• 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.

• Oh, W., Bowker, J. C., Santos, J., Guedes, M., Kim, H. K., & Rubin, K. H. (2021). Distinct profiles of relationships with mothers, fathers, and best friends and socio-emotional functioning in early adolescence: A cross-cultural study. Child Development, 92, e1154-e1170.
• Laursen, B., Dickson, D. J., Boivin, M., Bowker, J. C., Brendgen, M., Bukowski, W. M., & Rubin, K. H. (2021). Revisiting the hypothesis that friends buffer against diminished self-esteem arising from poor parent-adolescent relationships: A replication study. Developmental Psychology, 57, 2067-2081.
• Bowker, J. C., Stotsky, M., White, H., & Kamble, S. (2020). Being an other-sex crush during early adolescence in India: Investigating socio-behavioral and psychological concomitants. Journal of Adolescence, 80, 115-124.
• Stotsky, M., Bowker, J. C. & Etkin, R. E. (2020). Receiving prosocial behavior: Examining the reciprocal associations between positive peer treatment and psychosocial and behavioral outcomes. Journal of Research on Adolescence, 30, 458-470.
• Bowker, J. C., Bowker, M. H., Santo, J. E., Ojo, A. A., Etkin, R. E., & Raja, R. (2019). Severe social withdrawal: Cultural variation in past hikikomori experiences among university students in Nigeria, Singapore, and the US. Journal of Genetic Psychology, 180, 217-230.
• Bowker, J. C., Ooi, L., Coplan, R. J., & Etkin, R. G. (2019). When is it okay to be alone? Normative beliefs about social withdrawal during emerging adulthood. Sex Roles, 1, 1-11.
• Coplan, R. J., Hipson, W. E., Archbell, K. A., Ooi, L. L. Baldwin, D., & Bowker, J. C. (2019). Seeking SolAS: Conceptualization, assessment, and implication of aloneliness. Personality and Individual Differences, 148, 17-26.
• Bowker, J. C., Santo, J., & Adams, R. E. (2019). A dynamic examination of the associations between anxious-withdrawal, psychological difficulties, and stressful life events during early adolescence. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 47, 1-13.
• Liu, J., Bowker, J. C., Coplan, R. J., Yang, P., Li, D., & Chen, X. (2019). Shyness, peer relations, and internalizing problems in Chinese young adolescents. Journal of Research on Adolescence, 29, 696-709.
• 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.