Velma McBride Murry | |
---|---|
Alma mater | University of Tennessee, BS (1974) University of Missouri, MS (1985) University of Missouri, PhD (1987) |
Scientific career | |
Fields | Adolescent Psychology |
Institutions | Vanderbilt University |
Thesis | Family stress: Change in demands and capabilities (1987) |
Velma McBride Murry is an American psychologist and sociologist, currently the Lois Autrey Betts Chair in Education and Human Development and Joe B. Wyatt Distinguished University Professor at Vanderbilt University. [1] [2] Her research has largely focused on resilience and protective factors for African-American families, and she has several publications in this area. In addition to her empirical research, she has contributed to several published books and used her experience to create two family-based preventative intervention programs. [1]
McBride Murry was raised in Medon, Tennessee. [3] McBride Murry attended the University of Tennessee for her undergraduate studies, where she received a Bachelor's degree in 1974. Following her undergraduate studies, she worked with elementary school teachers and students in Memphis, Tennessee where she became interested in child psychology and development. [3] She then attended University of Missouri-Columbia with her husband, Acie C. Murry, Jr. There, she received her Master's degree in 1985 and her Doctorate in 1987, [3] [4] with her work during that time mostly focusing on family stress. [5]
Following her doctoral research, McBride Murry became an assistant professor at the University of Connecticut within the School of Family Studies and then moved to Athens, Georgia to become an assistant professor at the University of Georgia. [6] There, her research program centered on studies to understand how successful families and communities help children succeed. [7] From 1995 to 2008, she served as co-director of the Center for Family Research with Gene Brody. Together, they co-developed the Strong African American Families program in 2000, [7] which provided educational interventions to reduce adolescent substance abuse and high-risk behaviors in adolescents. [8] [9] The program is intended to promote successful parenting strategies for adults and good decision-making for their children. [7] Youth who participate in the program demonstrate fewer conduct problems, are less likely to begin using drugs, and report delayed onset of sexual behavior, [7] and these impacts can still be seen in a majority of participants 29 months after completing the program. [10] Further, maternal depression and positive racial identity are improved through the program. [7]
In 2008, McBride Murry moved to Vanderbilt University, where she became a professor in the Department of Human and Organizational Development and the Lois Audrey Betts chair in education and human development. There, she developed the Pathways for African American Success (PAAS) program, leveraging technology to create and disseminate interventions for children and their caregivers. [11] [12] Studies comparing technology-based PAAS programs, particularly when addressing the digital divide that often exists for rural African-American families, found that youth in technology conditions reported significantly reduced risky behaviors when compared to control groups. [13] [14] The program is designed in part to address HIV infection rates, which are comparatively higher among rural African American communities in the United States, by increasing access to reliable information across these communities. [15] PAAS also reports promotion of academic success as well as prevention of aggressive behavior, substance use, and other risky behaviors. [12]
Conduct disorder (CD) is a mental disorder diagnosed in childhood or adolescence that presents itself through a repetitive and persistent pattern of behavior that includes theft, lies, physical violence that may lead to destruction, and reckless breaking of rules, in which the basic rights of others or major age-appropriate norms are violated. These behaviors are often referred to as "antisocial behaviors." It is often seen as the precursor to antisocial personality disorder, which by definition cannot be diagnosed until the individual is 18 years old. Conduct disorder may result from parental rejection and neglect and can be treated with family therapy, as well as behavioral modifications and pharmacotherapy. Conduct disorder is estimated to affect 51.1 million people globally as of 2013.
Adolescent cliques are cliques that develop amongst adolescents. In the social sciences, the word "clique" is used to describe a group of 3 to 12 "who interact with each other more regularly and intensely than others in the same setting". Cliques are distinguished from "crowds" in that their members socially interact with one another more than the typical crowd. Crowds, on the other hand, are defined by reputation. Although the word 'clique' or 'cliquey' is often used in day-to-day conversation to describe relational aggression or snarky, gossipy behaviors of groups of socially dominant teenage girls, that is not always accurate. Interacting with cliques is part of normative social development regardless of gender, ethnicity, or popularity. Although cliques are most commonly studied during adolescence and in educational settings, they can exist in all age groups and settings.
School violence includes violence between school students as well as attacks by students on school staff. It encompasses physical violence, including student-on-student fighting, corporal punishment; psychological violence such as verbal abuse, and sexual violence, including rape and sexual harassment. It includes many forms of bullying and carrying weapons in school. The one or more perpetrators typically have more physical, social, and/or psychological power than the victim. It is widely believed by society to have become a serious problem in recent decades in many countries, especially where weapons such as guns or knives are involved.
Positive youth development (PYD) programs are designed to optimize youth developmental progress. This is sought through a positivistic approach that emphasizes the inherent potential, strengths, and capabilities youth hold.PYD differs from other approaches within youth development work in that it rejects an emphasis on trying to correct what is considered wrong with children's behavior or development, renouncing a problem-oriented lens. Instead, it seeks to cultivate various personal assets and external contexts known to be important to human development.
Sibling abuse includes the physical, psychological, or sexual abuse of one sibling by another. More often than not, the younger sibling is abused by the older sibling. Sibling abuse is the most common of family violence in the US, but the least reported. As opposed to sibling rivalry, sibling abuse is characterized by the one-sided treatment of one sibling to another.
After-school activities, also known as after-school programs or after-school care, started in the early 1900s mainly just as supervision of students after the final school bell. Today, after-school programs do much more. There is a focus on helping students with school work but can be beneficial to students in other ways. An after-school program, today, will not limit its focus on academics but with a holistic sense of helping the student population. An after-school activity is any organized program that youth or adult learner voluntary can participate in outside of the traditional school day. Some programs are run by a primary or secondary school, while others are run by externally funded non-profit or commercial organizations. After-school youth programs can occur inside a school building or elsewhere in the community, for instance at a community center, church, library, or park. After-school activities are a cornerstone of concerted cultivation, which is a style of parenting that emphasizes children gaining leadership experience and social skills through participating in organized activities. Such children are believed by proponents to be more successful in later life, while others consider too many activities to indicate overparenting. While some research has shown that structured after-school programs can lead to better test scores, improved homework completion, and higher grades, further research has questioned the effectiveness of after-school programs at improving youth outcomes such as externalizing behavior and school attendance. Additionally, certain activities or programs have made strides in closing the achievement gap, or the gap in academic performance between white students and students of color as measured by standardized tests. Though the existence of after-school activities is relatively universal, different countries implement after-school activities differently, causing after-school activities to vary on a global scale.
Substance abuse prevention, also known as drug abuse prevention, is a process that attempts to prevent the onset of substance use or limit the development of problems associated with using psychoactive substances. Prevention efforts may focus on the individual or their surroundings. A concept that is known as "environmental prevention" focuses on changing community conditions or policies so that the availability of substances is reduced as well as the demand. Individual Substance Abuse Prevention, also known as drug abuse prevention involves numerous different sessions depending on the individual to help cease or reduce the use of substances. The time period to help a specific individual can vary based upon many aspects of an individual. The type of Prevention efforts should be based upon the individual's necessities which can also vary. Substance use prevention efforts typically focus on minors and young adults – especially between 12–35 years of age. Substances typically targeted by preventive efforts include alcohol, tobacco, marijuana, inhalants, coke, methamphetamine, steroids, club drugs, and opioids. Community advocacy against substance use is imperative due to the significant increase in opioid overdoses in the United States alone. It has been estimated that about one hundred and thirty individuals continue to lose their lives daily due to opioid overdoses alone.
Research has found that attempted suicide rates and suicidal ideation among lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender (LGBT) youth are significantly higher than among the general population.
Ronald Jay Werner-Wilson, Chair of the Family Studies Department and Kathryn Louise Chellgren Endowed Professor for Research in Family Studies at the University of Kentucky, is a scholar who has held faculty appointments since 1993. His has published one book, book chapters, and numerous peer-reviewed journal articles. He has investigated family and relationship influences on adolescent and young adult sexuality, positive youth development, therapy with adolescents, gender and power influences on therapeutic process, and physiological influences on family interaction.
In psychology, maturity can be operationally defined as the level of psychological functioning one can attain, after which the level of psychological functioning no longer increases much with age. However, beyond this, integration is also an aspect of maturation, such as the integration of personality, where the behavioral patterns, motives and other traits of a person are gradually brought together, to work together effectively with little to no conflict between them, as an organized whole, e.g., bringing a person's various motives together into a purpose in life. Case in point: adult development and maturity theories include the purpose in life concept, in which maturity emphasizes a clear comprehension of life's purpose, directedness, and intentionality, which contributes to the feeling that life is meaningful.
School-based family counseling (SBFC) is an integrated approach to mental health intervention that focuses on both school and family in order to help children overcome personal problems and succeed at school. SBFC is practiced by a wide variety of mental health professionals, including: psychologists, social workers, school counselors, psychiatrists, and marriage and family therapists, as well as special education teachers. What they all share in common is the belief that children who are struggling in school can be best helped by interventions that link family and school. SBFC is typically practiced at the school site, but may be based in a community mental health agency that works in close collaboration with schools.
School-based prevention programs are initiatives implemented into school settings that aim to increase children's academic success and reduce high-risk problem behaviors.
Risky sexual behavior is the description of the activity that will increase the probability that a person engaging in sexual activity with another person infected with a sexually transmitted infection will be infected or become pregnant, or make a partner pregnant. It can mean two similar things: the behavior itself, and the description of the partner's behavior. The behavior could be unprotected vaginal, oral, or anal intercourse. The partner could be a nonexclusive partner, HIV-positive, or an intravenous drug user. Drug use is associated with risky sexual behaviors.
The dual systems model, also known as the maturational imbalance model, is a theory arising from developmental cognitive neuroscience which posits that increased risk-taking during adolescence is a result of a combination of heightened reward sensitivity and immature impulse control. In other words, the appreciation for the benefits arising from the success of an endeavor is heightened, but the appreciation of the risks of failure lags behind.
Catherine Tamis-LeMonda is a developmental psychologist and professor of applied psychology at New York University (NYU). She is an expert on parenting practices and the influence of parent-child social interaction on language, cognitive, and social development. She has co-edited numerous volumes on parenting and early child development including the Handbook of Father Involvement: Multidisciplinary Perspectives and Child Psychology: A Handbook of Contemporary Issues and Gender Roles in Immigrant Families.
Gene Howard Brody is an American developmental psychologist and prevention scientist and Regent's Professor at the University of Georgia and is the founder and co-director of the University of Georgia's Center for Family Research. He is known for his research on the physiological, biological, and mental health effects of poverty, community disadvantage, and racial discrimination and for the development of efficacious prevention programs for African American youth and their families.
Judy Garber is a clinical psychologist known for her research on emotional dysregulation and mood disorders, with a focus on cognitive-behavioral interventions for adolescents who have depression. Garber is Cornelius Vanderbilt Professor of Psychology and Human Development at Vanderbilt University.
Jennifer Woolard is a developmental psychologist known for work within the juvenile justice system. Woolard is professor of psychology and adjunct professor of law at Georgetown University. She is involved in the Youth In Custody Practice Model Initiative at the Center for Juvenile Justice Reform at Georgetown University's McCourt School of Public Policy, which seeks to adopt evidence-based developmentally-appropriate practices within juvenile correctional institutions.
Obstacles to receiving mental health services among African American youth have been associated with stigma and shame, child-related factors, treatment affordability, availability, and accessibility, clinician and therapeutic factors, the school system, religion/spirituality, and social networks. When examining the prevalence rates of African American youth that have experienced cognitive and behavioral challenges, the underutilization of mental health services is startling. The National Comorbidity Survey-Adolescent Supplement revealed that 46.8% of African Americans under 18-years-old may have a mental health disorder. Additionally, African American children between the ages of five- and twelve-years old commit suicide at approximately double the rate of their White counterparts. Furthermore, the data from the Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System (YRBSS) showed that Black students commit suicide at higher rates than White students. With all this information in mind, only three-quarters of African American children receive mental health care. 76.5% of African American youth from the ages of six to seventeen have mental health issues that need help, but their needs are not met. 50% to 75% of urban community-dwelling Black children and adolescents do not receive mental health care. A study showed that African American youth experiencing a major depressive episode are more unlikely to seek aid or speak to anyone about how they feel. 13% to 52% of African American child and adolescents who do not receive the mental health care that they need are at higher risk for detrimental health outcomes; hence, the importance of identifying the obstacles that may prevent unaddressed mental health service needs.
Alison Calear is an Australian academic who is a Professor at the Centre for Mental Health Research at the Australian National University. She studies youth mental health and the prevention of anxiety, depression and suicide.
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