partner. Human Brain Mapping, 46(11), e70342. https://doi.org/10.1002/hbm.70324
Cárdenas, S. I. & Callaghan, B. (2025). A call to integrate measures of environmental context into research on maternal brain. [Special issue]. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 22(6), 818. 10.3390/ijerph22060818
León, G., Waizman, Y., Cárdenas, S.I., Aviv, E., Newsom, P., Vaccaro, A., & Saxbe, D. (2025). Trajectories of depressive symptoms from pregnancy across the first year postpartum in COVID-19 pandemic vs pre-pandemic samples; Relationship quality buffers pandemic-associated increases in distress. Journal of Psychopathology and Clinical Science, 134(4), 389–399. https://doi.org/10.1037/abn0000994
2024
Haller, S.P., Stoddard, J., Cárdenas, S.I., Domibek, K., MacGillvray, C., Zapp, C., Bui, H., Stavish, C.M., Kircanski, K., Jones, M., & Brotman, M.A. (2024). Differentiating neural sensitivity and bias during face-emotion processing in youth: A computational approach. Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, nsae034. https://doi.org/10.1093/scan/nsae034
Cárdenas, S.I. Waizman, Y.H., Truong, V., Sellery, P.E., Stoycos, S., Rajagopalan, V., & Saxbe, D.E. (2024). White matter structural remodeling across the transition to fatherhood. Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience, 67 .https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dcn.2024.101374. https://osf.io/xm6h8/
Waizman, Y.H., Herschel, E., Cárdenas, S.I., Vaccaro, A., Aviv, E.A., Sellery, P., Goldenberg, D., Kaplan, J.*, & Saxbe, S.E.* (2024). Neural correlates of inhibitory control in first-time fathers listening to infant cry and paternal postpartum mental health. Behavioral Brain Research, 465, 114947. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bbr.2024.114947
2023
Cárdenas, S.I., Tse, W., León, G., Kim, A., Tureson, K., Lai, M., & Saxbe, D.E. (2023). Prenatal testosterone synchrony in first-time parents predicts fathers' postpartum relationship quality. Hormones and Behavior. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.yhbeh.2023.105440
Aviv, E., Cárdenas, S.I., León, G., Waizman, Y., & Saxbe, D.E. (2023). Prenatal prolactin in first-time fathers predicts brain and behavioral adaptations to new parenthood. Psychoneuroendocrinology, 156, 106332. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psyneuen.2023.106332
Saxbe, D.E., Martínez-García, M., Cárdenas, S.I., & Waizman, Y. (2023). Changes in left hippocampal volume in first-time fathers: Associations with oxytocin, testosterone, and adjustment to parenthood. Journal of Neuroendocrinology, e13270. https://doi.org/ 10.1111/jne.13270
2022
Cárdenas, S.I., Morris, A.R., Marshall, N.A., Aviv, E., Martínez-García, M., Sellery, P., & Saxbe, D.E. (2022). Fathers matter from the start: Role of expectant fathers on child development. Child Development Perspectives, 16(1), 54-59. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdep.12436
Haller, S.P., Cheng, G., Kitt, E., Smith, A.R., Stoddard, J., Abend, R., Cárdenas, S.I., Revzina, O., Coppesmith, D., Feldman, J., Leibenluft, E., Brotman, M.A., Pine, D.S., & Pagliaccio, D. (2022). Reliability of task-evoked activation during face-emotion paradigms: Effects of scanner and psychological processes. Human Brain Mapping, 43(7), 2109-2120. https://doi.org/10.1002/hbm.25723
Martínez-García, M., Cárdenas, S.I., Pawluski, J., Carmona, S., & Saxbe, D.E. (2022). Recent Neuroscience Advances in Human Parenting (G. Gonzáles-Mariscal, Ed.). Patterns of Parental Behavior. (239-267). Springer. 2 Goldenberg, D., Marshall, N.A., Cárdenas, S.I., & Saxbe, D.E. (2020). The Development of the Social Brain within a Family Context (J. Decety, Ed.). The Social Mind/Brain – A Developmental Perspective. MIT Press.
Marshall, N.A., Kaplan, J., Stoycos, S.A., Goldenberg, D., Knoddam, H., Cárdenas, S.I., Sellery, P., & Saxbe, D.E. (2022). Stronger mentalizing network connectivity in expectant fathers predicts postpartum father-infant bonding and parenting Behavior. Social Neuroscience. 17(1), 21-36.s https://doi.org/10.1080/17470919.2022.2029559
2021
Naim-Aricha, R., Smith, A., Cheu, A., Dombek, K., Shaughnessy, S., McNeil, C., Cardinale, E., Agorsor, C., Cárdenas, S., Brooks, J., Pine, D.S., Leibenluft, E., Brotman, M.A., Kircanski, K. (2021). Using ecological momentary assessment to enhance irritability phenotyping in a transdiagnostic sample of youth. [Special issue]. Development and Psychopathology, 33 (5), 1734-1746. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0954579421000717
Cárdenas, S.I., * Corbisiero, M.F., * Morris, A.R., & Saxbe, D.E. (2021). Associations between paid paternity leave and parental mental health across the transition to parenthood: Evidence from a repeated-measure study of first-time parents in California. Journal of Child and Family Studies, 30, 3080-3094. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-021-02139-3
Cárdenas, S.I., Stoycos, S.A., Sellery, P., Marshall, N.A., Khoddam, H., Goldenberg, D., & Saxbe, D.E. (2021). Theory of mind processing in expectant fathers: Associations with prenatal oxytocin and parental attunement [Special issue]. Developmental Psychobiology, 63(5), 1549-1567. https://doi.org/10.1002/dev.22115
Saxbe, D.E., & Cárdenas, S.I. (2021, November 8). New York Times. What paternity leave does for a father’s brain. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/08/opinion/paid-family-leave-fathers.html
2020
Cárdenas, S.I. (2020, September 3). New center headquartered at USC Dornsife studies COVID 19’s effect on families. Dornsife. https://dornsife.usc.edu/news/stories/3303/center-for-the-changing-family-covid-19-research/
Khoddam, H., Goldenberg, D., Stoycos, S.A., Horton, K.T., Marshall, N.A., Cárdenas, S.I., Kaplan, J., & Saxbe, D.E. (2020). How do expectant fathers respond to infant cry? Examining brain and behavioral responses and the moderating role of testosterone. Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, 63(5), 1549-1567. DOI: 10.1093/scan/nsaa051
Haller, S. P., Kircanski, K., Stringaris, A., Clayton, M., Bui, H., Agorsor, C., Cárdenas, S.I., Towbin, K.E., Pine, D.S., Leibenluft, El., & Brotman, M. A. (2019). The Clinician Affective Reactivity Index: Validity and reliability of a clinician-rated assessment of irritability. Behavior Therapy. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.beth.2019.10.005
2018-2019
Cárdenas, S.I. (2019, March 22). The ABCs of evidence-based therapies (EBTs) for children. Psychology Today. https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/home-base/201903/the-abcs-evidence-based-therapies-ebts-children
Cárdenas, S.I.*, Brooks, J.*, Clayton, M.*, Perhamus, G.*, Perlstein, S.C.*, Ross, A. J.*, Roule, A.*, Vinograd, M. (2018, September 18). Breaking into open science: A primer on publicly available datasets for graduate students in clinical science. The Behavior Therapist Association for Behavior and Cognitive Therapies, 41(6), 291.
Cárdenas, S. I., Khaled, M., & Saxbe, D. E. (2019). Commentary on translational impact: From individual to dyad to triad to social group: Applying the group actor–partner interdependence model to research on the transition to parenthood. Translational Issues in Psychological Science, 5(4), 402–404. https://doi.org/10.1037/tps0000204
Current Work
Most parents talk about how they enjoy watching their children develop. But becoming a parent may be its own developmental milestone. I am interested in getting a more granular understanding of how these changes could be happening. Using a software that helps examine white matter microstructure (DSI-Studio), I am currently examining the role of testosterone and sleep quality on white matter microstructure connectivity in the cingulum of first-time fathers. This work builds on work examining associations between white matter microstructure connectivity and postpartum depression (Cárdenas et al., 2024) as well as early life stress (Cárdenas et al., 2025).
News
November 2025
I presented an in-preparation paper at the International Society for Developmental Psychobiology conference in San Diego, California, on the role of sleep quality in shaping cingulum white matter microstructure changes in first-time fathers. Spoiler - self-report sleep and NOT sleep actigraphy was related to microstructure changes. Stay tuned for the forthcoming publication!
October 2025
I presented an in-preparation paper at the Society for Psychophysiological Research conference in Montreal, Canada, on the role of testosterone and sleep quality in shaping cingulum white matter microstructure changes in first-time fathers. Stay tuned for the forthcoming publication!
I had the honor of being invited by the French Consulate in Los Angeles to speak at the Residence of France in Beverly Hills, where I shared my experiences in the ODYSSEE France mobility program.
September 2025
My first-author paper on fathers' early-life stress, prenatal neural circuitry, and parenting outcomes has been published. Read it here!
August 2025
I started as a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Noel Drury, MD Institute for Translational Depression Discoveries at the University of California, Irvine under the direction of Dr. Diego Pizzagalli. I am excited to continue my research on lifespan mental health, utilizing an affective neuroscience approach!
Through the ODYSSEE France program, I spent two weeks in France to foster collaborations with French researchers. During my travels, I visited Drs. Gisele Apter (University of Rouen) and Jodi Pawluski (University of Rennes), two leaders in the field of maternal mental health in France. Moving forward, I am eager to nurture relationships with these leaders and think about how the United States can learn from our French colleagues.
Grant Funding
2025
Office for Science and Technology of the Embassy of France in the United States
2024
Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD)
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF)
2023
NICHD
National Science Foundation (NSF)
RWJF
2022
NSF
RWJF
2021
NSF
RWJF
USC Department of Psychology
2020
NSF
RWJF
USC Department of Psychology