Stephanie M. Reich earned her Ph.D. in Community Psychology from the Department of Psychology and Human Development at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, TN.

Dr. Reich's doctoral studies, funded by a training grant from the National Institute of Mental Health in children’s mental health services research, focused largely on studying community-based, transactional models of child development.

Her research examines children’s socio-emotional development in the context of their families and schools, with particular focus on how they are impacted by environmental factors, such as poverty, crime, and access to healthcare.

More specifically, Dr. Reich's research has focused on the ecology of children’s lives utilizing a theoretical perspective which acknowledges children are in constant transactions with the structures surrounding their lives, including family members, peers, communities, and economic conditions.

Professor Reich is the recipient of the Newbrough Award for academic writing and the Julius Seeman Award for academic and professional excellence. Her specializations, in addition to community psychology, include social psychology, quantitative methods, and program evaluation.
Research Interests

Dr. Reich's current research has been on child development with the explicit goals of understanding children’s social lives and how to promote healthy developmental trajectories. The bulk of her work explores direct and indirect influences (i.e., transactions) on the child, specifically through the family and school environment. Her research on the family has focused on parenting behaviors and the direct and moderational influences of maternal knowledge, efficacy, support, and home and community environment on development. Dr. Reich has also been involved in school-based research where she has been examining the role of individual behaviors (e.g., aggression, emotional regulation, prosocial behavior) and peer interactions (e.g., in-person and on-line) on children’s school success.

Additionally, she is interested in how the ecology we study is affected by both the researcher and research context. She is committed to research which explores the role of the researcher in studying the psycho-social aspects of child development. This includes examinations of the historical underpinnings of research and practice (especially community-based research), the methods used, the values underlying those questions, and the ethical questions at play when studying children in their context.
Current Projects

Currently, Dr. Reich is working on an NICHD-funded longitudinal study of the efficacy of embedding educational information, aimed at parents, into baby books that first-time mothers read to their infants. This 3-group longitudinal study tests whether embedding anticipatory guidance in picture books is an effective method for increasing maternal knowledge of child development and parenting strategies and if so, whether increases in knowledge lead to changes in parenting behavior. Additionally this study assesses whether benefits of reading coupled with increased knowledge result in higher quality mother-child interactions and if so, whether increased knowledge and better interactions result in less maternal stress, increased maternal self-efficacy, and better child outcomes (physical and cognitive).

Dr. Reich has albe been collaborating on several research projects aimed at better understanding children and adolescents’ peer networks. One study IES-funded study explores how children’s individual behaviors (e.g., aggressive and prosocial) contribute to their peer interactions (i.e., friendship, popularity, network centrality). Another study, in conjunction with the Culture, Brain, and Development lab at UCLA explores how online social networking sites such as MySpace are used for self-presentation and identity formation. She is also collaborating with Kaveri Subrahmanyam at CSULA on the overlap between online and offline social networks for adolescents and young adults.

In partnership with Wendy Garrard at Vanderbilt University, Dr. Reich is exploring informant effects and potential bias in studying peer interactions. Using meta-analytic techniques, our project looks at the breadth of work linking individual behaviors to sociometric statuses to determine if informant type (e.g., self, teacher, parent, peer) influences the direction and magnitude of relationships.

Selected publications

Reich, S. & Vandell, D. (in press). The interplay between parents and peers as socializing influences in children’s development. In P.K. Smith and C. Hart (Eds.) Wiley-Blackwell Handbook of Child Social Development. New York: Wiley-Blackwell.

Black, R. & Reich, S. (in press). Culture and community in a virtual world for young children. In C. Steinkuehler & K. Squire (Eds.) Games, learning, and society: Learning and meaning in the digital age. Cambridge University Press.

Riemer, M. & Reich, S. (in press) Guest editors for the American Journal of Community Psychology's special issue on Community Psychology and Global Climate Change.

Reich, S. (2010). Adolescents’ sense of community on MySpace and Facebook: A mixed methods approach. Journal of Community Psychology, 38(6), 688-705.

Reich, S., Bickman, L., Saville, B., Alvarez, J. (2010). The effectiveness of baby books for providing pediatric anticipatory guidance to new mothers. Pediatrics, 125(5), 997-1002.

Reich, S. (2010). Contributing author to the Encyclopedia of Cross-Cultural Educational Psychology. (pp. 540-542). New York: Springer.

Waechter, N., Subrahmanyam, K., Reich, S., & Espinoza, G. (in press). Youth connecting online: From chat rooms to social networking sites. D. Riha & A. Maj (Eds.) Emerging Practices in Cyberculture and Social Networking. The Inter-Disciplinary Press; Global Interdisciplinary Research Studies series.

Subrahmanyam, K., Reich, S., Waechter, N., & Espinoza, L. (2008). Online and offline social networks: Use of social networking sites by emerging adults. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 29, 420-433.

Reich, S., Pinkard, P., & Davidson, H. (2008). Including history in the study of psychological and political power. Journal of Community Psychology.

Bickman, L. & Reich, S. (2008). Randomized Control Trials: A gold standard with feet of clay? In S. Donaldson, C. Christie, & M. Mark (Eds.) What Counts as Credible Evidence in Evaluation and Evidence-based Practice? (pg. 51-77). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Reich, S., Riemer, M., Prilleltensky, I. & Montero, M. (2007). History and Theories of Community Psychology: An international perspective. Springer (edited book).

Reich, S. & Reich, J. (2006). Cultural competence in interdisciplinary collaborations: A method for respecting diversity in research partnerships. American Journal of Community Psychology, 38, 51-62.

Reich, S. (2005). What do mothers know? Maternal knowledge of child development. Infant Mental Health Journal, 26(2), 143-156.

Scholer, S., Reich, S., Boshers, R., & Bickman, L. (2005). A multimedia violence prevention program increases pediatric residents and childcare providers' knowledge about responding to childhood aggression. Clinical Pediatrics,44(5), 413-417.

Reich, S. & Bickman, L. (2005). Quasi-Experimental Design. In Epstein, M., Kutash, K., & Duchnowski, A. (eds.) Outcomes for Children and Youth. 2nd edition (pg. 71-100). Austin, TX: Proed.

Reich, S. (2005). Contributing author to the Encyclopedia of Evaluation. Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications.

Reich, S., Bickman, L., & Heflinger, C.A. (2004). Covariates of self-efficacy: Caregiver characteristics related to mental health services self-efficacy. Journal of Emotional and Behavioral Disorders, 12(2), 99-108.