Maryse Richards
	Title:	Professor, Clinical Psychology; Affiliated with Developmental Psychology Program; Ph.D.
	Office:	n/a
	Phone:	773.508.3015
	E-mail:	mrichar@luc.edu

Personal Information

Ph.D., University of Chicago

Research Interests:
My research interest is the developmental stage of adolescence with a focus on the daily experience of urban African American young adolescents and how this relates to their psycho- social well being. More specifically, my most recent grant was on the protective and risky contexts for exposure to community violence among inner-city African American young adolescents. The goal of this grant was to examine and identify what types of contexts can be considered contexts of risk for, and what types of contexts protect a child from exposure to violence and to examine the acute and sustained effects of exposure to violence on psychological and behavioral well-being over time. A time sampling technique, the Experience Sampling Method (ESM) was used to study these contexts as well as daily exposure to violence and daily trauma associated with violence exposure. We followed over 200 African American inner city youth from sixth into eighth grade and selected youth living in urban poverty and in working class neighborhoods.

A recently collected data set examines the daily experience and psychological well-being of 260 urban African American fifth through eighth grade students. The students were randomly selected from eight different Chicago public schools to represent a range of socioeconomic backgrounds. Using the Experience Sampling Method (ESM) and questionnaire data, we are studying their development and mental health in relation to daily experience. Papers from this project look at how certain contexts place urban children at greater or lesser risk for exposure to violence. Another paper examined how time is spent and another is focused on parental monitoring as mediator of sex and age as they relate to problem behaviors. Many papers from this project have been presented at national and international conferences which include students as authors and co-authors. Several master's theses and dissertations are emerging from this and the current project.

My past research has been on the development of gender-related psychopathology, particularly depression, body image and eating disorders. Pubertal development was part of this work. A large longitudinal data set allowed me to pursue these areas of research.

My next project involves a preventive intervention designed to reduce young adolescent exposure to violence and enhance psychosocial skills. My newest projects involve 1) a collaboration between the university and two community based mental health agencies where we are implementing and assessing the effectiveness of an evidence based trauma reduction treatment for children and 2) the development, implementation, and assessment of a civic engagement curriculum for middle school children in the Chicago public schools.

Recent Publications:
Li, S.T., Nussbaum, K.M., Richards, M.H. (in press). Risk and Protective
Factors for Urban African-American Youth. American Journal of Community
Psychology.

Gaylord-Harden, N. K., Ragsdale, B. L., Mandara, J., Richards, M. H., &
Petersen, A. C. (in press). Perceived support and internalizing symptoms in African American adolescents: Self-esteem and ethnic identity as mediators. Journal of Youth and Adolescence.

Hammack, P.L., Richards. M.H., Luo, Z., Edlynn, E.S. & Roy, K. (2004). Social
support factors as moderators of community violence exposure among urban
African American young adolescents. Journal of Clinical Child and Adolescent
Psychology. 33(1), 145-155.

Ozer, E.J., Richards, M.H., Kliewer, W. (2004). Introduction to the special
section on protective factors in the relation between community violence
exposure and adjustment in youth. Journal of Clinical Child and Adolescent
Psychology, 33(3).

Richards, M.H., Miller, B.V., ODonnell, P.C., Wasserman, M., & Colder, C.
(2004). Parental monitoring mediates the effects of age and sex on problem
behaviors among African American urban young adolescents. Journal of Youth and
Adolescence, 33(3), 221-233.

Special Editor of Special Section with Emily Ozer and Wendy Kliewer. Special section on protective factors in the relation between violence exposure and psychological adjustment among youth. For the Journal of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology, 2004.