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Department of Human Development & Family Sciences
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Deborah Jacobvitz

  • Professor
  • Phyllis L. Richards Endowed Professor in Child Development
  • Human Development & Family Sciences
  • Human Ecology
Profile image of Deborah Jacobvitz
debj@austin.utexas.edu
SEA
2.414

Research

Deborah Jacobvitz specializes in the field of parenting and social and emotional development in children.  Her research focuses on the links between family relationships, emotions, health, and development, with a particular focus on the transmission of caregiving across generations, attachment security across the life course and the effects of marital conflict on children's well being. Her studies address how early caregiving experiences shape how we remember, organize and perceive information and the relationships we form with others.  In her work, Dr. Jacobvitz is interested in developing interventions to help families and children in need of support. Her research has been funded by the National Science Foundation, St. David's Foundation, the Hudson Foundation, the National Cattlemen's Beef Association, the Egg Nutrition Center and the Hogg Foundation for Mental Health.

Research Areas

  • Human Development
  • Relationships, Families and Youth
  • Culture, Inequality or Resilience
  • Substance Use Disorders

Fields of Interest

  • Adolescence and Young Adulthood
  • Biobehavioral Processes and Health
  • Contexts of Human Development
  • Diversity and Culture
  • Infancy and Childhood
  • Interpersonal Relationships
  • Interpersonal Relationships
  • Parenting & Caregiving

Centers and Institutes

  • Population Research Center
  • Waggoner Center for Alcohol and Addiction Research

Education

  • B.S., University of California, Berkeley
  • B.S., University of California, Berkeley

Publications

  • Aquino, G., Perry, N. B.,  Aviles, A. I., Hazen, N., & Jacobvitz, D. (in press). Developmental antecedents of ADHD symptoms in middle childhood: The role of father-child interactions and children’s emotion regulation. Development and Psychopathology.

    Zhang, S., Aquino, G.A., Tian, Z., Hazen, N. & Jacobvitz, D. (in press). Effects of Covid-19 related stress on resilience and caregiving among parents with young children. Journal of Family Psychology.

    Aviles, A. I., Reisz, S., Jacobvitz, D., & Hazen, N. (2022). Maternal experiences of childhood psychological maltreatment: Relations with toddler emotional regulation. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 39(7), 2022–2044. https://doi.org/10.1177/02654075221074382

    Forslund, T., Granqvist, P., van Ijzendoorn, M., Sagi-Schwartz, A.,Glaser, D… Jacobvitz, D…, & Duschinsky, R. (2022). Attachment goes to court: For best interests of the child to good enough care. Attachment & Human Development.11, 1-52. https://doi.org/10.1080/14616734.2020.1840762

    Hunter, K.E., Johnson, B.J., Askie, L., Golley R.K., Baur, L.A….Jacobvitz, D.J. and Transforming Obesity Prevention for CHILDren (TOPCHILD) Collaboration (2022). Transforming obesity prevention for CHILDren (TOPCHILD) Collaboration protocol for a systematic review with individual participant data meta-analysis of behavior interventions and prevention of early childhood obesity. BMJ, 12 (1). doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2020-048166. PMID: 35058256 

    Jacobvitz, D., Aviles, A. I., Aquino, G. A., Tian, Z., Zhang, S., & Hazen, N. (2022). Fathers’ sensitivity in infancy and externalizing problems in middle childhood: The role of coparenting. Frontiers in Psychology, 13. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.805188

    DeMartini, S.E., Gallegos, M.I., Jacobvitz, D.B., Hazen, N.L. (2021). Toddlers’ Emotional Overregulation: Relations with Temperament and Family Emotional Climate. Family Relations, 70, 1073-1089. https://doi.org/10.1111/fare.12580

    Jacobvitz, D. & Hazen, N. (2021). The nature and developmental origins of attachment in adulthood (pp. 46-52). In R. A. Thompson, J. A. Simpson, & L. Berlin (Eds.), Attachment: The fundamental questions. New York, NY: Guilford.

    Duschinsky, R., Jacobvitz, D., & Peake, L., & Messina, S. (2020). An extraordinary pernicious influence: The discursive figure of the spoiling grandmother before 1937.  Journal of Family History, 45, 158-171 https://doi.org/10.1177/0363199019865924

    Hazen, N. L., Aviles, A. I., Gallegos, M. I., Poulsen, H. B., Tian, Z., & Jacobvitz, D.  (2020). The prenatal couple relationship: Relations with postnatal family dynamics and child outcomes. In R. Kuersten-Hogan & J.P. McHale & R. (Eds.), Prenatal family dynamics: Couple and coparenting relationships during and postpregnancy. New York: Springer.

    Gallegos, M. I., Jacobvitz, D. B., & Hazen, N. L. (2020). Marital interaction quality over the transition to parenthood: The role of parents’ perceptions of spouses’ parenting. Journal of Family Psychology, 34(6), 766–772. https://doi.org/10.1037/fam0000656

    Messina, S., Reisz, S., Hazen, N., & Jacobvitz, D. (2020).  Not Just About Food: Attachments Representations and to Maternal Feeding Practices in Infancy, Attachment and Human Development, 22, 514-5339https://doi.org/10.1080/14616734.2019.1600153=

    Verhage, M. L., Schuengel, C., Duschinsky, R., van IJzendoorn, M. H., Fearon, R. P., Madigan, S., ... Jacobvitz, D....& Collaboration on Attachment Transmission Synthesis. (2020). The Collaboration on Attachment Transmission Synthesis (CATS): A Move to the Level of Individual-Participant-Data Meta-Analysis. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 29(2), 199-206.

    Gallegos, M., Jacobvitz, D., Sasaki, T., & Hazen, N. (2019). Parents’ perceptions of their spouses’ parenting and infant temperament as predictors of parenting and coparenting.  Journal of Family Psychology, 33, 542—553.http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/fam0000530.

    Jacobvitz, D. & Reisz, S. (2019).  Disorganized and Unresolved states in adulthood.  Current Opinions in Psychology, 25, 172-176.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.copsyc.2018.06.006.

    Poulsen, H.B., Hazen, N. & Jacobvitz, D. (2019). Parents’ joint attachment representations and caregiving:  The moderating role of marital quality. Attachment and Human Developmet. 21:6, 597-615.  https://doi.org/10.1080/14616734.2018.1492003

    Reisz, S., Aviles, A.I., Messina, S.,  Duschinsky, R., Jacobvitz, D., & Hazen, N. (2019). Fathers’ attachment representations and infant feeding practices. Appetite. doi: 10.1016/j.appet.2019.104374.

    Reisz, S.,  Brennan, J., Jacobvitz, D., George, C. (2019). Adult attachment and birth experience: Importance of secure base and save haven during childbirth. Journal of Reproductive and Infant Psychology, 37, 26-43.https://doi.org/10.1080/02646838.2018.1509303. 

    Brazeau, N, Reisz, S., Jacobvitz, D, & George, C. (2018). Understanding the connection between attachment trauma and maternal self-efficacy in depressed mothers. Infant Mental Health Journal.39,30-43. DOI: 10.1002/imhj.21692.

    Freeland-Graves, J.H., Sachdev, P., & Jacobvitz, D.B., (2018). Role of grandparents in childhood obesity during first two years of life.  Journal of Nutrition Health and Food Science. 6, 1-11. Doi: 10.15226/jnhfs.2018.001141.

    Jacobvitz, D. (2018).  Dismissing Avoidant Attachment. In M.H. Bornstein (Ed)., The Sage Encyclopedia of Lifespan Human Development. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications. 

    Verhage, M.L., Fearon, P., Schuengel, C., van Ijzendoorn, M.H., Bakersmans-Kanenburg…Jacobvitz, D...& Collaboration on Attachment Transmission Synthesis. (2018). Examining ecological constraints on the intergenerational transmission of attachment via individual participant data meta‐analysis. Child Development, 89, 2023-2037.  https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.13085

    Gallegos, M.I., & Murphy, S.E., Benner, A.D., Jacobvitz, D.B., & Hazen, N.L. (2017). Marital, parental, and whole family predictors of toddler emotion regulation: The role of parental emotional withdrawal. Journal of Family Psychology, 31(3), 294-303.  http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/fam0000245

    Granqvist P., Sroufe L.A., Dozier M., Hesse E., Steele M., van Ijzendoorn M… Jacobvitz D….& Duschinsky R. (2017). Disorganized attachment in infancy:  A review of the phenomenon and its implications for clinicians and policy-makers. Attachment and Human Development, 19, 534-558. DOI: 10.1080/14616734.2017.1354040

    Murphy, S.E., Boyd-Soisson, Jacobvitz, D.B., & Hazen, N.L (2017). Dyadic and Triadic Family Interactions as Simultaneous Predictors of Children’s Externalizing Behaviors. Family Relations, 66, 346-359.DOI:10.1111/fare.12225.

    Murphy, S.E., Gallegos, M.I., Jacobvitz,D.B., Hazen, N.L. (2017). Coparenting dynamics: Mothers’ and fathers’ differential support and involvement.Personal Relationships.DOI: 10.1111/pere.12221 

    Wittenberg, D., Beverung, L., Ansari, A., Jacobvitz, D., & Hazen, N. (2017). Gender differences in parents; prenatal wishes for their children’s future: A mixed-methods study. Journal of Child and Family Studies,26,1865-1874. DOI: 10.1007/s10826-017-0713-9

    Beverung, L. & Jacobvitz, D. (2016). Women’s retrospective experiences of bereavement:  Predicting unresolved attachment. Journal of Death and Dying, 73, 126-140. DOI: 10.1177/0030222815575897.

    Lyons-Ruth, K., & Jacobvitz, D. (2016). Attachment Disorganization from Infancy to Adulthood: Neurobiological Correlates, Parenting Contexts, and Pathways to Disorder. In J. Cassidy & P. Shaver (eds.), Handbook of Attachment: Theory, Research and Clinical Applications (3rd Edition). New York: Guilford Press.

    Murphy, S., Jacobvitz, D. & Hazen, N. (2016). What’s so bad about competitive coparenting?  Family-level predictors of children’s externalizing symptoms. Journal of Child and Family Studies, 25, 1684-1690. DOI: 10.1007/s10826-015-0321-5.

    Frankel, L.A.,  Umemura, T., Jacobvitz, D., Hazen, N. (2015). Marital conflict and parental responses to infant negative emotions: Relations with toddler emotional regulation, Infant Behavior and Development, 40, 73-83. DOI: org/10.1016/j.infbeh.2015.03.004.

    Hazen, N.,  Allen, S.,  Umemura, T.,  Heaton, C., & Jacobvitz, D. (2015). Very extensive nonmaternal care predicts mother-infant attachment disorganization: Convergent evidence from two samples.  Development and Psychopathology, 27, 649-661. DOI:10.1017/S0954579414000893.

    Reisz, S, Jacobvitz, D. & George, C. (2015). Birth and Motherhood: Childbirth Experience, Mothers’ Perceptions of their babies and maternal self-esteem. Infant Mental Health Journal, 36, 167-178. DOI: 10.1002/imhj.21500.

    Christopher, C.,  Umemura, T.,  Mann, T., Jacobvitz, D. & Hazen, N. (2015). Marital Quality over the Transition to Parenthood as a Predictor of Coparenting. Journal of Child and Family Studies. 24, 3636-3651. DOI 10.1007/s10826-015-0172-0