The Section on Child Maltreatment supports three awards:

• The Section on Child Maltreatment Dissertation Award (established in 2000)
• The Early Career Award for Outstanding Contributions to Research/Practice in the Field of Child Maltreatment (established in 2001)

• The Section on Child Maltreatment Undergraduate Research Award (established in 2003)

Click here for announcements regarding nominations for the 2010 Dissertation Award and Early Career Award for Outstanding Contributions to Practice.

Beginning in 2000, the Section established a Dissertation Award on Child Maltreatment. Recipients of the award receive $400 to help defray the costs of their dissertation research on child maltreatment.

We had a number of outstanding awards for 2012, so we our honoring two awardees this year:

Kristin Abner is a Ph.D. candidate in sociology at the University of Illinois at Chicago, with a concentration in work, organizations, and the economy. Her work aims to use sociology as a tool for analyzing social policy. Ms. Abner's dissertation focuses on contextual mechanisms contributing to child abuse and neglect, and she was recently awarded the Doris Duke Fellowship for the Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect for 2012 - 2014. Currently, she is a research assistant at the Institute for Government and Public Affairs for Dr. Rachel Gordon, conducting research on the Child and Adult Food Care Program and early childhood education quality. Ms. Abner received her master’s degree in sociology from the University of Illinois at Chicago and bachelor of arts in sociology from the University of Virginia. Kristin's dissertation is entitled “Child Maltreatment, Child Welfare Intervention, and Child Outcomes: Contextual and Individual Inequalities.”

 Early Career Award for Outstanding Contributions to Research/Practice in the Field of Child Maltreatment

Beginning in 2002, the Section instituted a new award to recognize researchers and practitioners who have made substantial contributions to the field within eight years of receiving a terminal degree and who have demonstrated the potential to continue such contributions. The award will be given to an outstanding new practitioner one year and to an outstanding new researcher the next.

The 2012 Early Career Research Award Winner

Karen Appleyard Carmody, Ph.D., LCSW, is a licensed psychologist and clinical associate at the Center for Child and Family Health (CCFH) in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Duke University Medical Center. Dr. Carmody received her MSW from the University of Pennsylvania and her Ph.D. in clinical and developmental psychology from the University of Minnesota. Her post-doctoral training was completed at the University of North Carolina’s Center for Developmental Science. Dr. Carmody is engaged in several program evaluation and dissemination projects for evidence-based practices for children who have experienced trauma and early adversity. She is working with Dr. Mary Dozier and a team at CCFH to develop the nation’s first Learning Collaborative focused on the dissemination of Attachment and Biobehavioral Catch-up (ABC). She serves as the evaluator for the PCIT of the Carolinas project, the nation’s first Learning Collaborative for Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT). Dr. Carmody also serves as a clinical supervisor for the Healthy Families Durham home visiting and child maltreatment prevention program and program manager for the Durham Early Head Start Home-Based Program. Dr. Carmody also has significant experience providing trauma treatment to children and families. She serves as a clinician and the former co-director of the North Carolina Child Response Initiative, a police-mental health partnership designed to provide crisis intervention and support to children and families who have witnessed domestic and community violence. Dr. Carmody’s research focuses on the correlates and consequences of attachment and parenting, developmental processes underlying resilience following early adversity, and empirically-based interventions relating to trauma and attachment. Her research is grounded in a developmental psychopathology perspective and in her clinical interests in the outcomes of early adversity, with the goal of advancing interventions with high-risk children.

PREVIOUS EARLY CAREER AWARD WINNERS

  The 2011 Early Career Service Award

Staci Perlman is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Social Work at Kutztown University. She obtained her doctoral degree in Social Welfare from the School of Social Policy and Practice at the University of Pennsylvania, where she also received her MSW. Her practice and research interests are focused on promoting the well-being of vulnerable young children. She has worked as a preschool teacher and as a direct practitioner providing support to children identified with significant behavioral problems and their families. Dr. Perlman’s research has focused on using partnership-based research to facilitate collaboration across systems serving vulnerable young children and their families. Her prior research involved using an integrated administrative data system to examine the prevalence, timing, and influence of early experiences of child maltreatment and homelessness on early educational well-being. Her current research is focused on examining the timing trajectories of first experiences of homelessness, child maltreatment, and foster care relative to one another; and making meaningful distinctions between substantiated and unsubstantiated allegations of child maltreatment. She is serving as an external evaluator of several. Currently, she is also the co-chair of the Task Force on Child Maltreatment and Homelessness.

The 2010 Early Career Award for Outstanding Contributions to Research:

Dr. Stevenson is an Assistant Professor of Psychology in the Department of Psychology at the University of Evansville. Previously she was the recipient of the Section's Dissertation Award and then won the First Place Dissertation Award from the American Psychology-Law  Society (Division 41). Dr. Stevenson was recently published in the prestigious  Psychology, Public Policy and Law. Dr. Stevenson has already made27 conference presentations,  and has published 4 published chapters (comprehensive reviews that are drawing attention in the field), an  encyclopedia article, one law review article, and 5 peer-reviewed journal articles.  Both of the psychologists who nominated her endorsed Dr. Stevenson as one of the most outstanding young psychologists to enter the child maltreatment field that they have known.

The 2005 Early Career Award for Outstanding Contributions to Research:

Kimberly Mitchell, Ph.D., a research assistant professor of psychology and the University of New Hampshire's Crimes Against Children Research Center.

 The 2004 Early Career Award for Outstanding Contributions to Research:

Michael de Arellano, Medical University of South Carolina

The 2002 Early Career Award for Outstanding Contributions to Practice:

Kristin Kenefick of the Chicago Children's Advocacy Center.

PREVIOUS DISSERTATION AWARD WINNERS

The 2011 Dissertation Award Winner: 

Angelique Day will graduate from Western Michigan University in August 2011 with a PhD in Interdisciplinary Health Sciences.  Her dissertation is entitled, “An Examination of Post-Secondary Educational Access, Retention, and Success of Foster Care Youth”. Prior to her appointment at WSU, Angelique worked as the founder and coordinator of Michigan State University’s Foster Youth Alumni Services Program, a college access and retention program for students who have aged out of foster care who were interested in obtaining a post-secondary credential.  Angelique was also formerly employed with Michigan’s Children, a statewide, private, non-profit children’s advocacy organization where she provided leadership in developing the agency’s child welfare policy agenda and lead the Youth Policy Leadership Policy program, an effort that provided opportunities for youth voice, many of whom were in foster care, in the public policy debate. Angelique has extensive experience in research, training and the provision of services in tribal communities across the State. Angelique will begin an appointment as an Assistant Professor in the School of Social Work at Wayne State University (WSU) in September of 2011. 

The 2010 Dissertation Award Winner: 

Julie Laura Cohen (University of Arizona) for her project, entitled "Enhancing Retention of Foster Parents: The Role of Motivational Interviewing," is a longitudinal study using brief Motivational Interviewing (MI) in order to try to significantly improve the retention and satisfaction rates
of new foster parents. About half of new foster parents quit fostering in their first year, which contributes to the severe national shortage of foster parents. Julie hopes that the development of this
intervention will contribute to more foster parents persevering, thereby leading to more stable placements and a better quality of life for children in the foster care system.

The 2008 Dissertation Award Winner:

Tisha Wiley (2008) (University of Illinois at Chicago), “The effects of child maltreatment and environmental stability on children’s trajectories of aggressive behavior.”

The 2006 Dissertation Award Winner:

Stephanie Block (Univ. of California Irvine), for her proposal examining different types of false memory in sexually abused and nonabused adolescents and adults and investigating the effects of trauma and memory.

 The 2003 Dissertation Award Winner:

David Zielinski (Cornell Univ.), for his proposal entitled, "Child Maltreatment and Adult Socioeconomic Outcomes:  The Mediational Role of Psychopathology."

Amy Jarvinen (2003) (Boston University) (Undergraduate Research Award), thesis examined religious factors in attitudes toward domestic violence.

The 2002 Dissertation Award Winners:

Elizabeth Pontari (Depaul Univ.), for her proposal entitled, "Good enough parenting: An exploratory study of the perceptions of juvenile court officials."

Amanda Schweder (Yale Univ.), for her proposal entitled, "Behavior problems in maltreated children removed from their homes: Risk and protective factors."

The 2001 Dissertation Award Winner:

Nicole E. Marcus (Department of Psychology, University of Miami), for her proposal entitled, "Dimensions of Marital Aggression and Children's Aggressive Schemas in Clinic-Referred Families."

The 2000 Dissertation Award Winners:

Nona E. (Beth) Bryant (Clinical and Health Psychology, University of Florida), for her proposal entitled, "Medical Foster Families: An Assessment of Their Characteristics and Needs."

Rebecca L. Wald (Department of Psychology, University of Iowa) for her proposal entitled, "Child Disability as a Potential Risk Factor for Maltreatment."