Expertise

Research Interests:

  • Peer relationships in childhood and adolescence
  • Developmental psychopathology
  • Social cognition
  • Stress response systems
  • Teacher-child relationships.

Research Projects:

  • The Friendship Hero Project
  • Parents Responses to Peer Victimization
  • Visual Attention and Dominance in Preschool.

Broadly speaking, Wendy’s interest lies at the intersection between children’s social cognitions, relational experiences, and psychological and emotional adjustment. More specifically, she is interested in: (a) how cognitive processes (e.g., attentional biases, relational schemas, self-perceptions) contribute to behavioral problems that underlie difficulties in forming positive relationships with peers, (b) how social cognitive biases resulting from problematic relational experiences contribute to adjustment problems, and (c) what contextual factors influence children’s ability to form positive relationships with peers, their emotional well being, and their school adjustment.

Projects:

  • Parent Responses to Peer Victimization
  • Friendship Hero Project
  • NDSU Youth Development Study
  • Undergraduate Facebook Reactions Study.
Past Affiliations

Associate Professor, College of Human Sciences, Auburn University

Communities
Human Development
Degrees
PhD, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Educational Psychology, 2002
MA, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Educational Psychology, 1999
AB, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Psychology, 1994
Keywords
peer relationships bullying school adjustment developmental psychopathology friendships peer rejection peer victimization popularity emotion regulation social cognition developmental psychology physiological psychology quantitative psychology adolescent psychology abnormal psychology education elementary or secondary education