Janis L. Whitlock

Research Scientist Emerita

Bronfenbrenner Center for Translational Research

Biography

Janis Whitlock is a research scientist emerita in the BCTR. A developmental psychologist and public health specialist, she specializes in advancing understanding of and support for adolescent and young adult mental health and wellbeing. For the last several years of her BCTR tenure, she served as the Associate Director for Teaching and Training and as the Director for Cornell Summer Translational Research Institute. Dr. Whitlock is the founder and director of the Cornell Research Program on Self-Injury and Recovery (CRPSIR), a program initiated in 2004 to explore the then nascent phenomenon now known as non-suicidal self-injury. In 2006, with the support of several BCTR colleagues, she convened the first meeting of what is now the International Society for the Study of Self-Injury (ISSS) and subsequently served as its first president and the 2022 ISSS faculty fellow. As a dedicated translator of research and with the able assistance of many Cornell students, she created the CRPSIR website to house and disseminate a wide variety of free resources for school, parents and other youth serving professionals.

In addition to her focus on mental health, Dr. Whitlock has conducted research and provided community-based consultation in areas related to social media and mental health, suicide prevention, sexual violence prevention, and adolescent school and community connectedness and resilience. Her doctoral research in youth connectedness was awarded the 2004 Hershel D. Thornburg Dissertation Award from the Society for Research on Adolescence. She is the author of over 50 publications in adolescent and young adult mental health and well-being and author of the book, Healing self-injury: A compassionate guide for parents and other loved ones.

In 2019, Dr. Whitlock was awarded the Francqui International Professor fellowship, a prize that supported a multi month stay in Belgium at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel where she collaborated with colleagues and taught master classes in her areas of expertise.

Dr. Whitlock currently lives in Boulder, Colorado where she provides consultation for organizations, school systems, and communities dedicated to enhancing youth-focused mental health supports and resources. In addition to serving as co-editor for an Oxford Handbook on non-suicidal self-injury slated for publication in 2023, she continues to speak and write on contemporary challenges and opportunities in her areas of expertise.

Research interests

My current research is dedicated to exploration of the relationship between context, development, and behavior, with a focus on longitudinal assessment and development and testing of interventions. Although known for my work in non-suicidal self-injury, my current work focuses more broadly on health and wellbeing trajectories with particular interest in the role of social media in both affecting mental health and as an intervention tool. The role of parents in supporting recovery and wellbeing has been a major research activity for the past couple of years and is the fodder for a recent book I wrote with a colleague for parents and caregivers of self-injurious youth. I have also developed and support a web-based training and educational programs for youth serving professionals and parents and serve as an advisor on multiple national and international foundation and organizational boards.

In addition to my work in self-injury, I collaborate closely with the Cornell Department of Communications Social Media Lab on a number of projects related to the effects of social media on wellbeing and development of design and app-based features useful in promoting wellbeing and prosocial behavior online. Lastly, I am also the Cornell PI on CDC grant intended to evaluate an intervention for middle school boys aimed at reducing or eliminating sexual violence and Cornell PI on another CDC proposal intended to evaluate the New York State Department of Health Healthy Nightlife Initiative.

Related websites

Teaching and advising statement

Teaching: I teach a course for graduate students (PADM 5380 & HD 6580) that typically enrolls anywhere from 25-40 students and is offered in the spring. In summer of 2019, I taught a course on the intersection of adolescent development and wellbing and social media. I also annually advise 2-8 students through my research lab and co-run a lab with Natalie Bazarova with a rotating set of 4 -6 graduate students from Communications and Computer Science. I enjoy interacting with students and view their involvement in lab settings as a tremendous asset since the vast majority of them are motivated, highly talented, and capable of significant focus when engaged.

In both lab and classroom settings I believe strongly in coupling cognitive engagement with opportunities for applying concepts learned through development of materials, synthesis, and other concrete products useful for the project (e.g. materials that go onto our website for distribution). Students benefit through acquiring new skills and, in some cases, having reports or other publications to add to their resume and the program benefits through their fresh perspective, ideas, and finished work. They also work in teams to accomplish these goals so benefit through new relationship ties and the shared learning that happens in this environment.

Courses taught

HD 3530: Risk and Opportunity in Childhood and Adoelscence (not curently offered)

HD 4170: The Translation of Research Evidence into Practice and Policy

PADM 5380 / HD 668: Seminar in translational research: Bridging research, programs and policies

HD 1100: Growing up in the digital age: Identity, relationships and wellbeing in the modern era

Selected publications

Whitlock, J., Lloyd-Richardson, E., Woolsen, J. (in press). Beyond “stopping”: Reconceptualizing NSSI recovery in favor of healing and growth. In Lloyd-Richardson, E., Whitlock, J., Baetens, I. (pp. forthcoming) The Handbook of non-suicidal self-injury. Oxford University Press.

Lloyd-Richarson, E., Whitlock, J., Baetens, I. (in press). The Handbook of non-suicidal self-injury.Oxford University Press. (Anticipated publication date: 2023)

Kruzan, K. P., Whitlock, J., Bazarova, N. N., Bhandari, A., & Chapman, J. (2022). Use of a mobile peer support app among young people with nonsuicidal self-injury: small-scale randomized controlled trial. JMIR formative research, 6(1), e26526.

Kruzan, K. P., Bazarova, N. N., & Whitlock, J. (2021). Investigating Self-injury Support Solicitations and Responses on a Mobile Peer Support Application. Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction, 5(CSCW2), 1-23.

Kruzan, K. P., Whitlock, J., & Bazarova, N. (2021). Examining the relationship between use of a mobile peer-support application and self-injury outcomes: A longitudinal mixed-method study. JMIR Mental Health. doi:10.2196/21854

Kruzan, K. P., Whitlock. J, & Hasking, P. (2020). Development and initial validation of scales to assess decisional balance (NSSI-DB), processes of change (NSSI-POC), and self-efficacy (NSSI-SE) in a population of young adults engaging in non-suicidal self-injury. Psychological Assessment. doi:10.1037/pas0000821

Kruzan, K., Whitlock, J., Bazarova, N., Miller, K., Chapman, J., & Won, A. (2020). Supporting Self-Injury Recovery: The Potential for Virtual Reality Intervention. In Proceedings of the 2020 ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI’20).

Kruzan, K. P. & Whitlock, J. (Forthcoming). Digital Interventions for Nonsuicidal Self-Injury. In Baetens, I., Whitlock, J., & Lloyd-Richardson, E. (Eds.). Handbook on Nonsuicidal Self-Injury. Oxford University Press.

Kruzan, K. P. & Whitlock, J. (2021) Suicide and social media. In Nesi, J. Telzer, E. & Prinstein, M. J. (Eds.). Handbook of Adolescent Digital Media Use and Mental Health. New York: Cambridge University Press.

Westers, N., Lewis, S., Whitlock, J., Schatten, H., Ammerman, B., Andover, M., & Lloyd-Richardson, E. (2020). Media guidelines for the responsible reporting and depicting of non-suicidal self-injury. The British Journal of Psychiatry, 1-4. doi:10.1192/bjp.2020.191

Whitlock, J. & Masur, P. (2019). Disentangling the Impact of Screen Time on Development and Well-Being Problems, Challenges, and Opportunities. JAMA Pediatr.Published online September 23, 2019. doi:10.1001/jamapediatrics.2019.3191

Taliaferro, L. A., Jang, S. T., Westers, N. J., Muehlenkamp, J. J., Whitlock, J. L., & McMorris, B. J. (2019). Associations between connections to parents and friends and non-suicidal self-injury among adolescents: The mediating role of developmental assets. Clinical Child Psychology and Psychiatry. https://doi.org/10.1177/1359104519868493

Kruzan, K. P., & Whitlock, J. (2019). Processes of Change and Non-suicidal Self-Injury: A Qualitative Interview Study With Individuals at Various Stages of Change. Global qualitative nursing research, 6, 2333393619852935.

Lewis, S. P., Heath, N. L., Hasking, P. A., Hamza, C. A., Bloom, E. L., Lloyd-Richardson, E. E., & Whitlock, J.(2019). Advocacy for improved response to self-injury in schools: A call to action for school psychologists. Psychological services. Advance online publication. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/ser0000352

DiFranzo, D., Hyung Choi, Y., Purington, A., Taft, J. Whitlock, J.& Bazarova, N. (2019). Social Media TestDrive: Real-World Social Media Education for the Next Generation. In CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems Proceedings (CHI 2019), May 4–9, 2019, Glasgow, Scotland UK. ACM, NewYork, NY, USA, 11 pages. https://doi.org/10.1145/3290605.3300533

Whitlock, J. & Lloyd-Richardson, E. (2019). Healing self-injury: A compassionate guide for parents and other loved ones. Oxford University Trade Press. New York, New York.

Lewis, S.P., Heath, N.L., Hasking, P.A., Whitlock, J.L., Wilson, M.S., & Plener, P.L. (2019). Addressing self-injury on college campuses: Institutional recommendations. Journal of College Counselling.

Kruzan, K. & Whitlock, J. (2019). Prevention of Non-Suicidal Self-Injury. Non-suicidal Self-Injury: Advances in Research and Practice.edited by J. Washburn. Routledge Press.

Waals, L., Baetens, I., Rober, P., Lewis, S., Van Parys, H., Goethals, E.R., & Whitlock, J.(2018). The NSSI family distress cascade theory. Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Mental Health, 12(52). doi: 0.1186/s13034-018-0259-7

Whitlock, J. L., Baetens, I., Lloyd-Richardson, E., Hasking, P., Hamza, C., Lewis, S., & Robinson, K. (2018). Helping schools support caregivers of youth who self-injure: Considerations and recommendations. School Psychology International, 0143034318771415.

Kazerooni, F., Taylor, S. H., Bazarova, N. N., & Whitlock, J.(2018). Cyberbullying Bystander Intervention: The Number of Offenders and Retweeting Predict Likelihood of Helping a Cyberbullying Victim. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 23(3), 146-162.

Chang, P. F., Whitlock, J.,& Bazarova, N. N. (2018). “To Respond or not to Respond, that is the Question”: The Decision-Making Process of Providing Social Support to Distressed Posters on Facebook. Social Media+ Society, 4(1), 2056305118759290.

Professional activities

My current professional agenda is dedicated to research, outreach, advising, and adminstration. My research revolves around young adult social and emotional health with a focus on connectedness, self-injury and suicide prevention, sexual violence prevention and intervention development. I am also pursuing a new emphasis on sexual health and development in the digital age and the interaction between social media and wellbeing. I also regularly provide training and talks to youth serving professionals in and outside of university settings on issues germane to college mental health and young adult development.

Public engagement activities

All of my research activities contain outreach components of value to the Cornell Extension mission. Since I feel strongly about the importance of disseminating information amassed through the research process, I work hard to find mechanisms for supporting the dissemination and outreach component. For example, students in our lab as well as professionals associated with our team develop "translational" products intended to make cutting edge science accessible to lay audiences through fact sheets, web-based power point presentations, and web accessible video segments. We add materials to this pool of resources every year. Materials have been designed for a broad constituency: individuals with self-injury history, parents, peers, and schools and other youth serving agencies seeking guidance about protocols for handling self-injury in institutional settings. Many of these information briefs have been translated into multiple languages including French, German, and Spanish. The website receives over 7,000 unique visitors a month and our factsheets are downloaded multiple times a day. We have also worked with e-Cornell to develop and support a series of web-based training programs on self-injury for professionals and parents. I have a new book for parents and other caretakers coming out now which is a natural outreach extension of extant research in this area. I also serve as a Sr. Advisor for the Jed Foundation and have informed both media practices and development of secondary school curriculum.

I am also the Associate Director for Teaching and Training for the Bronfenbrenner Center for Translational Research. In this capacity, I oversee all regular talks (our "How To do research in real world contexts" series as well as our popular Talks at Twelve series). I also direct the Cornell Translational Research Summer Institute (started in 2018), a 2.5 day workshop that attracts emerging scholars from outside of Cornell and builds on the "How To" series referenced above. All of these are very much focused on engaging the public to bridge science and practice and policy.

I regularly do talks to local and national groups, academics and non-academics, in areas related to my expertise and much of my youth-development and school climate-related research is conducted as part of university-community partnerships. All research findings are then made available to our partners and, through them, to the larger communities they affect. I am also co-PI on a team in the Communications Department that has received funding from the Morgan Foundation to work with Common Sense Media in developing "Project Test Drive", a social medial simulation for youth designed to prepare them to safely navigate the social media realm and to engage in prosocial behavior.

Administrative positions

Education

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