Bio Page

Janis Leann Whitlock

Research Scientist FLDC / Lecturer HD
G96 Martha Van Rensselaer Hall Martha Van Rensselaer & Beebe Hall
HD, FLDC
 
Phone: (607) 254-2894 & 255-2533
Fax: (607) 255-8562 & 255-9856
Email: jlw43@cornell.edu
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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.

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.

Courses Taught:
HD353 Risk and Opportunity in Childhood and Adolescence

Related Websites:
Self-Injurious Behavior (SIB)
www.human.cornell.edu/fldc/

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                   

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 III data collection in five 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 received Smith-Lever funding in fall of 07 to augment our capacity to develop web-based materials to be disseminated through our project website (www.crpsib.com).  We have since crafted five downladable materials and begun working on information exchange forums as well as 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.

Selected Publications:

Journal 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., Gershkovich, M. (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

The information on this bio page is taken from the CHE Annual Report.