CONTACT INFORMATION

University of Illinois at Chicago
Department of Psychiatry (M/C 747)
Institute for Juvenile Research
1747 W. Roosevelt Road, Rm. 155
Chicago, IL 60608

Office Phone: (312)413-1888
Office Fax: (312) 413-0214

E-mail: debgs@uic.edu

Assistant:
 Graciela Bernal, (312) 413-1090, gbernal@psych.uic.edu

KEY PUBLICATIONS

Brady, S., Gorman-Smith, D., Henry, D.B., & Tolan, P.H.(2008). Adaptive coping reduces the impact of community violence exposure on violent behavior among African American and Latino male adolescents. Journal of Adolescent and Child Psychology.

Spokane, A.R., Lombard, J.L., Martinez, F., Mason, C.A., Gorman-Smith, D., Plater-Zyberk,
E., Brown, S.C., Perrino, T., and Szapocznik, J. (2007). Identifying streetscape features
significant to well-being. Architectual Science Review, 50, 234-345.

Szapocznik, J., Mason, C., Lombard, J., Martinez, F., Gorman-Smith, D., Plater-Zyberk, E. (2006). The impact of the built environment on school outcomes. American Journal of Community Psychology, 38, 299-310.

Tolan, P.H., Gorman-Smith, D., & Henry, D.B.(2006). Family Violence.; In S.T. Fiske, A.E. Kazdin, & D. Schacter (Eds.), Annual Review of Psychology, 57, 550-583. Gorman-Smith, D., & Loeber, R. (2005). Are developmental pathways in disruptive behaviors the same for girls and boys?Journal of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 14, 15-27.
Gorman-Smith, D., Henry, D.B. & Tolan, P.H. (2004). Exposure to community violence and violence perpetration: The protective effects of family functioning. Journal of Child Clinical and Adolescent Psychology, 33, 439-449.

Tolan, P.H., Gorman-Smith, D. & Henry, D.B.(2004). Supporting families in high-risk settings: Proximal effects of the SAFE children prevention program. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 72, 855-869.

Gorman-Smith, D., Tolan, P.H., & Henry, D.B. (2000). A developmental-ecological model of the relation of family functioning to patterns of delinquency.Journal of Quantitative Criminology, 16,169-198.

IJR Faculty Member

Deborah Gorman-Smith, PhD

Professor
Senior Research Fellow, Coalition for Evidence-Based Policy, Washington D.C.

My program of research is focused on advancing our knowledge about development, risk, and prevention with children, youth and families, and the settings of their development. Along with my colleagues, Drs. Tolan, Henry, and Schoeny, our intent is to articulate and refine a developmental-ecological model of psychosocial functioning through longitudinal studies that can help direct prevention and related policies. We are interested in understanding how the family tasks of raising and protecting children are affected by the social context in which they live (e.g., exposure to violence, neighborhood conditions, the schools the children attend, the peer groups they affiliate with). In particular, we are interested in how differences among characteristics of low-socioeconomic urban communities can affect families and their influence on children's development and the implications these relations may have for prevention design and competence-promoting policies. Our primary outcomes of interest are delinquency and violence, including dating and partner violence among adolescents and young adults.

Interests:

Prevention Science, Delinquency, Violence, Neighborhoods, Poverty

Projects:

  • Chicago Center on Youth Violence Prevention:
    The Chicago Center on Youth Violence Prevention brings together researchers, community representatives, practitioners and policy makers committed to understanding and reducing youth violence within poor inner-city communities in Chicago; communities with some of the highest rates of youth violence in the country.

    The core work of the Center is guided by the perspective that the most effective way to combat the problem of youth violence is through the coordination of empirical “pre-intervention” work designed to understand risk and development of youth violence and through rigorous evaluation of preventive interventions conducted both under tightly controlled conditions (i.e., randomized control efficacy trials) and in real world settings (i.e., effectiveness trials).

    Central to the work of the Center is the understanding that context matters – that characteristics of the neighborhood and community in which youth and families reside are important in both impacting risk and in the development of effective interventions. Inner-city communities are qualitatively different environments in which to live and raise children.

    These differences have important implications for understanding risks associated with involvement in violence and the development and implementation of interventions designed to reduce youth violence.
  • Chicago Youth Development Study:
    This longitudinal study (Chicago Youth Development Study- CYDS) began in 1991 and tracks the development of risk for school failure, antisocial behavior, and violence among inner-city male adolescents.

    Four waves of data were collected from boys and their caregiver(s) beginning when the boys were in 6th grade. Based in a developmental-ecological model, data were collected regarding individual, family, peer, school, neighborhood and community factors.

    Additional funding was obtained to expand the focus to include women by adding the romantic partners of the males and a cohort of similar age females to the sample. This has permitted us to evaluate issues related to relationship development and partner violence among this population through two additional waves of data collection. We are currently funded to follow the children of the original sample, with a specific focus on the impact of fathering and father involvement.
  • Schools and Families Educating Children (SAFE Children):
    Applies knowledge developed from CYDS to an intervention. The primary aim was to test, for families living in inner-city Chicago with children entering first grade, the effects of a family-based comprehensive preventative- intervention targeting key risk markers for later drug and other substance use. Continuation of the original study was designed to evaluate the impact of a booster intervention delivered during fourth grade, as well as the long-term impact of the original intervention delivered during first grade.

    Current funding follows this sample as they transition through high school.
  • GREAT Schools and Families:
    This is a multi-site school violence prevention initiative. Four sites (UIC, Virginia Commonwealth University, University of Georgia at Athens, an Duke University) are implementing a multi-component intervention designed to address a major scientific question regarding reducing school violence: Are greater reductions in school violence found when a general violence prevention program is implemented with all children in a given grade or when an intervention is targeted at those youth who are at greatest risk for involvement in violence (i.e. those already participating in a high rate of aggressive behavior)or are both types of intervention needed? The intervention components are broken down into two approaches: universal and targeted intervention.

    The universal intervention is being implemented with all students in 6th grade. The universal intervention has two components: a social cognitive and problem solving intervention delivered to students; and a teacher training component around the issues of classroom management strategies and building awareness of aggression and victimization in the classrooms. The targeted intervention is focused on those students who are at high risk for violence and includes a family intervention delivered in multiple family groups and a school-monitoring component. 12 Chicago Public Schools have been randomized into 4 groups: 1) 3 schools receiving the universal intervention; 2) 3 schools receiving the targeted treatment; 3) 3 schools receiving both treatments; and 4) 3 comparison schools.
  • Community Ecology of Family Influence on Child Development:
    Funded through a Faculty Scholar Award by the William T. Grant Foundation, this work uses data collected through the CYDS to evaluate the impact of community structural and neighborhood social organization characteristics on family functioning and child development.
  • Neighborhood Variation in Prevention Impact:  
    Funded by the William T. Grant Foundation, the purpose of this study is to evaluate if and how the effects of preventive interventions vary as a function of neighborhood context. Specifically, we intend to analyze data from experimental evaluations of four state-of-the-art preventive interventions, each of which was designed to promote positive youth outcomes (particularly academic achievement and social competence) and decrease problem behavior.