Dr. Melanie Dirks

Dr. Melanie Dirks is a clinical psychologist who earned her PhD at Yale University and completed her clinical internship at the Institute for Juvenile Research, University of Illinois at Chicago.  Her research focuses on developing our theoretical understanding of youth social competence, and working within this framework to advance understanding of the role of interpersonal behavior in the onset and maintenance of youth psychopathology, with a focus on internalizing symptoms.  Funding from CIHR, SSHRC, and the FQRSC have allowed her to pursue projects examining (a) the longitudinal associations among internalizing symptoms, youth’s responses to peer aggression, and their experience of victimization; (b) social information-processing patterns associated with internalizing symptoms in a sample of clinically referred youth; and (c) the effectiveness of different strategies youth use to respond to peer aggression.