ECU Psychology Professor Honored with 'Best Paper' Award by Psychology of Women Quarterly

Dr. Heather Littleton, associate professor in the Department of Psychology at East Carolina University, recently was selected to receive the 2013 Georgia Babladelis Best Paper Award by the journal, Psychology of Women Quarterly (PWQ),for her co-authored paper “Health Risk Behavior and Sexual Assault Among Ethnically Diverse Women.”

Littleton’s paper examines the extent to which the association between having a sexual victimization history and engaging in more health risk behaviors, such as hazardous alcohol use, is mediated by sexual violence victims’ greater vulnerability to experiencing depressive and anxiety symptoms. This association was evaluated among European American, African American, Latina and Asian American women, and differences in the size of this relationship were compared. Implications of the findings for understanding sexual violence risk and health risk behaviors among diverse women are discussed.

This award, named for the first editor of PWQ, honors the best paper published for the year. The award-winning article will be featured as the lead article in the March 2013 issue of the journal and comes with a $1,000 honorarium. Littleton will be recognized for the award at the annual meeting of the American Psychological Association.

Co-authors of the article are Dr. Amie Grills-Taquechel, associate professor at the University of Houston, and three doctoral clinical health psychology students in Littleton’s lab. The doctoral students include Katherine Buck, Julia Dodd and Lindsey Rosman.

For additional information, contact Littleton at 252-328-6488 or littletonh@ecu.edu.