John R. Z. Abela

Title: Professor I
Area: Clinical Psychology
Phone:
Email: abela@rci.rutgers.edu
Campus: Livingston
Building: Tillett Hall 503
Website:

Dr. Abela joined the faculty at Rutgers University in September of 2008 after having been a faculty member at McGill University for 9 years.  Dr. Abela received a BA in psychology from Brown University (1993) and a PhD in clinical psychology from the University of Pennsylvania (1999).  He completed his pre-doctoral internship at McLean Hospital and Harvard Medical School.  At McGill, Dr. Abela held the position of Associate Professor (tenured) and William Dawson Scholar (research chair) in the Departments of Psychology and Psychiatry.  From 2002-2008, Dr. Abela served as the Director of the Cognitive Behavior Therapy Clinic at the Montreal Children's Hospital.  Dr. Abela has also held appointments as a visiting professor at Second Xiangya Medical College of Central South University (Changsha, China) and the University of Rome “La Sapienza” (Rome, Italy). 

Dr. Abela's research focuses on genetic, cognitive, and interpersonal vulnerability to depression in children and adolescents.  Dr. Abela has over 65 scientific publications in peer-review journals and 15 invited chapters/reviews.  He has edited two books including the Handbook of Child and Adolescent Depression and Development of Psychopathology: A Vulnerability-Stress Perspective.  He is on the editorial boards of Behaviour Research and Therapy, Cognitive Therapy and Research, International Journal of Cognitive Therapy, Journal of Abnormal Psychology, and Psychological Assessment.  Dr. Abela is a two-time recipient of a young investigator award and a one-time recipient of an independent investigator award from the National Alliance for Research on Schizophrenia and Depression.  His research has also been funded by the Canada Foundation for Innovation, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, the Canadian Psychiatric Research Foundation, the National Institute of Mental Health, and the Social Sciences and Research Council of Canada.  Dr. Abela has received New Researcher Awards from the Association of the Advancement of Behavior Therapy, the Canadian Psychological Association, the International Congress of Psychology, and the Canadian National Research Council for the International Union of Psychological Science.  He has also received McGill University's Principal's Prize for Excellence in Teaching as well as McGill University's Leo Yaffe Award for Excellence in Teaching.

Dr. Abela is currently conducting four large-scale, longitudinal research projects.  The first is a six-year, multi-wave, longitudinal study of 400 6th – 8th graders examining the emergence of sex differences in depression during the transition from early to middle adolescence as well as the surge in depression rates during the transition from middle to late adolescence.  The second is a three-year, multi-wave longitudinal study of 750 3rd, 6th, and 9th graders examining genetic, cognitive, and interpersonal vulnerability to depression throughout childhood and adolescence.  The third is a three-year multi-wave longitudinal study of 900 10th graders in both urban and rural China examining the relationship between cultural beliefs, cognitive vulnerability factors, interpersonal protective factors, stress, and depressive symptoms/episodes.  The last is a one-year multi-wave, longitudinal study of 1,000 2nd and 3rd graders in Changsha, China and Milan, Italy, examining cognitive vulnerability to depression in childhood.

Selected References:

Abela, J. R. Z., & Hankin, B. L. (2008). Cognitive vulnerability to depression in children and adolescents: A developmental psychopathology perspective. In J. R. Z. Abela and B. L. Hankin (Eds.), Handbook of child and adolescent depression (pp. 35-78). New York: The Guilford Press.

Abela, J. R.  Z., Aydin, C., & Auerbach, R. P. (2007). Responses to depression in children: Re-conceptualizing the relation among response styles. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 35, 913-927.

Abela, J. R. Z., & McGirr, A.(2007). Operationalizing “cognitive vulnerability” and “stress” from the perspective of the hopelessness theory: A multi-wave longitudinal study of children of affectively-ill parents. British Journal of Clinical Psychology, 46, 377-395.

Abela, J. R. Z., McGirr, A., & Skitch, S. A. (2007). Depressogenic inferential styles, negative events, and depressive symptoms in youth: An attempt to reconcile past inconsistent findings. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 45, 2397-2406.

Abela, J. R. Z., Morrison, E. J. P., & Starrs, C. (2007). Excessive reassurance seeking, self-esteem, and depressive symptoms in children of affectively-ill parents: An experience sampling analysis. Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 26, 837-857.

Abela, J. R. Z., & Skitch, S. A.  (2007). Dysfunctional attitudes as a cognitive vulnerability factor for depression in children of affectively-ill parents: A multi-wave longitudinal study. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 45, 1127-1140.

Abela, J. R. Z., Skitch, S. A., Adams, P., & Hankin, B. L.  (2006). The timing of parent and child depression: A hopelessness theory perspective. Journal of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology, 35, 253-263.

Abela, J. R. Z., Zuroff, D. C., Ho, M. R., Adams, P., & Hankin, B. L. (2006). Excessive reassurance seeking, hassles, and depressive symptoms in children of affectively-ill parents: A multi-wave longitudinal study. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 34, 171-187.

Abela, J.R.Z., Hankin, B.L., Haigh, E.A.P., Vinokuroff, T., Trayhern, L., & Adams, P. (2005). Interpersonal vulnerability to depression in high-risk children: The role of insecure attachment and reassurance seeking. Journal of Clinical Child & Adolescent Psychology, 34, 182-192.