Jennifer Hammonds was elected to the steering committee of the Illinois Coalition of School Based Health Centers, which strives to improve the physical and mental health of children and adolescents in Illinois by fostering the development, stabilization and expansion of school health centers via provision of leadership, resources, training and technical assistance to enable school health centers to deliver high quality services. ICSBHC also advocates for local, state and national policies and funding to integrate school health centers into health and education systems.

Jennifer Hammonds is a voting member of Partnership for Youth, a community based organization that serves both as the juvenile justice board for Franklin county youth and as a 4013C. Goals of this organization are to promote mental health, emotional wellness, safety, and opportunities to at-risk youth in rural Franklin and Williamson counties via in-school education, parental education and support, a teen job expo, and pro-social community activities targeted at area youth.

New Presentations

• Barner, R., Gheyara, S.,& DiLalla, L.F. (2013). Genes, risk, and resilience: The relationship between child temperamental mood & anxiety/depression. Poster presented to the Society for Research in Child Development, April, Seattle, WA.
• Bersted, K., Gheyara, S., & DiLalla, L.F. (2013). The interaction of child temperament and daycare experience on behavior problems. Poster presented to the Society for Research in Child Development, April, Seattle, WA.
• Palo, A., Barner, R., Bersted, K., & DiLalla, L.F. (2013). The relationship between aggression and inflated child reports of maternal acceptance. Poster presented to the Society for Research in Child Development, April, Seattle, WA.
• Klaver, J., Gheyara, S., & DiLalla, L.F. (2013). Inaccuracy of self-esteem ratings is associated with internalizing and externalizing problems in 5-year-old children. Poster presented to the Society for Research in Child Development, April, Seattle, WA.
• Bersted, K., Gheyara, S., Klaver, J., & DiLalla, L.F. (2012). Effects of genes and prenatal environment on preschoolers’ temperament scores. Poster presented to the National Conference on Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology, Oct., Lawrence, KS.
• Gheyara, S., Barner, R., Bersted, K., Klaver, J., Palo, A., & DiLalla, L.F. (2012). A vignette approach to assessing aggression in 5-year-old boys. Poster presented to the National Conference on Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology, Oct., Lawrence, KS.
• Barner, R., & DiLalla, L.F. (2012). Resilience: An examination of risk factors for anxiety and depression in children. Poster presented to the National Conference on Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology, Oct., Lawrence, KS.
• DiLalla, L.F., Gilbert, D., & Kanneganti, R. (2012). Children’s pupil dilation and social skills. Paper presented to the Southern Illinois Region Neuroscience Retreat, September, Collinsville, IL.
• Elfenbein, H. A., Eisenkraft, N., DiLalla, L., Curhan, J., & Perlis, R. (2012). Person × environment interactions when the environment is another person: Twins in negotiations. Paper to be presented to the Academy of Management. Boston, August, 2012.
• Gheyara, S., & DiLalla, L.F. (2012). Genetic influences on victimization during preschool play with unfamiliar peers. Poster presented to the Behavior Genetics Association, June, Edinburgh, UK.
• Barner, R., Gheyara, S., Mathias, J.L., Palo, A., & DiLalla, L.F. (2012). Do opposites attract? Sibling temperament differences and interactive behaviors. Poster presented to the International Conference on Infant Studies, June, Minneapolis, MN.
• Mullineaux, P.Y., & DiLalla, L.F. (2012). Early sibling interactions and adjustment in middle childhood. Poster presented to the Association for Psychological Sciences, May, Chicago, IL.

Research

Lisabeth DiLalla, PhD is involved with the following projects:

• Genetic Influences on Early Cognitive Development: Early cognitive development, such as ability to conserve, engage in fantasy, and take perspective, is studied in 1- to 4-year-old twins. Genetic and environmental influences on these cognitive abilities are examined by comparing identical and fraternal twin correlations.
• Genetic and Environmental Influences on Social Behaviors: At age 5, twins are asked questions about self-esteem, play behaviors, and social interactions. The purpose of this study is to understand genetic and environmental influences on prosocial and aggressive behaviors in preschool-aged children.
• Mother-Infant Interaction in Twins – Genetic and Environmental Influences: This study involves examining the interactions between others and their young twins during structured and unstructured videotaped interactions. Because twins are used, mothers’ responses to identical versus fraternal twins can provide information about how much the children’s own temperaments and behaviors influence the mothers’ behaviors.
• Extended Studies on the SITSS Sample in Later childhood and Adolescence: Several follow-up studies on the SITSS twins, siblings, and singletons are focused on understanding development of social behaviors, including prosocial, aggressive, and bullying behaviors, with a focus on genetic influences as well as both peer and parent behaviors as primary influences.

Sandra Shea, PhD is involved with the following projects:

• (with Morthland T and Gunzel Y) Studying polypharmacy and depression induction in the geriatric population
• (co-P.I.)  with McCann-Stone N, Robinson S, Rosher R, Rull G.  Devloping caring attitudes in medical students:  Aging couples across the curriculum.