Member Name:

Bullyproofing

Member Since:

October 27, 2008

Last Logged in:

October 27, 2008

A few words about me...

Stephen Leff received his A.B. in Psychology and Religion from Duke University, and his M.A. and Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from the University of North Carolina. Dr. Leff is currently an Associate Professor of Clinical Psychology in the Department of Pediatrics at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine.  Dr. Leff is nationally recognized for his research on bullying prevention, gender differences in the expression of aggression, and violence prevention programming. He has been the Principal Investigator of four NIH-funded grants, all of which have been related to the use of partnership-based research methods in the development, implementation, and evaluation of aggression prevention programs and assessment tools in the urban schools.  Dr. Leff is also a Co-Investigator for the CDC-funded Philadelphia Collaborative Violence Prevention Center (PCVPC), and is the Principal Investigator for the five year centerpiece research project to develop a comprehensive community-based violence prevention intervention in West and Southwest Philadelphia.  Dr. Leff is on the Editorial Advisory Board for School Psychology Review and serves as an ad hoc reviewer for ten additional journals, serves on NIH Review panels, and is involved in both regional and national groups related to bullying and victimization prevention.  Dr. Leff and colleagues have designed and published on one of the first school-based relational aggression interventions (e.g., relational aggression is the form of aggression expressed through gossiping, threatening to withdraw friendships, and ignoring others; Leff et al., 2007; Leff et al., in press) and he is a frequent media consultant and speaker within the community on bullying prevention, peer relationships, and developing interventions through partnership.  



Sample Publications



Leff, S. S., Power, T. J., Manz, P. H., Costigan, T. E., & Nabors, L. A. (2001). School-based aggression prevention programs for young children: Current status and implications for violence prevention.  School Psychology Review, 30, 344-362.



Leff, S. S., Kupersmidt, J. B., & Power, T. J. (2003).  An initial examination of girls’ cognitions of their relationally aggressive peers as a function of their own social standing.  Merrill Palmer Quarterly, 49, 28-54.



Leff, S. S., Power, T. J., Costigan, T., & Manz, P. H. (2003). Assessing the climate of the playground and lunchroom: Implications for bullying prevention programming.  School Psychology Review, 32, 418-430.



Leff, S. S., Costigan, T. E., & Power, T. J. (2004).  Using participatory-action research to develop a playground-based prevention program.  Journal of School Psychology, 42, 3-21.



Leff, S. S., Power, T. J., & Goldstein, A. (2004). Outcome Measures to Assess for the Effectiveness of Bullying Prevention Programs in the Schools.  In. D. L. Espelage & S. S. Swearer (Eds). Bullying in American Schools: A Social-Ecological Perspective on Prevention and Intervention (269-294). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Earlbaum Associates.