Howard C. Stevenson



Associate Professor & Chair, Applied Psychology and Human Development Division

Education
1980: B.A., Psychology and Sociology, Eastern College
1985: M.A., Theology, Fuller Theological Seminary
1985: Ph.D., Clinical Psychology, Fuller Graduate School of Psychology

Areas of Expertise
African-American psychology
At-risk youth and high-risk boys
Family and parental engagement
Racial integration and re-segregation

Professional Biography
Dr. Stevenson is an associate professor and director of the Professional Counseling and Psychology Program (PCAP) in 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 he participated with 35 other community activists and researchers from 30 countries to present their community health intervention projects. In 1995, Dr. Stevenson served as a member of 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 20 years of experience as a clinical supervisor and therapist in family and child psychotherapy. For three years, he served as an administrator, a clinical supervisor, and a family therapy trainer in residential treatment centers for emotionally disturbed adolescents in the State of Delaware’s Division of Child Mental Health. Currently, he consults with various community-based mental health and social work agencies.

Research Interests and Current Projects
His research and consultation work identify cultural strengths that exist within families and seek to integrate those strengths in interventions to improve the psychological adjustment of children and adolescents and families. From 1998 to 2003, he directed two research projects that underscored themes of cultural relevance and empowerment and were funded by the National Institute of Mental Health. The first, 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 within a psycho-educational group (CPR), and bonding in family interventions (COPE) to help youth with histories of aggression to manage their anger within school settings. COPE (Community Outreach through Parent Empowerment) focused on identification and promotion of resilience of the parents of boys with histories of aggression. The second project involves the Success of African American Students in Independent Schools (SAAS) and was co-investigated by Drs. Margaret Beale Spencer and Edith G. Arrington. This project involved understanding 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.

Courses Taught
AFAM 310: Contemporary Issues of Identity and Community Focused Research
EDUC 522: African American Psychology
EDUC 557: Interaction Processes with Adolescents
EDUC 782: Psychological Intervention with Youth
EDUC 784: Psychological Consultation

Selected Publications
Hughes, D. L., Johnson, D., Smith, E., Rodriguez, J., Stevenson, H. C., & Spicer, P. (in press). Parents’ ethnic/racial socialization practices: A review of research and directions for future study. Developmental Psychology.

Hall, D. M., and Stevenson, H. C. (in press). Double jeopardy: Being African American and “doing Diversity” in independent schools. Teachers College Record.

Fantuzzo, J., Stevenson, H., Abdul Kabir, S., & Perry, M. (in press). An investigation of a community-based intervention for socially isolated parents with a history of child maltreatment. Journal of Family Violence.

Davis, G. Y., & Stevenson, H. C. (2006).Racial socialization experiences and symptoms of depression among Black youth. Journal of Child and Family Studies.

Cassidy, E. F. & Stevenson, H. C. (2005). 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.

Stevenson, H. C., McNeil, J. D., Herrero-Taylor, T., & Davis, G. Y. (2005). Influence of neighborhood cultural diversity on the racial socialization experiences of Black youth. Journal of Black Psychology, 31(3), 273–290.