Wendy Kliewer

Associate Professor of Psychology, Director of Training and Mentoring

Selected publications

Contact information

(804) 828-1793

wkliewer@vcu.edu

Education

1989 Ph.D. University of California, Irvine, Program in Social Ecology Special emphases: Developmental and Health Psychology
1983 M.S. Portland State University, Portland, OR, General Psychology
1980 B.A. Southern California College (Vanguard University), Costa Mesa, CA, Psychology

Program Affiliation

Development (core faculty); Affiliate of Child Clinical and Social

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 a NIDA grant to investigate the confluence of environmental, psychological and biological risk for substance use in youths, and CDC funding to conduct an expressive writing intervention with youths exposed to violence.

Recent/current courses taught at VCU

Prevention Research Internship
Parenting
Development
Research Methods

Recent grants or awards

CDC (1 U49 CE000730-01), Farrell, A., Virginia Commonwealth University - Center for Youth Violence Prevention, 9/05 – 9/10, $4,300,000
CDC (1 U49 CE000730-01), Farrell, A., Virginia Commonwealth University - Center for Youth Violence Prevention,  Principal Investigator on one of the two core research projects (Title: Writing study for seventh grade students), 9/05 – 12/06, $202,777
NIDA (K01 DA015442 01A1), Kliewer, W., Youth Drug use, Violence Exposure, and Physiology, 9/03 – 6/08, $760,000
VCU – Humanities & Sciences, Kliewer, W., Fathers’ Contributions to Urban Youth’s Coping with Community Violence, 1/07 – 6/07, $12,193
VCU – IDAS, Kliewer, W., Paternal contributions to risk for adolescent substance use, 12/06 – 12/07, $7,500

Biographical sketch

Program affiliation: Virginia Commonwealth University

Positions and Employment:

1998-present Associate Professor, Virginia Commonwealth University, Department of Psychology
1992-98 Assistant Professor, Virginia Commonwealth University, Department of Psychology
1989-92 NIMH Post-doctoral Fellow, Department of Psychology and Program for Prevention Research, Arizona State University
1990 Adjunct Assistant Professor, Arizona State University
1985-89 Research Assistant to Dr. Raymond Novaco, UC Irvine 1985-86 Adjunct Assistant Professor, Southern California College
1984-85 Research Assistant to Drs. Whalen, Henker, and Swanson, UC Irvine
1982-83 Research Assistant to Dr. Gerdi Weidener, Family Heart Study, Oregon Health Sciences University, Portland
1982 Research Assistant to Dr. Richard Schulz, Portland State University
1982-84 Instructor, Portland State University

Other experience:

2005- Editorial Board, Journal of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology
2004 Lead Guest Editor, special section of Journal of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology on protective factors in the relation between community violence exposure and adjustment
2004- Faculty member, VCU Institute for Drug and Alcohol Studies (IDAS) Ad hoc reviewer for a range of journals

Honors:

Regent’s Fellowship, UC Irvine (1983-84)
NIMH Predoctoral Fellowship, UC Irvine (1984-85)
Regent’s Summer Fellowship, UC Irvine (1985)
Regent’s Dissertation Fellowship, UC Irvine (1988)
Faculty Development Award, Virginia Commonwealth University (1993)
Grant-in-Aid Award, Virginia Commonwealth University (1995)
Grant-in-Aid Award, Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues (1995)
Grant-in-Aid Award, Virginia Commonwealth University (1999)
Psychology Department Teaching Award (2000)

Research support:

2003 – 6/2008 Title : Youth Drug Use, Violence Exposure, and Physiology Status : PI This project involves a longitudinal investigation of 360 youth and their parents, exploring links between exposure to community violence, physiological (Cortisol) responses to stress, and drug use. Gender and family factors are examined as moderators.
5/2004 – 4/2007 Title: A Developmental Pathway to Alcohol Use Status: Primary Mentor of Kelli W. Taylor

Past research support:

(PI: R Cohen) Parent-child communication about coping with violence 10/02 – 9/04 $ 13,500
NICHD (PI: Farrell) Identifying Essential Skills for Violence Prevention 9/01 – 6/04 $ 851,100
VCU Longitudinal analysis of violence exposure and adjustment in African American children 9/01 – 8/02 $ 4,000
VCU – Grant in Aid Violence exposure, threat, and hormonal responses in African American children 9/99 – 8/00 $ 5,000
NIMH (flow through monies) Divorce Core of the Center Grant for the Prevention of Child and Family Stress: Development of a behavioral observation coding system of mothers’ socialization of children’s strategies for coping with specific divorce-related stressors (PI: Sandler) 9/96 – 8/97 $ 20,000
VCU – Grant in Aid Violence exposure and psychological symptoms in children 3/95 – 2/96 $ 4,997
SPSSI Violence exposure and psychological synptoms in children 3/95 – 2/96 $ 1,000
VCU – College of Humanities and Sciences Socialization of coping in elementary school-age children 11/92 – 10/93 $ 1,750