معرفی
Sara Jaffee is a Professor and Department Chair in the Department of Psychology at the University of Pennsylvania, within the School of Arts & Sciences. She holds a BA from Oberlin College and a PhD from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her research focuses on developmental psychopathology, with an emphasis on how stressful environments and policies influence children's development, particularly antisocial behavior and mental health outcomes. She leads the Risk and Resilience Lab, which examines the intergenerational transmission of adversity, the impact of violence, and the role of social policies in mitigating harm.
Her work combines longitudinal and experimental methods to study mechanisms linking childhood adversity to later-life outcomes. Notable areas include the effects of child maltreatment on socioeconomic trajectories, the biological embedding of stress, and the efficacy of programs addressing housing and food insecurity. She teaches courses such as PSYC 280 (Social & Emotional Development) and PSYC 709 (Graduate Seminar in Developmental Psychopathology).
Key research themes include the neurobiological correlates of maltreatment, the role of caregiver warmth in buffering stress effects, and the design of evidence-based interventions. Her lab collaborates across disciplines (neuroscience, policy, medicine) and partners with Philadelphia agencies to translate research into practice. She currently advises graduate students George Lin and Samiha Islam.
Publications span high-impact journals like Development and Psychopathology and Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, addressing topics from gene-environment interactions to policy evaluation. Her work consistently highlights the societal costs of unaddressed adversity and advocates for systemic interventions to break cycles of disadvantage.
