A free continuing education workshop will be held at the School of Social Work’s Tate-Turner-Kuralt Auditorium on Monday, March 26, 2012, from noon-2 p.m. There will be a catered reception preceding the event.
The topic is “Adolescent peer victimization, depression, and self-injury,” presented by Dr. Mitch Prinstein, Bowman and Gordon Gray Distinguished Term Professor and the Director of Clinical Psychology at UNC.
Are kids who are victimized more likely to attempt suicide? The question may be more complicated. For example, specific factors may make some children more vulnerable to being victimized by their peers, and these factors also may be related to the development of depressive mood and self-injurious behavior. In this workshop, Mitch Prinstein will address four interrelated questions:
- Are individuals with psychopathology more likely to be bullied?
- Is peer victimization associated with negative cognitions or psychological skills deficits?
- How might peer victimization increase risk for psychopathology or suicidality?
- Is peer victimization related to other peer constructs that are more closely associated with suicidality?
Dr. Prinstein will tease apart these questions by drawing primarily on his own research, which focuses on adolescents’ experiences, peer processes, and the development of depression, self-harm and suicidality. This workshop will focus more explicitly on academic research than on clinical applications; nonetheless, the issues raised have obvious value to applied work.
Mitchell J. Prinstein, Ph.D., is a Bowman and Gordon Gray Distinguished Term Professor and the Director of Clinical Psychology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. His research examines interpersonal models of internalizing symptoms and health risk behaviors among adolescents, with a specific focus on the unique role of peer relationships in the developmental psychopathology of depression and self-injury. He is the Incoming Editor of the Journal of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology, and co-editor of a public service website designed to teach parents and professionals about evidence-based treatment options for children and adolescents. Dr. Prinstein has received numerous national and university-based awards for his contributions to research (American Psychological Association Society of Clinical Psychology Theodore Blau Early Career Award, Columbia University/Brickell Award for research on suicidality, APA Fellow of the Society of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology), teaching (UNC Tanner Award for Undergraduate Teaching), and the professional development of graduate students (American Psychological Association of Graduate Students Raymond D. Fowler Award).
This event is cosponsored by North Carolina Academic Center for Excellence (NC-ACE) for the Prevention of Youth Violence, UNC Injury Prevention Research Center, and the School of Social Work’s Clinical Lecture Series.
