Clinical Psychology

Clare Smith

		Graduate Student  -  Primary Advisor: R. Rogers Kobak Research Interests   chsmith@psych.udel.edu Office: 012 A McKinly (302) 831-1692 (302) 831-3645 -fax Preferred contact method - email

Research Interests

Achievement and Psychosocial Functioning

Research Summary:

I am a third year clinical student working with Dr. Roger Kobak. Throughout graduate school, I have assisted with the Parent-Teen Project, an NIMH-funded study designed to investigate the development of psychopathology in parents and adolescent children from low income families. Within this project, my interests have focused on the relation between adolescent achievement and externalizing behavior as well as the relation between childhood achievement trajectories and adolescent behavioral outcomes. In addition to this project, I have been collecting data from late elementary school students in a local public school district to further explore the relation between achievement growth and psychosocial functioning. My Master’s Thesis examined the effects of interpersonal relationships on student achievement trajectories.  My dissertation research will expand on this project to investigate student and classroom-level predictors (as well as the interaction between student and classroom level predictors) on student achievement growth during a school year.

Clinical Training:

I am presently a practicum student intern at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) where I participate in two different rotations.  I am a counselor at CHOP’s Adolescent HIV Clinic where I work with a multidisciplinary team conducting mental health and cognitive screenings and delivering counseling services to adolescents living with HIV. In addition, I am conducting psycho-educational evaluations with children at risk for AD/HD through CHOP’s Behavioral Health in Urban Schools program.

Recent Publications

Ackerman, B.A., Izard, C.E., Kobak, R.R., Brown, E. D. & Smith, C. (2007). The longitudinal relation between reading problems and internalizing behavior in school for preadolescent children from economically disadvantaged families. Child Development, 78, 581-596.

Smith, C. & Kobak, R.R. (2007). The effects of teacher and peer relationships on student achievement trajectories in late elementary school. Manuscript submitted for publication.

Ackerman, B.A., Smith, C. & Kobak, R.R. (2007). Diversity in the school problems of economically disadvantaged adolescents: Dual pathways of reading and externalizing problems. Manuscript submitted for publication.

Presentations

Smith, C., Kobak, R.R. & Stazesky, P.  The effects of disruptive behavior and peer victimization on achievement growth in late elementary school. Paper accepted for presentation at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association, New York, NY, March 2008.

Smith, C., Ackerman, B.A. & Kobak, R.R. Diversity in the school problems of economically disadvantaged adolescents: Dual pathways of reading and externalizing behavior. Poster accepted for presentation at the biennial meeting of the Society for Research on Adolescence, Chicago, IL, March 2008.

Smith, C., Ackerman, B.A. & Kobak, R.R. The longitudinal relation between reading problems and internalizing behavior for economically disadvantaged children. Poster presentation at the biennial meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development, Boston, MA, March 2007.

Smith, C., Kobak, R.R., & Ackerman, B.A. Gender as a moderator of early school achievement on externalizing outcomes among economically disadvantaged adolescents. Poster presentation at the biennial meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development, Boston, MA, March 2007.

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