2. Profile
  3. Patricia A. Graczyk

Patricia A. Graczyk PhD

Patricia A. Graczyk
Designation
  • Assistant Professor of Clinical Psychology
Contact Information
  • pgraczyk [at] uic.edu
  • (630) 428-6101
  • Institute for Juvenile Research (IJR)
    1747 W. Roosevelt Rd.
    Chicago IL 60612
Website

Patricia A. Graczyk, Ph. D. is a licensed clinical psychologist and school psychologist in the state of Illinois and an Assistant Professor of Clinical Psychology in the Institute for Juvenile Research, Department of Psychiatry, at the University of Illinois Chicago (UIC). Her current research interests focus on the utilization of a school-based tiered framework of evidence-based practices to promote school attendance, decrease school attendance problems, and prevent and treat anxiety, depression, and trauma in children and youth. In the Department of Psychiatry, Dr. Graczyk teaches a seminar on “Working with Schools” to psychiatry, clinical psychology, and social work trainees and co-teachers a seminar on research methodologies to psychiatry fellows. She also is a certified What Works Clearinghouse reviewer for group designs and has served as a grant reviewer for the U. S. Department of Education. 

Dr. Graczyk is active nationally and internationally in promoting school attendance and addressing school attendance problems. She serves as a member of the Network to Advance State Attendance Policy and Practices (NASAPP) in the US and collaborates internationally with researchers in Australia, Canada, Germany, the Netherlands, and Norway. She also has served as a consultant on school attendance to policy makers in Ireland and the Netherlands. In her clinical work, Dr. Graczyk has specialized in treating children and youth with anxiety disorders and has taught, published, and presented on the topic of pediatric anxiety. 

Dr. Graczyk also is a seasoned educator, having worked in Illinois public schools for over 35 years at all levels --- preschool, elementary, middle school/junior high, high school, undergraduate, and graduate. Currently, she is serving as a coach for the Illinois State Board of Education’s Resilience Education to Advance Community Healing (REACH) Statewide Initiative. As a REACH coach, she provides workshops and ongoing support to Illinois educators on such topics as social-emotional learning, behavioral health, trauma-informed practices, planning for a student’s re-entry to school following psychiatric hospitalization, supporting refugee students, school refusal, truancy, and school attendance.

  • Effective implementation and sustainment of evidence-based practices in schools related to school attendance, school refusal, chronic absenteeism, school attendance problems, truancy, pediatric anxiety disorders, refugee students, social and emotional learning (SEL), trauma-informed practices, data-based decision-making, and utilization of a Multi-Tiered System of Supports (MTSS) framework
  • Proeftuin for School Attendance

    I am collaborating with two regional educational teams in the Netherlands to pilot the transport of a Multi-Dimensional Multi-Tiered System of Supports (MD-MTSS; Kearney & Graczyk, 2014; 2020) framework to promote school attendance and address school attendance problems in primary and secondary schools in their regions.

  • On the Frontline for Attendance (OTFA)

    I am collaborating with researchers in Germany, the Netherlands, and Norway to design and implement a feasibility study of the implementation and evaluation of a school-based framework to increase school attendance, respond to emerging school attendance problems, and address chronic absenteeism. 

  • Multi-tiered Systems of Support for School Attendance Problems in Australia

    I am collaborating with researchers in Australia in this grant-funded project that will focus on using a multi-tiered system of supports framework for school attendance problems and investigate how it can be used by Australian schools.

  • ARTICLES IN PEER-REVIEWED JOURNALS:

    Graczyk, P. A., & Kearney, C. A. (in press). Roadmap for Implementing a Multi-Tiered System of Supports Framework to Improve School Attendance, Current Psychology. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-023-05478-0

    Kearney, C. A., & Graczyk, P. A. (2022). Multi-tiered systems of support for school attendance and its problems: An unlearning perspective for areas of high chronic absenteeism. Frontiers in Education. https://doi.org/10.3389/feduc.2022.1020150

    Kearney, C. A., & Graczyk, P. A. (2020). A multi-dimensional, multi-tiered system of supports model to promote school attendance and address chronic absenteeism. Clinical Child and Family Psychology Review, 23, 316-337.  https://doi.org/10.1007/s10567-020-00317-1

    Kearney, C. A., Gonzalvez, C., Graczyk, P. A., & Fornander, M. J. (November, 2019). Reconciling contemporary approaches to school attendance and school absenteeism: Toward promotion and nimble response, global policy review and implementation, and future adaptability (Part 2). Frontiers in Education. 10:2605. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2019.02605

    Kearney, C. A., Gonzalvez, C., Graczyk, P. A., & Fornander, M. J. (October, 2019). Reconciling contemporary approaches to school attendance and school absenteeism: Toward promotion and nimble response, global policy review and implementation, and future adaptability (Part 1). Frontiers in Education. 10:2222. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2019.02222

    Kearney, C. A., & Graczyk, P.  (2014). Response to Intervention model to promote school attendance and decrease school absenteeism. Child and Youth Care Forum, 43, 1-25.

    Heilman, K. J., Connolly, S. D., Padilla, W. O., Wrzosek, M. I., Graczyk, P. A., & Porges, S. W. (2012). Sluggish vagal break reactivity to physical exercise challenge in children with selective mutism. Development and Psychopathology, 24, 241-250.

    Atkins, M. S., Frazier, S. L., Leathers, S. J., Graczyk, P. A. , Talbott, E., Jakobsons, L. A. Abdul, J., Marinez-Lora A., Dimirtas, H., Gibbons, R. B., & Bell, C. C. (2008). Teacher key opinion leaders and mental health consultation in urban low-income schools. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 76, 907-908.

    Atkins, M. S., Frazier, S. L., Birman, D., Abdul-Adil, J., Jackson, M., Graczyk, P. A., Talbott, E., Farmer, D., Bell, C. C., & McKay, M. M. (2006). School-based mental health services for high poverty urban communities. Administration and Policy in Mental Health and Mental Health Services Research, 33, 146-159.

    Graczyk, P. A., Domitrovich, C. E., Small, M., & Zins, J. E. (2006). Serving all children: An implementation model framework. School Psychology Review, 35, 266-274.

    Graczyk, P. A., Atkins, M. S., Jackson, M. M., Letendre, J. A., Kim, J. Y. S., Baumann, B. L., & McCoy, J. (2005). Urban educators’ perceptions of interventions for Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder: A preliminary investigation. Behavioral Disorders, 30, 95-104.

    Pavuluri, M. N., Graczyk, P. A., Henry, D. B., Carbray, J. A., Heidenreich, J., & Miklowitz, D. J. (2004). Child- and family-focused cognitive behavioral therapy for pediatric bipolar disorder: Development and preliminary results. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 43 (5), 528-537.

    Atkins, M. S., Graczyk, P. A., Frazier, S. L., & Abdul-Adil, J. (2003). Toward a new model of mental health for urban children: Accessible, effective, and sustainable school-based mental health services. Lead article in Special Section on Emerging Models for Promoting Children's Mental Health: Linking Systems for Prevention and Intervention - IV. School Psychology Review, 32 (4), 503-514.

    Connolly, S., Graczyk, P. A., & Bernstein, G. (2003). Recognition and treatment of childhood anxiety disorders. Contemporary Psychiatry, 2 (5), 1-7. 

    Elias, M. J., Zins, J. E., Graczyk, P. A., & Weissberg, R. P. (2003). Implementation, sustainability, and scaling up of social-emotional and academic innovations in public schools. School Psychology Review, 32 (3), 313-319.

    White, K. J., Rubin, E. C., & Graczyk P. A. (2002). Aggressive children's perceptions of behaviorally similar peers: The influence of one's own behavioral characteristics on perceptions of deviant peers. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 19 (6), 755-775.

    Lovejoy, M. C., Graczyk, P. A., O'Hare, E., & Neuman, G. (2000). Maternal depression and parenting behavior: A meta-analytic review. Clinical Psychology Review, 20, 561-592.

    Payton, J. W., Wardlaw, D. M., Graczyk, P. A., Bloodworth, M.R., Tompsett, C. J., & Weissberg, R. P. (2000). Social and emotional learning: A framework for promoting mental health and reducing risk behavior in children and youth. Journal of School Health, 70 , 179-185.

    Waas, G. A., & Graczyk, P. A. (2000). Child behaviors leading to peer rejection: A view from the peer group. Child Study Journal, 29, 291-306. 

    O'Donohue, W. T., Graczyk, P. A., Yeater, E. A. (1998). Quality control and the practice of clinical psychology. Applied and Preventive Psychology, 7, 181-187.

     

    CHAPTERS:

    Kearney, C. A., Graczyk, P. A., Gonzálvez, C. (2021). Interdisciplinary research and a bird’s eye view. In M. G. Landell (Ed.), School attendance problems: A research update and where to go (pp. 39-44). Stockholm, Sweden: The Jerring Foundation.

    Graczyk, P. A., Hennelly, M., & Connolly, S. D. Anxiety disorders in childhood. (2017). In T. P. Gullotta & G. Blau (Eds.), Handbook of Childhood Behavioral Issues: Evidence Based Approaches to Prevention and Treatment, 2nd ed. (pp. 215-237). New York: Routledge.

    Graczyk, P. A., & Connolly, S. D. (2015). Anxiety disorders. In T. P. Gullotta, R. W. Plant, & M. A. Evans (Eds.). Handbook of adolescent behavioral problems: Evidence-based approaches to prevention and treatment, 2nd ed. (pp. 107-130). New York: Springer.

    Graczyk, P. A., & Connolly, S. D. (2008). Anxiety disorders in childhood. In T. P. Gullotta (Ed.), Handbook of child behavioral issues: Evidence-based approaches (pp. 215-238). New York: Taylor and Francis, Publishers.

    Graczyk, P. A., Connolly, S. D., & Corapci, F. (2005). Anxiety disorders in children and adolescents: Theory, treatment, and prevention. In T. P. Gullotta and G. Adams (Eds.) Handbook of adolescent behavioral problems: Evidence-based approaches to prevention and treatment (pp. 131-157). New York: Springer Science + Media, Inc.

    Graczyk, P. A., Domitrovich, C. E, & Zins, J. E. (2003). Facilitating the implementation of evidence-based prevention and mental health promotion efforts in schools. In M. D. Weist, S. W. Evans, & N. A. Lever (Eds.), Handbook of school mental health: Advancing practice and research, (pp. 301 – 318). New York: Kluwer Academic/ Plenum Publishers.

    Graczyk, P. A., Payton, J. P., Weissberg, R. P., Elias, M. J., Greenberg, M. T., & Zins, J. E. (2000). Criteria for evaluating the quality of school-based social and emotional learning programs. In R. P. Bar-On and J. D. A. Parker (Eds.), Handbook of emotional intelligence: Theory, development, assessment, and application at home, school, and the workplace.  (pp. 391-410). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

    Waas, G. A., & Graczyk, P. A. (1998). Group interventions for the peer-rejected child. In K. C. Stoiber and T. R. Kratochwill (Eds.), Handbook of group intervention for children and families (pp. 141-158). Boston: Allyn & Bacon.

     

    OTHER PUBLICATIONS:

    Graczyk, P. A. (2017). Working with the school. In T. W. Phelan’s All about ADHD: Symptoms, diagnosis, and treatment for children and adults. (pp. 142-157). Naperville, IL: Sourcebooks.

    Greenberg, M. T., Domitrovich, C. E., Graczyk, P. A., & Zins, J. E. (2005). The study of implementation in school-based prevention research: Theory, research, and practice. Rockville, MD: Center for Mental Health Services, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Agency, Department of Health and Human Resources.