School of Psychology

Professor Bonnie Barber

Chair of Psychology
Professor

RESEARCH:
My research interests include adolescent and young adult social relationships across life transitions, long-term benefits of organised sport and activity participation, and positive development in divorced families. I am currently directing the Relationships After Divorce or Separation (RAD) program.

ACTIVITIES:
The Spencer Foundation, the William T. Grant Foundation, and the National Science Foundation in the US funded my 20-year longitudinal study, in which I followed 1800 youth and their families from age 12 to age 32. Using results from my longitudinal research, I have designed and implemented an educational program for divorced mothers with adolescents in several states in the US, and in WA. A randomized controlled trial is underway of that program, funded by Healthway.

I have ARC funding to begin a longitudinal study of the importance of organized activities such as sport, performing art, and volunteer service for healthy development during the high school years. My research team and I will examine the role of such activities in patterns of change over time in academic performance, risk behaviour and psychological adjustment. I also participate in a collaborative research project on young adult financial behaviours based at the University of Arizona. I am an Associate Editor for the Journal of Research on Adolescence and a member of the editorial board for the Journal of Early Adolescence.

TEACHING:
Adolescent and young adult behaviour and program planning and evaluation.

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS:

• Barber, B. L. (2006). To have loved and lost…Adolescent romantic relationships and rejection. In A. C. Crouter, and A. Booth (Eds.) Romance and Sex in Adolescence and Emerging Adulthood: Risks and Opportunities (pp. 29-40). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
  
  

• Barber, B. L., & Demo, D. H. (2006). The Kids are Alright (at least, most of them): Links between divorce and dissolution and child well-being. In M. A. Fine and J. H. Harvey (Eds.) Handbook of divorce and relationship dissolution (pp. 289-311). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
  
  

• Barber, B. L., Stone, M. R.,Hunt, J. & Eccles, J. S. (2005). Benefits of activity participation: The roles of identity affirmation and peer group norm sharing. In J. L. Mahoney, R. W. Larson, & J. S. Eccles (Eds.) Organized activities as contexts of development: Extracurricular activities, after-school and community programs (pp. 185-210). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.

  
  
  Full List of Publications