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Are mindful people better at regulating their emotions?

Emotions such as fear, sadness, anger, and so on often need to be "regulated" for us to behave in healthy, adaptive ways. How can people better regulate their emotions when stressed? read more...

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Can we help children with ADHD succeed in school?

Adolescents with ADHD often experience significant problems in school, such as failing grades and low achievement test scores. Can we predict these problems before they occur? read more...

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Why do African American youth trade cigarettes for cigars?

Many youth perceive cigars to pose fewer health risks than cigarettes. But, is this true? read more...

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Are cultural issues important in rehabilitation medicine?

Many health problems and disabilities disproportionately affect ethnic minority communities. But what can rehabilitation specialists do to change that? read more...

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Is religious counseling effective?

Many religious people say they want religious counseling. But is it effective? And, if it is not available, is secular counseling less effective for religious people than religious counseling? read more...

kliewer

Dr. Wendy Kliewer

Professor and Chair

Developmental Psychology (primary), Social and Clinical Child/Adolescent Psychology (secondary)

 

PhD (1989), University of California, Irvine

Contact Information

Phone: 804-828-8089

Office: 806 W Franklin, rm 105

E-mail: kliewer@vcu.edu

Web site: Dr. Kliewer's Prevention Research Lab

Research Interests

My research focuses on understanding stress and coping processes in children and adolescents. I have examined individual, situational and environmental influences on children and adolescents coping and adjusting to a variety of life stressors. For the last decade I have focused on chronic stressors such as poverty and community violence. In particular, I am interested in the role of the family in mitigating, or alternatively enhancing, youths' risk for negative outcomes in the face of stressful life events and circumstances. I also have examined psychological, behavioral and physiological (e.g., blood pressure, epinephrine and norepinephrine, cortisol) responses to stressors. Currently, I am conducting both generative and intervention work with youths. I have NIMH funding to conduct an expressive writing intervention with middle school students exposed to community and peer violence, and seed money from a VCU International Partnership grant to examine risk and resilience among South African youth.

Selected Publications

Kliewer, W., Dibble, A. E., Goodman, K., & Sullivan, T. N. (in press). Physiological correlates of peer victimization and aggression in African American urban adolescents. Development and Psychopathology.

Kliewer, W., Lepore, S. J., Farrell, A. D., Allison, K. W., Meyer, A. L., Sullivan, T. N., & Greene, A. Y. (2011). A school-based expressive writing intervention for at-risk urban adolescents’ aggressive behavior and emotional lability. Journal of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology, 40, 693-705.

Reid-Quiñones, K., Kliewer, W., Shields, B. J., Goodman, K., Ray, M. H., & Wheat, E. (2011).  Cognitive, affective, and behavioral responses to witnessed versus experienced violence.  American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 81, 51-60. 

Kliewer, W. (2010). Family processes in drug use etiology. In L. M. Scheier (Ed.), Handbook of drug use etiology: Theory, methods, and empirical findings. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.

Sullivan, T. N., Helms, S. W., Kliewer, W., & Goodman, K. (2010). Associations between sadness and anger regulation coping, emotional expression, and physical and relational aggression among urban adolescents. Social Development, 19, 30-51.

Recent Courses Taught at VCU
Recent Grants

Virginia Commonwealth University – Center for Youth Violence Prevention. Co-Investigator (Principal Investigator, Farrell). September, 2010 – September 2015. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). 1U01CE001956-01, $6,500,000.

Violence, drug use, and AIDS in South African Youth: A US/South Africa Research Collaboration. Co-Investigator (Principal Investigator, Sanders-Phillips). April, 2011 – March, 2013. National Institutes of Health (NIH) R21DA030298-01, $341,438.

Mediators of Violence Exposure and Drug Use in Youth. Principal Investigator. September, 2007 – August, 2009. The National Institutes of Health, National Institute on Drug Abuse. R21 DA020086.

School-based expressive writing intervention trials for youth exposed to violence. Principal Investigator. June, 2008 – April, 2011. The National Institutes of Health, National Institute of Mental Health. R01 MH081166.

Youth Drug Use, Violence Exposure, and Physiology. Principal Investigator. September, 2003-June, 2008. The National Institutes of Health, National Institute on Drug Abuse. K01 DA015442 01A1.

Recent Awards