• 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 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.

• Bowker, J.C., Santo, J., & Adams, R.E. (2019, online first). A dynamic examination of the associations between anxious-withdrawal, psychological difficulties, and stressful life events during early adolescence. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology.
• Liu, J., Bowker, J.C., Coplan, R.J., Yang, P., Li, D., & Chen, X. (2018, online first).  Shyness, peer relations, and internalizing problems in Chinese young adolescents. Journal of Research on Adolescence.
• Meisel, S., Colder, C., Bowker, J.C., & Hussong, A. (2018). A longitudinal examination of mediational pathways linking chronic victimization and exclusion to adolescent alcohol use. Developmental Psychology, 54, 1795-1807.
• Stotsky, M. & Bowker, J.C. (2018). An examination of reciprocal associations between social preference, popularity, and friendship during early adolescence. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 47, 1830-1841.
• Etkin, R.E. & Bowker, J.C. (2018). Overprotection in adolescent friendships. Merrill-Palmer Quarterly, 64, 347-375.
• Markovic, A.M., & Bowker, J.C. (2017). Friends also matter: Examining friendship adjustment indices as moderators of anxious-withdrawal and trajectories of change in psychological maladjustment. Developmental Psychology, 3, 1462-1473.
• Bowker, J.C., Stotsky, M., & Etkin, R.G. (2017). How BIS/BAS and psycho-behavioral variables distinguish between social withdrawal subtypes during emerging adulthood. Personality and Individual Differences, 119, 283-288.
• Ojanen, T., Findlay, D., Bowker, J.C., & Markovic, A. (2017). Shyness, unsociability, and adolescent adjustment: Evidence from Finland and the United States. Journal of Early Adolescence, 37, 433-446.
• Etkin, R.E., Bowker, J.C., & Scalco, M. (2016).  Social withdrawal subtypes and emotional eating during emerging adulthood. Personality and Individual Differences, 97, 239-244.
• Bowker, J.C., Adams, R.E., Bowker, M.H., Fisher, C., & Spencer, S.V. (2016). A longitudinal analysis of same- and other-sex popularity and preference. Journal of Early Adolescence, 45, 846-857.
• Bowker, J.C.  & Etkin, R.E. (2016). Examining the psychological concomitants of other-sex crush experiences during early adolescence. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 45, 846-857.
• Bowker, J.C., Ojo, A.A., & Bowker, M.H. (2016). Brief report: Perceptions of social withdrawal during emerging adulthood in Lagos, Nigeria. Journal of Adolescence, 1, 1-4.
• Rubin, K.H., Bukowski, W.M., & Bowker, J.C. (2015). Children in peer groups. In R. Lerner (Series Ed.), M.H. Bornstein & T. Leventhal (Vol. Eds.), Handbook of child psychology and developmental science, Vol. 4: Ecological settings and processes in developmental systems (pp. 175-222). Wiley-Blackwell.
• Markovic, A. & Bowker, J.C. (2015). Social surrogate use and adjustment: Exploring the psychosocial correlates of having a “social helper” during early adolescence. Journal of Genetic Psychology, 176, 110-129.
• Markovic, A. & Bowker, J.C. (2015). Shy but funny? An examination of peer-valued characteristics as moderators of the associations between anxious-withdrawal and peer outcomes during early adolescence. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 44, 833-846.