People
Assistant Professor
Ph.D., Clinical Psychology, University of Utah
Office
212 Wolf Hall
(302) 831-0371
(302) 831-3645 Fax
Opening(s) available for grad students. Please contact Ryan Beveridge at rbeveridge@psych.udel.edu
Ryan Beveridge
Parent-child Interpersonal Process
My research program utilizes a transactional approach to understand how dyads across the lifespan (i.e., parent-adolescent, mid-life and older married couples) jointly cope with stressful events (see Beveridge & Berg, 2007). Traditionally, researchers have focused on how individuals manage and appraise stressors. However, the field has moved to focus on the social aspects of stress appraisal and coping efforts (Berg & Upchurch, in press; Bodenman, 2001). I explore collaboration as a social process in which stressful events (such as chronic illnesses) are appraised as shared entities within dyads and managed through complex reciprocal interactions that influence developmental outcomes for all involved (Beveridge, Berg, Wiebe, Palmer, 2006; Beveridge & Berg, 2007).
My transactional approach to collaborative coping emphasizes multiple methodologies (i.e., surveys, interviews, behavioral observations) to capture cognitive appraisals and interpersonal processes within dyads. For example, I explore the extent to which mothers and adolescents appraise the adolescent’s type 1 diabetes as a shared entity that they both “own.” At a more fine-grained level, I explore ways in which spousal and parent-adolescent behavioral interactions are mutually dependent within minute-to-minute sequences of interaction (Beveridge & Berg, 2007; Beveridge, Berg, Smith, Henry, in prep.). Although much of the literature focuses on unidirectional patterns of influence on development (i.e., how parents’ behavior affects child development), my approach seeks to capture dyadic processes. Parent and adolescent interactions involve a system of reciprocal behaviors that predictably relate to one another. These patterns of mutual influence (e.g., maternal autonomy granting together with adolescent autonomy taking) also relate to important psychosocial and behavioral outcomes (e.g., adolescent and maternal depression, family cohesion, marital satisfaction, treatment adherence) as well as physical outcomes (e.g., metabolic control, cardiovascular disease markers) for both persons in the dyad. Therefore, my research program cuts across clinical adolescent psychology, adolescent development, pediatric and health psychology, life-span development, and behavioral interaction coding.
Recent Publications
Smith, T.W., Uchino, B.N., Florsheim, P., Berg, C.A., Hawkins, M., Henry, N.J.M., Beveridge, R.M. , Pearce, G., Hopkins, P.N., & Yoon, H. (2008). Association of observed affiliation and control during marital disagreement and history of divorce with asymptomatic coronary artery calcification in older couples. Archives of General Psychiatry.
Beveridge, R.M ., & Berg, C.A. (2007). Parent-adolescent collaboration: An interpersonal model for understanding optimal interactions. Clinical Child and Family Psychology Review 10, (1), 25-52.
Story, N., Berg, C.A., Smith, T.W., Beveridge. R.M. , Henry, N.J., & Pearce, G., (2007). Age, marital satisfaction, and optimism as predictors of positive sentiment override in middle-aged and older married couples. Psychology and Aging, 22, (4), 719-727.
Berg, C.A., Smith, T.W., Ko, K., Story, N., Beveridge, R.M. , Allen, N., Florsheim, P., Pearce, G., Uchino, B., Skinner, M., & Glazer, K. (2007). Task control and cognitive abilities of self and spouse in collaboration in middle-aged and older couples. Psychology and Aging, 22, 420-427.
Berg, C.A., Wiebe, D.J., Beveridge, R.M. , Palmer, D.L., Korbel, C.D., & Upchurch, R. (2007). Appraised involvement in coping and emotional adjustment in children and their mothers. Journal of Pediatric Psychology, 32, 995-1005.
Beveridge, R. M. , Berg, C.A., Wiebe, D.J., & Palmer, D. L. (2006). Mother and adolescent representations of illness ownership and stressful events surrounding diabetes. Journal of Pediatric Psychology, 31, 818-827.
Wiebe, D.J., Berg, C.A., Korbel, C.D., Palmer, D.L., Beveridge, R.M., Upchurch, R., Lindsay, R., Swinyard, M.T., & Donaldson, D.L. (2005). Coping with diabetes: Enhancing our understanding of adherence, metabolic control, and quality of life across adolescence. Journal of Pediatric Psychology, 30, 167-178.
