Julie A. Poehlmann
Professor Poehlmann has had a joint appointment with Educational Psychology since 2004. Her primary appointment is in the Department of Human Development and Family Studies in the School of Human Ecologyand she is affiliated with the Waisman Center.
RESEARCH STATEMENT
Dr. Poehlmann's interests include risk and resilience in infants, toddlers, and preschoolers and their families. Her research program emphasizes the science and practice of how biological and environmental vulnerabilities interact in shaping the cognitive and social emotional development of children in high risk family contexts.
Her research revolves around several issues in developmental psychopathology, including how family-level risks and protective factors combine to impact on individual and intergenerational family well-being, and how child and family development proceeds in the context of social problems.
Her current empirical studies focus on how young children's developing cognitive abilities, attachment relationships, and behavior problems relate to child, parental, and extended family characteristics. Variables of interest include maternal depression, quality of the home environment, family belief systems, contact with grandparents, and quality of affect and reciprocity during parent-child play interactions. She is studying interactions among these variables in high risk populations such as preterm low birthweight infants and children separated from their mothers due to maternal incarceration. In addition, she has a strong interest in the provision and effects of early intervention services.
Dr. Poehlmann's research emphasizes how both infants and parents make contributions to their relationships with each other, rather than emphasizing parental characteristics like much existing attachment work. Her findings bridge attachment theory with more ecologically-based transactional developmental theories.."
REPRESENTATIVE PUBLICATIONS
Poehlmann, J. (2004). Incarcerated mothers’ contact with children, perceived family relationships, and depressive symptoms. Journal of Family Psychology.
Poehlmann, J., White, T., & Bjerke, K. (2004). Integrating HIV risk reduction into family programs for women offenders: A family relationship perspective. Family Relations, 53, 27-37.
Poehlmann, J., Brintnall-Peterson, M., Shlafer, R., & Morgan, K. (2003). Through the eyes of a child: Grandparents raising grandchildren. University of Wisconsin Extension Publication (http://www.uwex.edu/relationships)
Poehlmann, J. (2003). An attachment perspective on grandparents raising their very young grandchildren: Implications for intervention and research. Infant Mental Health Journal, 24, 149-173.