National conference on child health psychology to be held

Emerging areas in child health psychology, family systems, health promotion, treatment outcome and HIV/AIDS will be among the topics addressed at the 10th National Conference on Child Health Psychology, to be held April 19 - 22.

The conference was founded in 1988 by the department of clinical and health psychology at the University of Florida College of Public Health and Health Professions and is co-sponsored by the American Psychological Association’s Society of Pediatric Psychology. More than 400 top researchers in child health psychology are expected to attend.

The conference will feature 300 paper presentations, invited addresses and poster presentations with the latest research findings on psychological, behavioral and family factors related to child health problems. Featured paper sessions, chaired by experts in specific areas of pediatric psychology, will focus on the following issues:

•Family system issues in child health psychology

Topic Chair: Anne Kazak, Ph.D., Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia

Thursday morning

•Health promotion, prevention and obesity

Topic Chair: Elissa Jelalian, Ph.D., Brown University Medical School

Thursday afternoon

•Treatment outcome research in pediatric psychology

Topic Chair: Lori J. Stark, Ph.D., Cincinnati Children’s Hospital

Friday morning

•Emerging areas in pediatric psychology

Topic Chair: Ronald T. Brown, Ph.D., Temple University

Friday afternoon

•Pediatric HIV/AIDS

Topic Chair: Ralph J. DiClemente, Ph.D., Emory University

Saturday morning

Paper sessions will be supplemented by approximately 270 research poster presentations in several child health-related areas, including asthma, cancer, Crohn’s disease, diabetes, death and dying, infant pain, pediatric organ transplants and traumatic brain injury.

A special keynote address, “Cultural Diversity in Clinical Research: How Do We Get There From Here?” will be presented by Stanley Sue, Ph.D., of the University of California at Davis.

The 10th National Conference on Child Health Psychology will be held at the Hilton University of Florida Conference Center Gainesville. For more information, visit the conference Web site at www.ChildHealthPsychology.com.