Theresa Stichick Betancourt is Director of the Research
Program on Children and Global Adversity (RPCGA) and Assistant Professor of
Child Health and Human Rights at the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH). Her
central research interests include:
- the developmental and psychosocial consequences of concentrated adversity on children and families;
- resilience and protective processes in child development;
- child health and human rights; and
- applied cross-cultural mental health research.
Dr. Betancourt is the Principal Investigator of an
ongoing longitudinal study of former child soldiers in Sierra Leone and is currently collaborating with
Partners in Health Rwanda
to launch a mixed-methods study of mental health needs among HIV/AIDS-affected
youth. Recently she served as the Co-PI of a randomized-controlled trial of
interventions for the treatment of depression symptoms in youth displaced by
war in northern Uganda.
Her prior research includes a study of the psychosocial dimensions of an
emergency education program serving internally-displaced Chechen youth, an
investigation of the relationship between connectedness, social support and
emotional problems in Chechen IDP youth and a study of the relationship between
caregiver and child mental health among Eritrean Kunama refugees living on the
Ethiopia-Eritrea border. She is also collaborating with local child protection
NGOs in Sierra Leone
to develop a policy initiative designed to improve child welfare and social
services for war-affected youth in that country.
Dr. Betancourt graduated summa
cum laude in psychology from Linfield College in McMinnville,
Oregon and holds a Master in Art Therapy from
the University of
Louisville. She completed
her doctoral work in Maternal and Child Health with concentrations in
Psychiatric Epidemiology and Health and Human Rights at the Harvard School of
Public Health.