Howard C. Stevenson
Graduate Group Affiliations
Contact information
Graduate School of Education
University of Pennsylvania
3700 Walnut Street
Philadelphia, PA 19104
University of Pennsylvania
3700 Walnut Street
Philadelphia, PA 19104
Office: (215) 898-5666
Fax: (215) 573-9007
Fax: (215) 573-9007
Email:
howards@gse.upenn.edu
howards@gse.upenn.edu
Education:
B.A. (Psychology and Sociology)
Eastern College, 1980.
M.A. (Theology)
Fuller Theological Seminary , 1985.
Ph.D. (Clinical Psychology)
Fuller Graduate School of Psychology , 1985.
Permanent linkB.A. (Psychology and Sociology)
Eastern College, 1980.
M.A. (Theology)
Fuller Theological Seminary , 1985.
Ph.D. (Clinical Psychology)
Fuller Graduate School of Psychology , 1985.
Description of Research Expertise
Areas of Expertise
African-American psychology
Effects of at-risk neighborhoods on youth
Family and parental engagement
Racial/ethnic socialization and negotiation
Professional Biography
Dr. Stevenson is an associate professor and former chair of the Applied Psychology and Human Development Division at the Graduate School of Education at the University of Pennsylvania. From 1994 to 2002, he was faculty master of the W. E. B. DuBois College House at Penn. In 1993, Dr. Stevenson received the W. T. Grant Foundation’s Faculty Scholar Award, a national research award given to only five researchers per year which funds five years of research. In 1994, Dr. Stevenson was a Presidential Fellow at the Salzburg Seminar in American Studies, where 35 other community activists and researchers from 30 countries to present their community health intervention projects. In 1995, Dr. Stevenson served on a 12-member academic panel to consult on the development of a National Strategic Action Plan for African-American Males, sponsored by the National Drug Control Policy Office in the Office of the President. Dr. Stevenson has 25 years of experience as a clinical supervisor and therapist in family and child psychotherapy and has served as an administrator of residential treatment centers for emotionally disturbed adolescents with Delaware’s Division of Child Mental Health.
Research Interests and Current Projects
His research and consultation work identify cultural strengths that exist within families and seek to integrate those strengths into interventions to improve the psychological adjustment of children and adolescents and families. From 1998 to 2003, he directed two National Institute of Mental Health research projects — one, entitled PLAAY (Preventing Long-term Anger and Aggression in Youth), found that the impact of a cultural socialization intervention reduced the rejection sensitivity of the PLAAY youth compared to a control group. The intervention involved the culturally relevant teaching of emotional empowerment through athletic movement in basketball (TEAM), self-control in martial arts (MAAR), cultural pride reinforcement in group therapy (CPR), and bonding in family interventions (Community Outreach through Parent Empowerment, or COPE) to help youth with histories of aggression manage their anger in school. A new PLAAY project currently underway is called Peacemakers, in which girls are recruited and parents are taught to be assistant coaches to monitor and intervene with youth emotional challenges during basketball play. The second project, Success of African American Students (SAAS), involved the protective role of racial identity and racial socialization processes in the development of emotional coping strategies for African-American students and families in predominantly White independent schools. Currently, Dr. Stevenson is conducting a classroom-based racial negotiation skills-building intervention called Can We Talk? for teachers and students, to reduce negative stress reactions in student-teacher relationships. One final collaboration until 2014 with Penn professors Lorretta and John Jemmott is called the Barbership Project and involves teaching Black males between 18-21 years old violence and HIV/STD reduction strategies using barbers as the counselors during haircut appointments.
Selected Publications
Bentley, K. L., Adams, V. N., & Stevenson, H. C.: Racial socialization: Roots, processes & outcomes. Handbook of African American Psychology. H. Neville, B. Tynes & S. Utsey. (eds.). Sage Publications, 2009.Serpell, Z., Hayling, C., Stevenson, H. C., &. Kern, L.: Cultural considerations in the development of school-based interventions for African American adolescents with emotional/behavioral problems. Journal of Negro Education (in press).
Thomas, D. E., Coard, S. I., Stevenson, H. C., Bentley, K., & Zamel, P. : Racial and emotional factors predicting teachers' perceptions of classroom behavioral maladjustment for urban African American male youth. Psychology in the Schools 46(2): 184-196, 2009.
Stevenson, H. C. and Arrington, E. G. : Racial/ethnic socialization mediates perceived racism and identity experiences of African American students. Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Mental Health 15(2), 2009.
Thomas, D. & Stevenson, H. C. : Gender risks and education: The particular classroom challenges of urban, low-income African American boys. Review of Research in Education 33(1), 2009.
Hall, D., Cassidy, E., & Stevenson, H. C.: Acting “tough” in a “tough” world: The validation of a fear of calamity measure among urban African American adolescents. Journal of Black Psychology 2008.
Stevenson, H. C.: Fluttering around the racial tension of trust: Proximal approaches to suspended black student-teacher relationships. School Psychology Review 37: 354-358, 2008.
Hall, D. M. and Stevenson, H. C.: Double Jeopardy: Being African American and "Doing Diversity" in Independent Schools. Teachers College Record 109(1), 2007.
Fantuzzo, J., Stevenson, H., Abdul Kabir, S., & Perry, M.: An investigation of a community-based intervention for socially isolated parents with a history of child maltreatment. Journal of Family Violence 2007.
Hughes, D. L., Johnson, D., Smith, E., Rodriguez, J., Stevenson, H. C., & Spicer, P. : Parents’ ethnic/racial socialization practices: A review of research and directions for future study. Developmental Psychology 42(5): 747-770, 2006.
Davis, G. Y. & Stevenson, H. C.: Racial socialization experiences and symptoms of depression among Black youth. Journal of Child and Family Studies 15(3): 293-307, 2006.
Cassidy, E. F. & Stevenson, H. C.: They wear the mask: Hypermasculinity and hypervulnerability among African American males in an urban remedial disciplinary school context. Journal of Aggression, Maltreatment and Trauma 11(4): 53-74, 2005.
Stevenson, Jr., H. C.: Playing with anger: Teaching coping skills to African American boys through athletics and culture. Westport, CT.: Greenwood Publishing, Praeger. (eds.). 2003.
Stevenson, H. C., Davis, G. Y., & Abdul-Kabir, S.: Stickin’ To, Watchin’ Over, and Gettin’ With: An African American Parent’s Guide to Discipline. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. 2001.