CYHRNet - Bonnie Leadbeater

Fast Facts:

Name: Bonnie Leadbeater, PhD

Education: Nursing, Educational Psychology, Developmental Psychology

Affiliation: University of Victoria

Titles: Professor, Psychology; Research Fellow, Centre for Youth and Society.

CYHRNet Role: Co-Leader, Transitions to Adulthood and Health & Mental Health and Well-Being; Network Management

Research Interests: Normative development in adolescent girls, peer relationships, conflict resolution, depression and problem behaviors in adolescence, teenage parenting.

Website: Dr. Leadbeater's Website

Email: bleadbea@uvic.ca

Priority Initiatives & Co-Leaders

CYHRNet strives to collaborate with other MSFHR networks to ensure a sustained focus on infants, children and youth. Network efforts have tended to focus on the following priority initiatives:

Transitions to Adulthood
- Co-Leader: Bonnie Leadbeater
Health and Wellbeing (focus on Mental Health)
- Co-Leader: Bonnie Leadbeater
Health Disparities
- Co-Leader: Jean-Paul Collet
Child and Youth Health Indicators related to Injury Prevention
- Co-Leader: Ian Pike
Ethics and Research with Children and Youth
- Co-Leader: Elizabeth Saewyc
Youth and Community Engagement
- Co-Leader: Joan Bottorff

Bonnie Leadbeater, PhD

CYHRNet Co-Leader: Network Management, Health and Well-being (Focus on Mental Health) and Transitions to Adulthood.

Professor, Psychology, University of Victoria

On June 24, the Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research (MSFHR) approved Bonnie Leadbeater, PhD, as Co-Director of the Child & Youth Health Research Network. Bonnie is a Full Professor who joined the University of Victoria Psychology Department in 1997, after nine years as Faculty at Yale University. She has been the Director of the Youth and Society Research Group since its inception and in the spring of 2005 was appointed as Co-Director of the Child and Youth Health Research Network.

Dr. Leadbeater holds degrees in Nursing (University of Ottawa, 1972) Educational Psychology (University of Ottawa, 1978), and Developmental Psychology (Columbia University, New York, 1986). She also has practical experience as a staff nurse in obstetrics and pediatrics, in program development for teenage mothers (Adolescent Health Centre, Mt. Sinai University, 1985), and more recently as a psychotherapist (Yale Child Guidance Clinic, 1994-1997 and in private practice).

She has an international reputation for her work on resilience in adolescent mothers and gender differences in the development of depression and problem behaviors. She received the 1999 Distinguished Alumni Award from Columbia University, New York for her work on resilience in youth. She has published extensively in the field of developmental psychopathology and more recently on polices for welfare reform.

Research Interests: Normative development in adolescent girls, peer relationships, conflict resolution, depression and problem behaviors in adolescence, teenage parenting.

In the Media

"The (not-so) brave new world of bullies" by Jim Gibson, Times Colonist. March 13, 2010.
"Anti-bullying program to be extended." by Miné Salkin, Globe & Mail. Feb. 23, 2010. [More info]
"Depressed, anxious 1st graders at risk of being bullied later: study." CBC.ca. May 15, 2009. [More info]
"Transition to Adulthood Tougher for Disadvantaged Youth" by Cindy Chan, Epoch Times. Jan. 7, 2009
Interview with Dr. Bonnie Leadbeater about Listening to Vulnerable Youth: Transitioning to Adulthood in BC, CFAX: Dec. 18, 2008 [.wma|.ra].

Selected Publications

Leadbeater, B., Babul, S., Jansson, M., Scime, G., & Pike, I. (2010). Youth injuries in British Columbia: type, settings, treatment and costs, 2003-2007. International Journal of Injury Control and Safety Promotion. First published on: 12 March 2010. [More info]
Leadbeater, B.J. & Mitic, W. (2009). The foundations of child health and well-being in British Columbia: A discussion document in preparation for the development of child health indicators in British Columbia.
Leadbeater, B.J., Smith, A., & Clark, N. (2008). Listening to Vulnerable Youth: Transitioning to Adulthood in BC.
Leadbeater, B. J. R. & Way, N. (Eds.) (2007). Urban Girls Revisited: Building Strengths, New York: New York University Press. Leadbeater, B.J. Ohan, J. & Hoglund, W. (2006). How children's justifications of the "best thing to do" in peer conflicts relate to their emotional and behavioral problems in early elementary school. Merrill Palmer Quarterly. 5, 721-754.
Leadbeater B. J. Boone, E. M. Sangster, N. A. & Mathieson, L. C. (2006) Sex differences in the costs and benefits of relational and physical aggression in high school. Aggressive Behaviors. 409-419.
Leadbeater, B. J. Banister, E. Benoit, C. Jansson, M. Marshall, A. & Riecken, T. (Eds.) (2006). Ethical issues in Community-based research with children and youth. University of Toronto Press.