Encyclopedia of Adolescence

Dr. Bradford Brown is Professor of Human Development and former Chair of the Department of Educational Psychology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He received an A.B. in sociology from Princeton University and Ph.D. in human development from the University of Chicago before joining the faculty of the University of Wisconsin in 1979.Dr. Brown's research has focused on adolescent peer relations. He is especially well known for his work on teenage peer groups and peer pressure and their influence on school achievement, social interaction pasterns, and social adjustment. He is the former Editor of the Journal of Research on Adolescence and a past member of the Executive Council of the Society for Research on Adolescence. He also chaired (2006-2008) the SRA Study Group on Parental Involvement in Adolescent Peer Relations. He is the co-editor or co-author of five books, including The Development of Romantic Relationships in Adolescence (with Wyndol Furman and Candice Feiring), The World's Youth: Adolescence in 8 Regions of the Globe (with Reed Larson and T. S. Saraswathi), and Linking Parents and Family to Adolescent Peer Relations: Ethnic and Cultural Considerations (with Nina Mounts). Dr. Brown has served as a consultant for numerous groups, including the Carnegie Council on Adolescent Development, the National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy, the National Academy of Sciences Board on Science Education as well as the Board on Children, Youth and Families, and the Blue Ribbons Schools program of the U.S. Department of Education. Mitchell J. Prinstein, Ph.D. is a Bowman and Gordon Gray Distinguished Term Professor and the Director of Clinical Psychology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He received his Ph.D. in clinical psychology from the University of Miami and completed his internship and postdoctoral fellowship at the Brown University Clinical Psychology Training Consortium. Dr. Prinstein's research examines interpersonal models of internalizing symptoms and health risk behaviors among adolescents, with a specific focus on the unique role of peer relationships in the developmental psychopathology of depression and self-injury. He is the PI on several past and active grants from the National Institute of Mental Health, the National Institute of Child and Human Development, and several private foundations. He has served as an Associate Editor for the Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, an editorial board member for several developmental psychopathology journals, and a member of the NIH Study Section on Psychosocial Development, Risk, and Prevention. Mitch has received several national and university-based awards recognizing his contributions to research (American Psychological Association Society of Clinical Psychology Theodore Blau Early Career Award, Columbia University/Brickell Award for research on suicidality, APA Fellow of the Society of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology), teaching (UNC Chapel Hill Tanner Award for Undergraduate Teaching), and professional development of graduate students (American Psychological Association of Graduate Students Raymond D. Fowler Award).