September 22, 2025
9 – 10:15am Pacific Time (Seattle) / 11 – 12:15pm Central Time (Texas)
via Zoom

BARNARD CENTER FREE LECTURE SERIES

This talk will explore how a mother’s unresolved trauma stemming from abuse or the loss of significant others can affect the quality of care she provides for her child. Specifically, we will describe frightening and anomalous caregiving behaviors over their child’s first two year of life and  show video examples. We will then discuss how these early experiences relate to emotional and behavior problems in middle childhood. Finally, we will discuss the implications of this research for clinical intervention.

Deborah Jacobvitz, Ph.D., is the Phyllis L. Richards Endowed Professor in Child Development at the University of Texas at Austin. Her research examines how early caregiving experiences shape the ways individuals remember, interpret, and organize information, as well as the relationships they form across the life course. She focuses on how family interaction patterns influence children’s socio-emotional development and has developed interventions to strengthen infant-caregiver relationships and support healthy developmental outcomes. Dr. Jacobvitz has published over 100 scientific papers, and her work has been funded by the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes for Health, the Episcopal Health Foundation and St. David’s Foundation. Finally, in recognition of her contributions to the field, she received the distinguished 2025 Bowlby-Ainsworth Award from the Center for Mental Health Promotion and the New York Attachment Consortium.

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