Dr. Beth E. Molnar is a social and psychiatric epidemiologist, studying causes and consequences of violence against children and adolescents, particularly mental health and behavioral sequelae of child abuse, neglect, and exposure to community violence. She is also studying the effects of neighborhood social processes on children’s health and high-risk behavior.
Dr. Molnar is an Assistant Professor of Society, Human Development and Health at the Harvard School of Public Health, and is currently the principal investigator of a multi-level study of the etiology of girls’ violent behavior and of a study of development of substance abuse comorbid with other psychiatric disorders and childhood adversities.
The major goals of her research are to identify modifiable, multi-level risk and protective factors that can lead to prevention of violence, both against and perpetrated by youth, as well as to promote mental health and safe behavior of children and adolescents.