Lorraine McKelvey, Ph.D.
University
of Arkansas
Junior Investigator, Vulnerable Populations
Project Title: Children's Exposure to Violence at Home and in the Community: Pathways to Outcomes at Age 18
"The training and support available through the New Connections program has resulted in significant gains in my ability to build a foundation for a strong research career."
Project Description
McKelvey's study will explore the impact of domestic and community violence on children's cognitive, language and psychosocial development. She will examine the effects of exposure to family and community violence on child outcomes across time and identify family conflict-community violence typologies and child outcomes associated with each typology.
Specifically, she will study the impact of exposure to violence in early childhood on later development; the additive effect of exposure to violence across time on outcomes at age 18; and identify typologies of families, such as children who are exposed to high community violence but low family conflict across time, to predict child outcomes at age 18.
Biography
Lorraine McKelvey, Ph.D., is an assistant professor in the department of pediatrics at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences. She is actively involved in studying children at-risk for poor developmental outcomes.
McKelvey's research activities have concentrated on developing a better understanding of how the social experiences of economically-disadvantaged individuals influence their health and developmental outcomes. She is particularly interested in the experience of stress from ecological sources and coping strategies of individuals and families.
McKelvey completed her doctoral training at Michigan State University in development psychology with specialized training in applied developmental science. She has been a member of the research consortium of the national evaluation of Early Head Start Research for nearly a decade.
