Tuesday, April 29, 2025
Anna Calabrese, an 11th grader from Rockville Centre attending Sacred Heart Academy, will be presenting her research project at the prestigious American Psychological Society conference in May.
The project, titled “The Effects of Different Social Support Systems on Perceived Rejection,” was developed in collaboration with her friend Ilenia Graffagnino, as part of their participation in Hofstra University’s Summer Science Research Program. Over the summer, the students worked to explore how different forms of social support – emotional and informational – impact individuals’ experiences of rejection.
The primary goal of the study was to determine whether the Berlin Social Support Scale, which had previously been used to assess the impact of support on cancer patients, could also be applied to individuals with mental health struggles. After confirming its effectiveness, the study examined whether emotional or informational support had a greater impact on reducing perceived rejection.
The results revealed that emotional support was more effective in decreasing perceived rejection, with its impact being particularly stronger in women.
Calabrese and Graffagnino spent two days a week over the summer working in Hofstra’s lab and one day per week focusing on their project, alongside seminars featuring professionals from various scientific fields. Their project took just over a month to complete, with them working from July to August of 2024.
“It definitely taught me a lot about teamwork, because you really had to put your heads together with your different perspectives and ideas,” Calabrese said. “Because everybody has a different talent, a different lens, a different way they can look at the situations that we were given.”
The study’s findings are significant, especially given the rise in mental health struggles among adolescents and the increasing importance of understanding social support in promoting emotional well-being, which is what brings them to the APS conference.
The convention is an annual event organized by the Association for Psychological Science, and it is one of the largest gatherings of psychologists and researchers in the world, attracting professionals from various areas of psychology, including cognitive, developmental, clinical, and social psychology. It will be in Washington D.C. from May 23 to 25.
Along with Calabrese and Graffagnino, nine other students will be presenting at the APS conference, which was just announced this month. This opportunity will give all the students, including Calabrese, a platform to engage with college professors and peers from across the country as the only high schoolers in attendance.
“I am really excited for this opportunity to be able to go and present not only to other high school professors, but to college professors and current college students,” Calabrese said.
Graffagnino, Calabrese’s research partner and a senior at Sacred Heart Academy, is “very happy” with their project and praised her partnership with Calabrese and how they “balance each other out.”
“I really enjoyed working with Anna, and I felt like we made a very good pair,” she said. “She was particularly good at running the statistics for our project, so that was her biggest strength, and we just complimented our strengths very well, because I’m more of a writer and she was good at stats.”
Stephen Sullivan, the director of research at Sacred Heart, mentors students like Calabrese and Graffagnino and expressed his pride in their accomplishments. He highlighted the fact that this conference, which will be his seventh time attending with his Sacred Heart students, is “entirely academic” and will provide excellent opportunities for the students to become well-connected with professors and other professionals as they prepare to move on after high school.
“It’s such a wonderful thing for the kids to do,” he said.
The Sacred Heart Academy research program has become a powerful platform for students to explore their academic passions, and Calabrese’s success highlights the importance of hands-on experience in scientific learning.
“I have absolutely loved the research program,” Calabrese said about her time at Sacred Heart. “It’s really inspiring to see a group of young women come together through science.”
