Chavez, Felipa
Felipa Chavez
Assistant Professor | College of Psychology and Liberal Arts: School of Psychology
Contact Information
Personal Overview
Pursuing a program of research reflecting issues of family dysfunction as seen through parent child interactions, child psychopathology, comorbid parental psychopathology, marital conflict and satisfaction, as well as parental approaches and disciplinary strategies used rearing their children. More specifically, I have examined the role of alcoholism and substance abuse as they influence issues of parenting, child maltreatment and child development within different sociocultural contexts. Also interested in how issues of culture affect parenting, behavioral and mental health particularly as it relates to ethnic identity formation and psychopathology.
1/2003 - 12/2004 Loan Repayment Program Recipient
National Institute of Health, Rockville, Maryland.
6/28/02-7/3/02 2002 Junior Investigator Award
25th Annual Scientific Meeting of the Research Society on Alcoholism (RSA)
San Francisco, California.
8/90 - 6/94 Arthur A. Schomburg Fellowship (4 years).
SUNY at Buffalo, Department of Clinical Psychology.
8/88 - 5/90 Psychology Honors Program
New York University, Department of Psychology.
8/88 - 5/90 Psi Chi National Honor Society
New York University, Department of Psychology.
Educational Background
B.A. New York University 1990
M.A. SUNY@Buffalo 1997
Ph.D. SUNY@Buffalo 2000
Professional Experience
Dr. Chavez has worked in a variety of clinical settings including community mental health, school based programs, residential treatment facilities, and hospitals. From these various clinical settings, Dr. Chavez has experience with a variety of clinically and ethnically diverse populations ranging from preschool age to geriatric clients, both inpatients and outpatients. Dr. Chavez’s clinical experience particularly focuses on issues related to children and families such as parenting children with behavioral, emotional, and medical problems. Dr. Chavez has a very strong clinical background in early child development and extensive experience in doing therapy with maltreated children. She also posses extensive training and experience in behavioral medicine, pediatric psychology, and neuropsychological testing. Dr. Chavez utilizes a plethora therapeutic techniques and approaches which are predominately cognitive behavioral, psychoeducational, family systems, and psychodynamic in nature. As an NIAAA post-doctoral fellow at the Research institute on Addictions, SUNY@Buffalo, she received extensive training in alcohol research, grant-writing, longitudinal design, and advanced multivariate statistical analysis (SEM and HLM) through dissemination activities such as conference presentations, and serving as an ad hoc peer reviewer for the Journal of Child and Adolescent Psychology. Dr. Chavez has also served as project director of the Late Effects of Long-Term Survivors of Pediatric Cancer Project at Roswell Park Cancer Hospital. Currently she continues to integrate her clinical and research interest through supervising students' clinical training and research theses, and teaching.
Selected Publications
Chavez, F.T., Leonard, K. E. , & Eiden, R.D. (in review). The Effect of Couples Drinking Patterns on their Marital Relationship and Risk Factors associated with Alcoholism. Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research.
Chavez, F. & Levine, M. (in review). Is child maltreatment a black and white issue? Child Abuse and Neglect.
Zevon, M.A., Cavazos, P.A., Chavez, F.T., DeLucia-Waack, J.L., & Green, D.M. (in review). Locus of
Control, Marital Satisfaction, and Reproductive Concerns of Adult Survivors of Childhood Cancer.
Psycho-Oncology.
Eiden, R.D. Leonard, K.E., Hoyle, R.H. & Chavez, F.T. (2005). A Transactional Model of Parent-Infant Interactions in Alcoholic Families. Psychology of Addictive Behaviors.
Eiden, R.D., Chavez, F. & Leonard, K. (1999). Parent-Infant interactions among alcoholic families. Journal of Development and Psychopathology, 11, 745-762.
Levine, M., & Doueck, H.J., with Anderson, E., Chavez, F., Deisz, R., George, N., Sharma, A., Steinberg, K., & Wallach L. (1995). Psychotherapy and Mandated Reporting of Child Maltreatment. Newbury Park, CA.: Sage Publications.
Cavasos, P. Chavez, F.T., Zevon, M.A., & Green, D.M. (2003). Impact of Surviving Cancer on Locus of Control and
Reproductive Concerns. A poster submitted for the 2003 American Psychological Association Annual Convention, Toronto, CAN, August 7-10, 2003.
Chavez, F.T. & Eiden, R.D. (2003). The Power of Kin: Kinship Supportive Networks as Mediators of Racial
Differences in Child Neglect Cases and Family Functioning. A poster submitted for the Family Violence Conference, September 2003, San Diego, California.
Eiden, R.D. Chavez, F.T. & Leonard, K.E. (2003). Longitudinal Changes in Parent-Infant Interactions Among Alcoholic Families. A poster submitted for the Biennial Meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development, April 2003, Tampa, Florida.
Eiden, R.D., Edwards, E.P., Leonard, K.E., & Chavez, F.T. (2002). Infants of alcoholic fathers. Paper presented at the World Association of Infant Mental Health Conference, July 16-19, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
Chavez, F.T., Eiden, R.D., & Leonard, K. E. (2002) An examination of the longitudinal impact of partner support and stress on parental drinking. A poster presentation for the 25th Annual Research Society on Alcoholism (RSA) Scientific Meeting, June 28-July3, 2002, San Francisco, California.
Chavez, F.T. & Levine, M. (2002). Racial and gender discrimination in attitudes regarding CPS: A new scale of measurement. A paper presentation for the APSAC 10th National Colloquium, May 29- June 2, New Orleans, Louisiana.
Green, D.M. Zevon, M.A., Rock, K.M., & Chavez, F. (2002). Fatigue after treatment for Hodgkin's disease during childhood or adolescence. Proc ASCO 21:396a. Also presented at the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), Orlando, Fl.
Green, D.M., Zevon, M.A., Rock, K.M., & Chavez, F. (2002). Fatigue after treatment for Hodgkin's disease during childhood or adolescence. Paper presented at the 7th International Conference on the Long-Term Complications of Treatment of Children and Adolescents for Cancer, Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario, CAN.
Zevon, M.A., Green, D.M., Chavez, F., Rajendran, A., & Lema, B. (2002). Initial validation of a measure of reproductive
concerns in long-term survivors of child and adolescent cancer. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the International Congress of Behavioral Medicine, Helsinki, Finland.
Research
The Power of Kin: Using archival data, this study seeks to examine cultural differences among black and white neglect and non-neglect populations in the use of kinship support networks. In addition, the study will determine whether such kinship support networks mediate the relationships between stress and neglect, stress and substance abuse, and substance abuse and neglect.
An Assessment of Maternal and Paternal Differences in Disciplinary Strategies: A Factor Analytic Validation of the Parental Response to Child Misbehavior (PRCM) Questionnaire Among a sample of Alcoholic families: The current study is part of an ongoing longitudinal investigation on the effects of parental drinking on child development and family interactions. The goal of the present study is to examine group differences in paternal and maternal disciplinary strategies among at-risk families characterized by paternal alcoholism, and non-alcoholic families.
Parent Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT) in the reduction of dyadic stress, child abuse potential, and parental substance abuse relapse: Utilizing a clinical trial design the goal of this study will be to reduce parenting stress and substance abuse recidivism, as well as oppositional defiant behaviors in children which are risk factors for child physical abuse
Parent’s reactions to videotaped children’s behavior: This is a pilot study to devise and standard a video vignette instrument used to assess parental cognitions and affect associated with child maltreatment behaviors. Once standardized, this instrument will be the vehicle for studying the effects of alcohol impairment in child maltreatment behaviors in an alcohol administration study using an alcohol, no alcohol, and placebo design.