News from the Section on Child Maltreatment

I am very pleased to be serving as president of the Section on Child Maltreatment of Div. 37 for 2015 and 2016. For those of you who don't know me, I am a professor of social work and psychology at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. I have been doing research on the developmental impact of different forms of child abuse and neglect for more than 30 years.

Div. 37 has provided the section with a two-hour slot for a symposium at the 2015 APA Convention. An exciting program is planned: The title is, “The Institute of Medicine's 2013 report, ‘ New Directions in Child Abuse and Neglect Research' : Implementing the Recommendations and Future Directions.” Confirmed participants are Anne Petersen, PhD, who was the chair of the IOM panel (and of the earlier IOM panel which resulted in the 1993 book, “Understanding Child Abuse and Neglect ”), and Michael Meaney, PhD, from McGill University, a renowned researcher who studies the epigenetics of child maltreatment using both animal and human models. This should be an exciting symposium of interest to many Div. 37 members. It is scheduled for Sunday, Aug. 9, 9 a.m. - 10:50 a.m.