University at Buffalo - The State University of New York

Published: March 8, 2007

By KEVIN FRYLING
Reporter Staff Writer

The realization she wanted to pursue a career in research on the peer relationships of children and adolescents came not in a lecture hall or classroom, says UB developmental psychologist Julie Bowker, but at a day care center.

UB psychologist Julie Bowker says she decided to focus her work on fifth-, sixth- and seventh-graders because middle school is the time when children’s friendships start to become more and more important.
PHOTO: NANCY J. PARISI

As she watched over 2- to 4-year-olds as part of an undergraduate course on child development at Cornell University, Bowker, who joined the faculty of the Department of Psychology as an assistant professor last fall, learned that a room full of bustling toddlers can present a scene of complicated social interaction. "Some children were sociable and outgoing, and others much more reserved," she says. "I became interested in the origins of these individual differences in behavior. I'm interested in the role of children's peer relationships, particularly their friendships, in emotional and social development.

"The end of grade school and the beginning of middle school is an interesting time to study," she continues, noting that her interest turned to fifth-, sixth- and seventh-graders after she became a doctoral student at the University of Maryland-College Park (UMCP). "Puberty is leading to all these changes, but perhaps more importantly, this time is when children's friendships start to become more and more important."

This means that middle school—a place infamous for rigid social classifications and tight-knit cliques—is when children start to choose their friends based on shared interests, viewpoints and personalities. Bowker focuses her work on the challenges this presents to children who are unable to make friends within their larger peer group because of either their unusual aggression or shyness.

Although researchers now realize that depression, anxiety and loneliness are common risk factors that affect shy children, she says those factors were overlooked in psychological study for many years. "There was much more focus on aggressive children—the ones who are disruptive, who teachers complain about the most," she says. "People sort of viewed shy children as well-behaved, as model students."

Yet studies on shyness also are somewhat indebted to the recent rise in concern over bullies in schools. "That focus on bullying has led to an increased interest in victims," she acknowledges, "but what's interesting is that both aggression and shyness are linked to victimization."

Bowker adds that research suggests friendships provide a certain level of protection from antagonistic peers, but also notes that situations can arise in which friends worsen troublesome behaviors—for example, if two withdrawn children fall into a "misery loves company"-style relationship.

"Learning more about the specific qualities and characteristics of shy children can improve in-school intervention efforts and make parents and teachers more aware about how friendship can be a risk or protective factor," she says.

A proposal to explore the communication styles used by shy children and their friends is one of the projects she plans to pursue at UB, says Bowker, who's also been granted internal approval for a separate project to investigate adolescent friendships across grades and sexes. Plus, she is part of a collaborative effort with the UB Department of Pediatrics to probe potential connections between peer relationships and childhood obesity.

"Toward the end of my postdoc, I felt very ready to start and establish my own independent research career," she says. "Last semester was a little hectic, but I was able to get a couple grants out and set up my lab. I'm busy, but it's great. I love it."

Bowker worked as a postdoctoral researcher from 2005-06 in Ken Rubin's Laboratory for the Study of Child and Family Relationships at UMCP—the same lab in which she had worked as a graduate research assistant since 1999. Bowker spent seven years on a single project: an ambitious effort funded by the National Institute for Mental Health to investigate the peer relationships of hundreds of fifth- and six-graders throughout schools in Montgomery County, Maryland.

Her first year in graduate school was productive, she notes, pointing out that she not only joined the research project, but was selected to participate in an overseas conference of the International Society for the Study of Behavioral Development.

"The conference was held in Beijing," she says, "and it was my first conference; my first time out of the country, actually."

While Bowker pursued her doctorate in human development, which she received in 2005, she also participated in additional conferences in Belgium and Canada, as well as won several research awards and a 2004 Distinguished Teaching Assistant Award.

"I think students enjoy my enthusiasm and passion for teaching," she says, noting she taught or co-taught several 400-level classes, as well as a graduate-level course, as a graduate instructor and later graduate supervisor of the Human Development Teacher Training Group. This semester, she teaches two courses at UB: an upper-level undergraduate course on adolescent development and a graduate seminar on teaching psychology.

It has been a welcome change, she adds, to join a department of psychology after so many years in a department of human development. "I find the research interests of faculty are much more varied," she says. "I've never had the opportunity to know or work with someone in behavioral neuroscience or the cognitive area. I'm finding that to be really exciting."

A native of Liverpool, N.Y., near Syracuse, Bowker now resides in Williamsville with her husband, Matthew, a doctoral candidate in political science at UMCP who teaches at Medaille College. They were married a year ago this month.

"My husband and I really like Buffalo," she says. "We've been enjoying going downtown, whether it be to restaurants or the Albright Knox Art Gallery. We find it to be a city that really has a lot more to offer than we realized."