Joseph P. Allen (psychologist)

Last updated
Joseph P. Allen
Born1958
Children3
Scientific career
Institutions University of Virginia
Website psychology.as.virginia.edu/people/profile/jpa8r

Joseph P. Allen is an American psychologist and academic and the Hugh P. Kelly Professor of Psychology at the University of Virginia. [1]

Contents

Early life

Allen was born on October 30, 1958, in Washington, DC, and grew up in Oxon Hill, Maryland.

Education

He received a B.A. in psychology from the University of Virginia in May 1980, and then a Ph.D. in Clinical/Community Psychology from Yale University in May 1986. He subsequently worked as a post-doctoral fellow in research at Harvard Medical School from 1986 until 1988. [2]

Achievements and Honors

Allen's work on The Connection Project has been written up in the New York Times [3] and was recently cited by U. S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy as a promising approach to enhancing connection among youth. [4]

Allen has published three books and more than 200 academic articles, which have been cited more than 30,000 times in total. [5] He is a recipient of awards for Lifetime Achievement in Research from both the Society for Research in Adolescence and the Bowlby/Ainsworth Attachment Society, as well as an NIH MERIT award for his research. [6]

Research

His research focuses  on the predictors and long-term outcomes of social development processes from adolescence into adulthood and he is currently 25 years into a 30-year study on these topics.   He also develops and examines socially-focused interventions for adolescents designed to improve long-term academic and mental health outcomes. [7] [8] [9] [10] [11]

Together with Claudia W. Allen, he is the author of Escaping the Endless Adolescence: How We Can Help Our Teenagers Grow Up Before They Grow Old.. [12] In 2016, he founded The Connection Project , a small group intervention for high school and college students that has been documented to reduce loneliness and depressive symptoms and enhance a sense of belonging. [13] [10] The program is now being implemented at the high school level by Wyman of St. Louis, [14] and at the college level at the University of Virginia. [15]

In September 2023, successful replication efforts for The Connection Project were begun at Georgetown University and Virginia Tech University. [16]

Related Research Articles

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References

  1. University of Virginia, Department of Psychology (July 7, 2024). "Joseph P. Allen, Hugh P. Kelly Professor of Psychology" . Retrieved July 7, 2024.
  2. "Teen Research". uva.theopenscholar.com. Retrieved 2022-10-24.
  3. Zimmerman, Eilene (2022-10-06). "Meeting the Mental Health Challenge in School and at Home". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 2024-07-07.
  4. Haupt, Angela (2024-05-02). "Vivek Murthy". TIME. Retrieved 2024-07-07.
  5. "Joseph P. Allen". scholar.google.com. Retrieved 2024-07-07.
  6. "Teen Research". uva.theopenscholar.com. Retrieved 2024-07-07.
  7. Spector, Dina (Jun 12, 2014). "Being Cool in High School Is Bad For You". Slate Magazine. Retrieved Sep 28, 2021.
  8. "What happens to 'cool' kids? New study sheds light". ScienceDaily. Retrieved Sep 28, 2021.
  9. Allen, Joseph P.; Uchino, Bert N.; Hafen, Christopher A. (October 2015). "Running With the Pack: Teen Peer-Relationship Qualities as Predictors of Adult Physical Health". Psychological Science. 26 (10): 1574–1583. doi:10.1177/0956797615594118. ISSN   0956-7976. PMC   4698963 . PMID   26290522.
  10. 1 2 Costello, Meghan A.; Nagel, Alison G.; Hunt, Gabrielle L.; Rivens, Ariana J.; Hazelwood, Olivia A.; Pettit, Corey; Allen, Joseph P. (2022-05-16). "Facilitating connection to enhance college student well-being: Evaluation of an experiential group program". American Journal of Community Psychology. 70 (3–4): 314–326. doi:10.1002/ajcp.12601. ISSN   0091-0562. PMC   9666641 . PMID   35575603.
  11. Allen, Joseph P.; Costello, Meghan; Kansky, Jessica; Loeb, Emily L. (2021-12-06). "When friendships surpass parental relationships as predictors of long-term outcomes: Adolescent relationship qualities and adult psychosocial functioning". Child Development. 93 (3): 760–777. doi:10.1111/cdev.13713. ISSN   0009-3920. PMC   9167890 . PMID   34870846.
  12. Allen, Joseph P.; Claudia W. Allen (2009). Escaping the endless adolescence: how we can help our teenagers grow up before they grow old. New York: Ballantine Books. ISBN   978-0-345-50789-1. OCLC   290464723.
  13. Allen, Joseph P.; Narr, Rachel K.; Nagel, Alison G.; Costello, Meghan A.; Guskin, Karen (May 2021). "The Connection Project: Changing the peer environment to improve outcomes for marginalized adolescents". Development and Psychopathology. 33 (2): 647–657. doi:10.1017/S0954579419001731. ISSN   0954-5794. PMC   9034648 . PMID   32124707.
  14. "Teen Connection Project (TCP)". Wyman Center. Retrieved 2022-10-12.
  15. "Homepage | Hoos Connected". hoosconnected.virginia.edu. Retrieved 2022-10-12.
  16. "Georgetown, Virginia Tech Adopt UVA Initiative That Reduces Depression, Loneliness". news.virginia.edu. 2023-09-25. Retrieved 2024-07-07.