Dr Heidi Gazelle
B.A. (Honors) Wesleyan University, USA; Ph.D. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA
Senior Lecturer
Contact details:
| email:hgazelle AT unimelb.edu.au | |
| telephone: +61 3 9035 3651 |
I am a developmental psychologist and conduct research in the area of social and emotional development from toddlerhood through middle childhood and early adolescence. My research focuses on anxious solitary children who play alone at relatively elevated rates despite the availability of familiar peers as potential playmates. These children are conceptualized as wanting to play with peers, but being blocked by social anxiety.
The following questions inspire much of my research. To what extent is anxiety “in the child” versus the anxiety-provoking nature of the environment? What circumstances forecast continuity versus change in anxious solitude over time? How can we characterize the multiple pathways that lead toward and away from anxious solitude over time? Why do some anxious solitary children encounter persistent peer difficulties, whereas others enjoy normative peer relations? Under what circumstances does anxious solitude forecast healthy versus disordered emotional development?
I take a longitudinal, multi-level approach to the study of anxious solitude and its impact on social and emotional development trajectories across a broad span of development (toddlerhood to early adolescence). My approach focuses on the interaction between multi-level phenomena including individual behavior (childhood social withdrawal), dyadic relationships (parent-child relationships and peer friendships), group-level interpersonal dynamics (peer relations including peer exclusion and victimization), broader interpersonal environments (e.g., school classroom emotional climate, child care emotional climate, novel versus familiar social partners), as well as individual psychophysiology (i.e., vagal tone, and an emerging emphasis on salivary cortisol). Additionally, my work is relevant to a broad range of functioning from normative development to abnormal development and anxiety disorders.
This work is guided by Developmental Science and Developmental Psychopathology theoretical frameworks. These frameworks spur me to examine the influence of multi-level internal and external influences on development, and to place particular emphasis on how individual vulnerabilities interact with environmental stressors and supports.
To examine such multi-level influences on development, I employ a wide variety or research designs and methods. For example, much of my work is longitudinal and involves modeling trajectories over time. However, I also embed experiments in my longitudinal work. I employ methods that range from behavioral observation of children at recess and in the classroom, peer sociometrics, clinical interviews of children and parents, to vagal tone monitoring during a peer challenge. I am also interested in working to integrate developmental and developmental psychopathology approaches to childhood social anxiety.
Research Interests:
- Developmental Psychology
- Child social and emotional development from toddlerhood through early adolescence
- Development, continuity, and change in social withdrawal and social anxiety
- Peer processes in child development, especially social exclusion
- Linkages between temperamental behavioral inhibition towards the unfamiliar and anxious solitude among familiar peers
- Developmental Science, and Child × Environment models of development
- Clinical Psychology
- Developmental Psychopathology
- Diathesis × Stress models of risk and maintenance of anxiety and mood symptoms
- Etiology of social anxiety disorder
- Linkages between emergence of anxiety and depressive symptoms
- Early intervention and prevention of anxiety disorders
- Behavioural Neuroscience
- Psychophysiology of anxiety and social stress
Professional Associations, Memberships & Awards:
Memberships
- American Psychological Association (APA)
- Society for Research in Child Development (SRCD)
- International Society for the Study of Behavioral Development (ISSBD)
- Consulting Editor, Child Development (2010-2013)
- Editorial Board, International Journal of Behavioral Development ( 2007 – present)
Awards
- 2003 APA Division 7 Dissertation Award in Developmental Psychology
Recent Funded Research:
| Project: | Multiple trajectories in anxious solitary youth |
| Year: | 2006-2011 |
| Funded by: | National Institute of Mental Health USA (K01) |
| Project: | Risk and resilience in anxious solitary children | |
| Year: | 2004-2006 | |
| Funded by: |
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Selected Publications: |
Book:
*to view the lecture series associated with this monograph, follow the links below.
*Gazelle, H. & Rubin, K.H. (2010). Bridging developmental and clinical approaches to childhood social anxiety. New Directions in Child and Adolescent Development, 127, 1-94. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. PDF
Book chapters:
Gazelle, H. (2010). Anxious solitude/withdrawal and anxiety disorders: Conceptualization, co-occurrence, and peer processes leading toward and away from disorder in childhood. In H. Gazelle & K. H. Rubin (Eds.), Social anxiety in childhood: Bridging developmental and clinical perspectives. New Directions in Child and Adolescent Development, 127, 67-78. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.PDF
Gazelle, H., & Rubin, K. H. (2010). Social anxiety in childhood: Bridging developmental and clinical perspectives. In H. Gazelle & K. H. Rubin (Eds.), Social anxiety in childhood: Bridging developmental and clinical perspectives. New Directions in Child and Adolescent Development, 127, 1-16. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. PDF
Rubin, K. H., Wojslawowicz-Bowker, J. C., & Gazelle, H. (2010). Social withdrawal in childhood and adolescence: Peer relationships and social competence. In K.H. Rubin & R. Coplan (Eds.), The Development of Shyness and Social Withdrawal in Childhood and Adolescence (pp. 131-156). Guilford.
Gazelle, H., & Ladd, G. W. (2002). Interventions for children victimized by peers. In P. Schewe (Ed.), Preventing violence in relationships: Interventions across the life span (pp. 55-78). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association. PDF
Refereed articles:
†Student author
Spangler-Avant, T. L.†, Gazelle, H., Faldowski, R. (2011). Classroom emotional climate as a moderator of anxious solitary children’s longitudinal risk for peer exclusion: A child × environment model. Developmental Psychology, 47(6), 1711-1727. PDF
Gazelle, H., Workman, J. O.†, & Allan, W. (2010). Anxious solitude and clinical disorder in middle childhood: Bridging developmental and clinical approaches to childhood social anxiety. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 38, 1-17. PDF
Gazelle, H., & Druhen, M. J.† (2009). Anxious solitude and peer exclusion predict social helplessness, upset affect, and vagal regulation in response to behavioral rejection by a friend. Developmental Psychology, 45, 1077-1096. PDF
Spangler, T. L.†, & Gazelle, H. (2009). Anxious solitude, unsociability, and peer exclusion in middle childhood: A multi-trait multi-method matrix. Social Development, 18, 833-856. PDF
Gazelle, H. (2008). Profiles of anxious solitary children and heterogeneity in peer relations. Developmental Psychology, 44, 1604-1624. PDF
Gazelle, H. & Spangler, T. L.† (2007). Early childhood anxious solitude and subsequent peer relationships: Maternal and cognitive moderators. In S. Friedman (Ed.), New findings from secondary data analysis: Results from the NIHCD Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development [Special issue]. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 28, 515-535. PDF
Gazelle, H. (2006). Class climate moderates peer relations and emotional adjustment in children with an early childhood history of anxious solitude: A child × environment model. Developmental Psychology, 42, 1179-1192. PDF
Gazelle, H., Putallaz, M., Li, Y.,† Grimes, C., Kupersmidt, J. B., & Coie, J. D. (2005). Anxious solitude across contexts: Girls’ interactions with familiar and unfamiliar peers. Child Development, 76, 227-246. PDF
Gazelle, H., & Rudolph, K. D. (2004). Moving toward and away from the world: Social approach and avoidance trajectories in anxious solitary youth. Child Development, 75, 829-849. PDF
Gazelle, H., & Ladd, G. W. (2003). Anxious solitude and peer exclusion: A diathesis-stress model of internalizing trajectories in childhood. Child Development, 74, 257-278. PDF
Asher, S. R., & Gazelle, H. (1999). Loneliness, peer relations, and language disorder in childhood. Topics in Language Disorders, 19, 16-33. PDF
Lecture Series
*to view the lecture series associated with this monograph, follow the links below. The videos are broken into segments of approximately ten minutes. Each link below connects to a segment. One segment of Dr. Dina Hirshfeld-Becker's lecture is not yet ready to be posted. This segment comes between part 4 and part 5 of the series.
Dr. Heidi Gazelle’s introduction to the series (part 1 of 1)
Dr. Ron Rapee (part 1 of 7) (part 2 of 7) (part 3 of 7) (part 4 of 7) (part 5 of 7) (part 6 of 7) (part 7 of 7)
Dr. Nathan Fox (part 1 of 9) (part 2 of 9) (part 3 of 9) (part 4 of 9) (part 5 of 9) (part 6 of 9) (part 7 of 9) (part 8 of 9) (part 9 of 9)
Dr. Dina Hirshfeld-Becker (part 1 of 6) (part 2 of 6) (part 3 of 6) (part 4 of 6) (part 5 of 6) (part 6 of 6)
Dr. Kathryn Kerns (part 1 of 7) (part 2 of 7) (part 3 of 7) (part 4 of 7) (part 5 of 7) (part 6 of 7) (part 7 of 7)
Roundtable Discussion (part 1 of 6) (part 2 of 6) (part 3 of 6) (part 4 of 6) (part 5 of 6) (part 6 of 6)
Research Students under Supervision:
PhD Thesis in Progress
Madelynn Druhen Shell (at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro)
Thesis: The effects of anxious solitude and the middle school transition on children’s social relationships: A child × environment model
PhD Thesis Recently Completed
Tamara Spangler Avant (at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro)
Thesis: Elementary school classroom emotional climate as a moderator of anxious solitary children’s risk for peer exclusion: A child × environment model