Office: 533 MURDC
Phone: (412) 624-7478
Brian Galla
Assistant Professor, Psychology in Education, University of Pittsburgh School of Education
Research Scientist, Learning Research & Development Center
Research Interests
Dr. Galla's research is focused on motivational factors that support academic achievement and positive youth development.
Galla, B. M., Choukas-Bradley, S., Fiore, H. M., & Esposito, M. V. (2021). Values-alignment messaging boosts adolescents' motivation to control social media use. Child Development, https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.13553.
Galla, B. M., Tsukayama, E., Park, D., Yu, A., & Duckworth, A. L. (2020). The mindful adolescent: Developmental changes in nonreactivity to inner experiences and its association with emotional well-being. Developmental Psychology, 56(2), 350-363.
Roeser, R.W., Galla, B.M., Baelen, R.N. (2020). Mindfulness in schools: Evidence on the impacts of school-based mindfulness programs on student outcomes in P-12 educational settings. The Pennsylvania State University, 1-19.
Abujaradeh, H., Colaianne, B., Roeser, R. W., Tsukayama, E. & Galla, B. M. (2020). Evaluating a short-form Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire in adolescents: Evidence for a four-factor structure and invariance by time, age, and gender. International Journal of Behavioral Development, 44, 20-30.
Galla, B. M., Esposito, M. V., & Fiore, H. M. (2020). Mindfulness predicts academic diligence in the face of boredom. Learning and Individual Differences, 81, 101864.
Tumminia, M. J., Colaianne, B. A., Roeser, R. W., & Galla, B. M. (2020). How is mindfulness linked to negative and positive affect? Rumination as an explanatory process in a prospective longitudinal study of adolescents. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 49, 2136-2148.
Spann, C. A., Yu, A., Galla, B. M., Duckworth, A. L., & D’Mello, S. K. (2020). Is academic diligence domain-specific or domain-general? An investigation of the math, verbal, and spatial Academic Diligence Tasks with middle schoolers. Learning and Individual Differences, 80, 101870.
Choukas-Bradley, S., Nesi, J., Widman, L., & Galla, B. M. (2020). The Appearance-Related Social Media Consciousness Scale: Development and validation with adolescents. Body Image, 33, 164-174.
Colaianne, B., Galla, B. M., & Roeser, R. W. (2020). Perceptions of mindful teaching are associated with longitudinal change in adolescents’ mindfulness and self-compassion. International Journal of Behavioral Development, 44, 41-50.
Hentges, R. F., Galla, B. M., & Wang, M. T. (2019). Economic disadvantage and math achievement: The significance of perceived cost from an evolutionary perspective. British Journal of Educational Psychology, 89, 343-358.
Kirk-Johnson, A. R., Galla, B. M., & Fraundorf, S. H. (2019). Perceiving effort as poor learning: The misinterpreted-effort hypothesis of how experienced effort and perceived learning relate to study strategy choice. Cognitive Psychology.
Duckworth, A. L., Taxer, J., Eskreis-Winkler, L., Galla, B. M., & Gross, J. J. (2019). Self-control and academic achievement. Annual Review of Psychology, 70, 373-399.
Galla, B. M., Amemiya, J., & Wang, M.-T. (2018). Using expectancy-value theory to understand academic self-control. Learning and Instruction, 58, 22-33.
Galla, B. M. (2017). “Safe in my own mind:” Supporting healthy adolescent development through meditation retreats. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 53, 96-107.
Galla, B. M. (2016). Within-person changes in mindfulness and self-compassion predict enhanced emotional well-being in healthy, but stressed adolescents. Journal of Adolescence, 49, 204-217.
Galla, B. M., Baelen, R. N., Duckworth, A. L., & Baime, M. J. (2016). Mindfulness, meet self-regulation: Boosting out-of-class meditation practice with brief action plans. Motivation Science, 2(4), 220-237.
Galla, B. M., Kaiser-Greenland, S., & Black, D. S. (2016). Mindfulness training to promote self-regulation in youth: Effects of the Inner Kids program. In K. Schonert-Reichl and R. W. Roeser (Eds.), Handbook of research on mindfulness in education (p. 295-311). New York: Springer Press.
Black, D. S., Belzer, M., Semple, R. J., & Galla, B. M. (2015). Mindfulness training for children and adolescents: Updates on a growing science with novel applications. In Saltzman, A., & Willard, C. (Eds.), Teaching mindfulness skills to kids and teens (p. 367-379). New York: The Guilford Press.
Galla, B. M., & Wood, J. J. (2015). Trait self-control predicts lower exposure and reactivity to daily stress in adolescents. Journal of Personality, 83, 69-83.
Galla, B. M. & Duckworth, A. L. (2015). More than resisting temptation: Beneficial habits mediate the relationship between self-control and positive life outcomes. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 109, 508-525.
Galla, B. M., O’Reilly, G., Smalley, S. L., & Black, D. S. (2015). Community-based mindfulness program for disease prevention and health promotion: Targeting stress reduction. American Journal of Health Promotion, 30, 36-41.
Plummer, B. D., Galla, B. M., Finn, A. S., Patrick, S. D., Meketon, D., Leonard, J., Goetz, C., Fernandez-Vina, E., Bartolino, S., White, R. E., & Duckworth, A. L. (2014). A behind-the-scenes guide to school-based research. Mind, Brain, and Education, 8, 15-20.
Galla, B. M., Wood, J. J., Tsukayama, E., Har, K., Chiu, A. W., & Langer, D. A. (2014). A longitudinal multilevel model analysis of the within-person and between-person effect of effortful engagement and academic self-efficacy on academic performance. Journal of School Psychology, 52, 295-308.
Galla, B. M., Plummer, B. D., White, R. E., Meketon, D., D'Mello, S. K., & Duckworth, A. L. (2014). The Academic Diligence Task (ADT): Assessing individual differences in effort on tedious but important schoolwork. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 39, 314-325.
Chiu, A. W., Langer, D. A., McLeod, B., Har, K., Drahota, A., Galla, B. M., Jacobs, J., Ifekwunigwe, M., & Wood, J. J. (2013). Effectiveness of modular cognitive behavioral therapy for child anxiety in elementary schools. School Psychology Quarterly, 28, 141-153.
Brian Galla, LRDC Research Scientist, was the focus of the January 19 Institute for Learning's (IFL) Bridges to Learning feature "Mindfulness in Schools."
January 19, 2021
Kudos to Brian Galla, Assistant Professor, Education, and Tim Nokes-Malach, Associate Professor, Psychology for receiving an LRDC 2020 internal grant for their study, “Using Mindfulness Training to Support Engagement, Learning, and Retention in Undergraduate Introductory Physics Courses.”
May 15, 2020
Brian Galla and Tim Nokes-Malach were quoted and their research, using mindfulness to improve achievement gaps in introductory physics courses, was cited in Personalizing the Pitt Experience Forge Your Own Path's article, "Using Mindfulness to Boost Low Confidence."
January 8, 2020
Brian Galla is featured in the May 7 Education Week article "When It Comes to College, High School Grades Reveal More Than Just Academics."
May 7, 2019
Brian Galla and Tim Nokes-Malach were among the first recipients of the University of Pittsburgh's Personalized Education Grants Program. They received funding for "Personalizing Undergraduate STEM Learning through Mobile Mindfulness Training."
April 16, 2018
Brian Galla, Psychology in Education, participated in the October 27 BrainHub conference, and is cited in the article "Neurons to Neighborhoods Focuses on the Teen Brain," which is featured on Carnegie Mellon University's website.
October 27, 2017
Brian Galla, Assistant Professor, Education, and LRDC research scientist was an invited speaker at the 2017 Learning & The Brain Conference in Arlington, VA.
April 7-9, 2017
The recent PittED Magazine highlighted the work of Assistant Professor, Education, and LRDC research scientist Brian Galla and colleagues on mindfulness with teens.
March 15, 2017
Brian Galla, LRDC Research Scientist and Assistant Professor, Education, was interviewed for the Vox article “The Myth of Self-Control.”
November 24, 2016
LRDC Research Scientist Brain Galla's work on adolescent mental well-being is featured in The Huffington Post article "How Self-Compassion Can Help Teens De-stress."
September 6, 2016
LRDC awarded a grant to Scott Fraundorf, LRDC Research Scientist and Assistant Professor, Psychology, and Brian Galla, LRDC Research scientist and Assistant Professor, School of Education for “Uniting Cognitive and Motivation Science: An Opportunity-Cost Model of Self-Regulated Learning.”
2016