• PhD, University of Maryland - College Park

My research program focuses on the roles that close interpersonal relationships (e.g., friendships, parent-child relationships) play in social and emotional development and psychopathology during late childhood and early adolescence. I am especially interested in how peer relationships function as risk and protective factors in the lives of children and adolescents who are considered at risk for such internalizing and externalizing difficulties as anxiety, depression, and aggression. My work includes longitudinal analyses of peer nomination and self-report data, along with laboratory observations of adolescents and their best friends. Other current research projects examine the importance of time and place in understanding friendship and victimization experiences (the TRIP study, funded by a National Science Foundation grant), the developmental significance and internalizing consequences of temporal changes in peer relationships (e.g., losses of friendships), the emergence and impact of romantic experiences, such as other-sex crushes, and the peer and psychological correlates of social behaviors across cultures. Current projects also consider the developmental significance of being alone and spending time in solitude across the life-span, including in older age.

• Bowker, J. C. (2025). Psychological correlates of crush experiences during early adolescence: Features of the crush experience matter. International Journal of Behavioral Development, Online First.
• White, H. I., Bowker, J. C., Etkin, R. G., & Kamble, S. V. (2025). Reciprocal associations between social withdrawal motivations and peer difficulties during early adolescence. Journal of Adolescence. Online First.
• McVarnock, A., Coplan, R. J., White, H. I., & Bowker, J. C. (2025). Looking beyond time alone: An examination of solitary activities in emerging adulthood. Journal of Personality, 93, 81-100.
• Ghosh, R. A., Bowker, J. C., & Rubin, K. H. (2024). Interactions between relationship support from mothers, fathers, and best friends as related to adolescent adjustment during the transition to high school. Social Development, 33, e12760.
• Millett, M. A., van den Berg, Y. H., Burk, W. J., & Bowker, J. C. (2025). Childhood shyness and negative social cognitions in emerging adulthood: Adolescent negative peer experiences as moderators. Journal of Genetic Psychology, 1-17.
• Bowker, J. C., Rubin, K. H., McDonald, K. L., Mulvey, K. L., Güroğlu, B., Nishina, A., & Chen, X. (2024). Peer Relationships. In M. Lamb & M. Bornstein (Eds), Developmental Science (pp. 558-598). New York: Routledge.
• Bowker, J.C.  Weingarten, J.P, Etkin, R.E., & Dirks, M.A. (2024). When best friendships end: Young adolescents’ responses to best friendship dissolution. Frontiers of Developmental Psychology, Special issue on peer relationships, 2, 1-17.
• Weingarten, J. P., Bowker, J. C., & Simms, L. J. (2024). A peer trade-off model of personality disorder traits during adolescence. International Journal of Developmental Science, 18(3-4), 169-174.
• Weingarten, J. P., Bowker, J. C., Coplan, R. J., & Rubin, K. H. (2024). Maternal beliefs about the benefits and costs of child and adolescent friendship. British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 42, 78-96.
• Coplan, R. J., Weingarten, J. P., Bowker, J. C., Ooi, L. L., & Archbell, K. (2024). Maternal beliefs about the costs and benefits of solitude in childhood and adolescence. Journal of Child and Family Studies, 33, 1517-1530.
• Bowker, J.C., White, H.I., & Weingarten, J. (2023). Exploratory study of best friendship dissolution characteristics and psychological difficulties during early adolescence. Infant and Child Development, 32, e2428.
• Bowker, J.C., Richard, C.L., Stotsky, M.V., Weingarten, J.P.*, & Shafik, M.I. (2023). Understanding shyness and psychosocial difficulties during early adolescence: The role of friend shyness and self-silencing. Personality and Individual Differences, 209, 112209.
• Etkin, R.G. & Bowker, J.C. (2023). Bidirectional associations of friend overprotection and adolescent psychosocial adjustment. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 52, 780-793.
• White, H.W., Bowker, J.C., Adams, R.J., & Coplan, R.J. (2023). Solitude and affect during emerging adulthood: When, and for whom, spending time alone is related to positive and negative affect during social interactions. International Journal of Behavioral Development, 46, 490-499.
• Bowker, J.C., Sette, S., Ooi, L.L., Bayram-Ozdemir, S., Braathu, N., Castillo, K.N., Dogan, A., Greco, C., Kamble, S., Karevold, E., Kim, H.K., Kim, Y., Liu, J., Oh, W., Rapee, R., Wong, Q., Xiao, B., Zuffiano, A., & Coplan, R.J. (2023).  Cross-cultural measurement of social withdrawal motivations across ten countries using multiple-group factor analysis alignment. International Journal of Behavioral Development, 47, 190-198.