Brief Biography

Julia A. Graber, Ph.D.

I currently serve as the Associate Chair for the Department of Psychology (since Summer 2007) and as the Developmental Area Director. I received my M.S. and Ph.D. (1991) from Penn State University in Developmental Psychology.  Prior to my graduate training, I received my B.S. in Psychology in 1984 from Michigan State University. Specifically, my research has examined bio-psychosocial interactions of adolescent development including the impact of puberty, stress reactivity, and family relationships on psychopathology and health compromising behaviors.  My work integrates developmental and prevention research designs to understand health compromising and health promoting behaviors among youth.  Much of my research has focused on changes in adjustment and health related behaviors during the transition into middle school. In addition, I have examined emotion and behavior links during other important transitions like the entry into college; again focusing on changes in health and adjustment during these times.

I have received funding from the National Institutes of Health to conduct studies of children’s stress responses and pubertal development and their links to depression and aggression (supported by NICHD and NIMH) and studies of mediating mechanisms of prevention program effectiveness for a violence and alcohol, tobacco, and drug prevention program (NIDA).  I have also previously served as the Associate Director of a policy-research center for children and families (National Center for Children & Families at Columbia University) where I established and directed a doctoral training program in child and family policy research. I have published over 70 peer-reviewed articles and chapters, edited a volume on adolescent transitions, a volume on the transition to adulthood, a special section of the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, and serve on the editorial board for the Journal of Adolescent Health, Developmental Psychology, and the Journal of Research on Adolescence.