Kent State Professor to Receive American Psychological Association Award

Kent State University Professor of Psychology Mary Ann Parris Stephens, Ph.D., has been selected to receive the 2013 Developmental Health Award by the Aging and Health Committee of the American Psychological Association. Stephens will receive the award and give an invited address at the association’s 121st annual convention taking place from July 31 to Aug. 4 in Honolulu, Hawaii. The American Psychological Association’s Developmental Health Award is a biennial award established in 1996 to recognize individuals for their scholarly contributions to health and aging.



Stephens, who serves as dean of Graduate Studies at Kent State, is a highly accomplished researcher whose scholarly contributions lie at the intersection of the human development and health fields. For more than three decades, Stephens has conducted cutting-edge research that has made significant theoretical and empirical contributions in the fields of family caregiving in middle and late life, chronic illness and long-term marriages, and social control of health behaviors. She has published three books, more than a dozen book chapters and more than 90 journal articles. Her research program has been funded by the National Institutes of Health.
 

“Chronically ill older adults and their family caregivers has been the central theme of my research throughout my career,” Stephens said. “I am so honored that my work has received this recognition.”



Stephens has served as associate editor of Psychology and Aging, and currently serves on the editorial boards of Journal of Family Psychology, Psychology and Aging, and Rehabilitation Psychology. She is a fellow of the American Psychological Association, and was awarded the Mentor Award in 1999 from Division 20 (Adult Development and Aging) of the American Psychological Association.



For more information about Kent State’s Department of Psychology, visit www.kent.edu/cas/psychology.



For more information about graduate studies at Kent State, visit www.kent.edu/graduatestudies.



For more information about the American Psychological Association, visit www.apa.org.

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Media Contacts:
Mary Ann Stephens, mstephen@kent.edu, 330-672-4712
Bob Burford, rburford@kent.edu, 330-672-8516