Student Dissertation Award

The prize includes a $500 honorarium and one free year of membership in the division. The award recipient is notified the first week of July. The award will be announced at the APA Annual Convention and in the division's publication, The Advocate.

A completed doctoral dissertation relevant to Div. 37's mission is eligible to be submitted for consideration for the award.

Students should submit electronically their completed, approved dissertations, along with a copy/facsimile of the signed cover sheet and an abstract of no more than 1000 words summarizing the research and its relevance to Div. 37's mission.

Div. 37 is committed to the application of psychological knowledge to advocacy, service delivery and public policies affecting children, youth and families.

Dissertations submitted for the award should reflect this goal, including an explicit discussion of how the dissertation research contributes to policy and advocacy on behalf of children and families.

The dissertation should have been completed within the last two years.

Submissions should be sent to the division past president.

Annual deadline is June 1.

2020: Stephanie Caldas
The Impact of a Peer Mentor Intervention on Internalized Stigma, Mindfulness, and Adherence to Antiretroviral Medication Among Adolescents  Living With HIV in Zambia

Runner Up: Amanda Sanchez
Improving Satisfaction, Engagement and Clinical Outcomes Among Traditionally Underserved Children Through Cultural Formulation

Runner Up: Reeve Kennedy
Bullying Trends in the United States and an Analysis of the Impact of Prevention Programs on Bullying Subtypes and Gender

2018:  Irene Tung

2017:  Rebecca Kanine, PhD

2016:  Elizabeth Shuey, PhD

2014:  Jonathan Martinez, PhD

2011:  Anna D. Johnson
Child Care Subsidies: Who Uses Them, and What Do They Buy Low-Income Families and Children? Sponsor: Columbia University; Jeanne Brooks-Gunn, PhD, Advisor

2010:  Catherine DeCarlo Santiago
Family Coping as a Protective Factor for Poor Children

Honorable Mention:  Erin Gabrielson
Cultural Responsiveness: Working with Interpreters when Providing Mental Health Services to LEP Clients;

Honorable Mention:  Margaret Stevenson
Understanding Jurors' Discussions of a Defendant's History of Child Abuse and Alcohol Abuse in Capital Sentencing Trials

2009:  No award given

2008:  Timothy D. Nelson
Practitioner Perspectives on Evidence-Based Practice: Toward a Model for Designing, Evaluating, and Disseminating Treatments with Research support

2007:  Lily Alpert, University of Connecticut
"Caseworker Family-Focus and Parent Engagement in Foster Care"

2006:  Richard Puddy, University of Kansas
"The Role of Service Coordination in an Innovative School-Based Intensive Mental Health Program"

2005:  Shadi Houshyar, Yale University
"Genetic and Environmental Predictors of Resiliency in Maltreated Children"

2004:  M. Alexis Kennedy, University of British Columbia
"Identifying Child Abuse: A Structural Equation Modeling Analysis of History of Abuse and Westernization on Perceptions of Abuse among Asian-descent and European-descent Students"

2002:  Jane G. Querido, University of Florida
"Early Intervention for Child Conduct Problems in Head Start Families"