Janis Whitlock
Research Associate,Sr
2007
FLDCWeb Bio Page
Current Activities
Current Professional Activities
My current professional
agenda continues to be dedicated to research, outreach, teaching and
advising. My research in young adult mental health and wellbeing
dominates my professional work and has given rise to a number of translational
research and outreach activities through talks, development of web-based
materials and research, and consultation with local and national
organizations. I teach one course a year, "Risk and Opportunity in
Childhood and Adolescence" for the Department of Human Development and
supervise research activities for 5-10 undergraduate students a year - largely
through the research I direct in non-suicidal self-injury in adolescents and
young adults. I am also a member of the ACT for Youth Center of Excellence evaluation team.
Current Research Activities
My current research is
dedicated to exploration of the relationship between context, development, and
behavior. Research activities are focused largely on the nexus between
emotional, social and mental health in young adults, particularly those in
college settings. Although known for my work in non-suicidal self-injury, my
current work focuses more broadly on mental health and wellbeing trajectories
with particular interest in the relationship between meaning making, emotion
regulation and development of adverse or productive coping capacity over
time. As a follow-up to the 8 college study on mental health and
well-being we conducted in the 2006-2007 academic year, the current year's
study activities include wave II data collection in six of the eight schools as
well as focus on writing up the secondary school and qualitative data we have
collected over the past years. We will also begin development of
intervention components for which we will seek development and pilot
funding.
I also maintain a small research focus on school climate and culture as well as
on positive youth development.
Current Extension Activities
All of my research activities contain outreach components of
value to the Cornell Extension mission. Since I feel strongly about the
importance of disseminating information amassed through the research process, I
work hard to find mechanisms for supporting the dissemination and outreach component.
For example, my project recently received Smith-Lever funding to augment our capacity
to develop web-based materials to be disseminated through our project website
(www.crpsib.com). We intend to craft downladable materials, information
exchange forums, and web-based presentations individuals can download and use
free of charge. In addition, I regularly do talks to local and national
groups, academics and non-academics, in areas related to my expertise and much
of my youth-development and school climate-related research is conducted as
part of university-community partnerships. All research findings are then made
available to our partners and, through them, to the larger communities they
affect.
Biography
Biographical Statement
Janis Whitlock is a Resarch Scientist in the Family Life Development
Center and a Lecturer in the Department of Human Development. She is
also the Director of the Cornell Research Program on Self-Injurious
Behavior in Adolescence and Young Adults as well as a member of the
evaluation team for the New York State Center for Excellence ACT for
Youth initiative. Her research interests include adolescent social,
emotional and mental health as well as contextual influences on
adolescent development. She received her doctorate from the Department
of Human Development at Cornell University (2003), a masters in public
health from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (1994), and a
BA from the University of California at Berkeley (1988). Prior to
returning for her doctorate, she worked in adolescent and womens health
in a variety of clinical, administrative, and education-related
capacities. She is author of multiple papers on self-injurious behavior
in adolescents and young adults and on the relationship between context
and adolescent development. Her doctoral thesis was awarded the Hershl
D. Thornburg award in 2004 for outstanding dissertation from the
Society for Research in Adolescence.
Education
2003. Ph.D., Human Development, Cornell University.
Dissertation: Voice, Visibility, Place, and Power: Correlates to School and
Community Connectedness Among 8th, 10th and 12th Grade Youth
1994. MPH, Health Behavior & Health Education, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
Masters Thesis: Helpless but not Hopeless: Parental Perspectives on Adolescent Dating Abuse
1988 B.A., Social Sciences Field Studies, University of California, Berkeley
Undergraduate Thesis: The Women's Self Help Movement: Ideology and Action
Courses, Websites, Pubs
Courses Taught
HD353 Risk and Opportunity in Childhood and Adolescence
Related Websites
Self-Injurious Behavior (SIB)
www.human.cornell.edu/fldc/
Publications
urnal Articles and Chapters
Whitlock,
J.L., Powers, J.L (in press). “Places to be, places to belong: Youth
perceptions of life in community.” The Prevention Resaercher.
Whitlock,
J.L., Muehlenkamp, J., Eckenrode, J. (in press). “Variation in non-suicidal
self-injury: Identification of latent classes in a community population of
young adults.” Journal of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology
Whitlock,
J.L., Purington, A., . (in
press). “Influence of the media on self injurious behavior.” In Understanding
Non-Suicidal Self-Injury Current Science and Practice, edited by M. Nock.
American Psychological Association Press.
Whitlock, J.L. & Knox, K. (in press). “Community
sources and solutions: Detection and prevention of self-injurious behavior in
youth populations.” In forthcoming book Self-injury in youth: The essential
guide to assessment and intervention edited by N. Heath and M. K. Nixon.
Routledge Press.
Whitlock,
J.L., Lader, W., Conterio, K. (2007). “The role of virtual communities in
self-injury treatment: Clinical considerations.” Journal of Clinical
Psychology/In Session 63: 1135-1143.
Whitlock,
J.L.& Knox, K. (2007). “The relationship between suicide and
self-injury in a young adult population.” Archives of Pediatrics and
Adolescent Medicine. 161(7): 634-640.
Whitlock, J.L. (2007). “The role of adults,
public space, and power in adolescent community connectedness.” Journal of
Community Psychology. 35(3).
Whitlock, J.L., Eckenrode, J.E. & Silverman, D. (2006).
“Self-injurious behavior in a college population.” Pediatrics, 117(6).
Whitlock, J.L., Powers, J.L., Eckenrode,
J.E (2006).”The virtual cutting edge: Adolescent self-injury and the
Internet.” Special Issue on Children, Adolescents and the Internet,
Developmental Psychology. 42(3): 407- 417.
Surko, M., Pasti, L., Whitlock, J.L., Benson, D.
(2006). “Development of New York State