A Word From the Section President

The 2016 APA convention is fast approaching. This year, Div. 37’s Section on Child Maltreatment will sponsor an invited symposium entitled, “The Impact of Child Sexual Abuse on Women’s Health and Well-Being: Why is Sexual Abuse Different from Other Forms of Maltreatment or Is It?” The presenter will be Jennie Noll, PhD, professor of human development and family studies and director, Network on Child Protection and Wellbeing at Pennsylvania State University. Noll received her PhD in developmental psychology and statistical methodology from the University of Southern California. She spent eight years in Washington, D.C., at the National Institutes of Health before going to Cincinnati Children’s Hospital where she spent 10 years as a professor of pediatrics. 

Her primary research foci are as follows:

  • Biopsychosocial consequences of childhood sexual abuse. 
  • Pathways to teen pregnancy and high-risk sexual behaviors for abused and neglected youth. 
  • Long-term adverse health outcomes for victims of sexual abuse, including hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal dysregulation, cognitive deficits, various cancers, immunodeficiencies, health care utilization, diabetes and obesity. 
  • Midlife reversibility of neurocognitive deficits in stress-exposed populations. 
  • Propensity for abused and neglected teens to engage in high-risk internet and social media behaviors. 

Please plan to attend.

At last year’s APA convention in Toronto, as a service project the section conducted a fundraiser for Boost Child & Youth Advocacy Centre in Toronto. Boost is committed to eliminating abuse and violence in the lives of children, youth and their families. The effort was hugely successful, and we were able to raise $1,400. Our aim this year as a section is to organize something similar for a Denver-based organization. As soon as we have identified an organization to sponsor, a notice will be sent to all section members. As was the case last year, any size contribution will be welcome. It would be wonderful if we could match last year’s success.

Penelope Trickett, PhD