Charissa Quek

Research Assistant

I am currently pursuing an M.Phil.Ed. in Professional Counseling at the University of Pennsylvania’s Graduate School of Education. Prior to this, I graduated with Honors from the National University of Singapore with a B.Soc.Sci. in Social Work, and spent four years in Singapore working as a domestic violence social worker, supporting children and families navigating high-conflict systems and complex trauma. My clinical experience has shaped my research interests in adverse childhood experiences and their impact on child cognition, socioemotional development, and the emergence of moral reasoning and prosocial behaviour. I am particularly interested in how early adversity initiates developmental cascades that impact self-regulation, social information processing, and empathy, and how these mechanisms contribute to internalizing and externalizing behaviours. Building on this, I am interested in how clinical interventions and supportive environments can interrupt and correct maladaptive trajectories and promote resilience.