Lectures at Duke Focus on Childhood Effects of Economic Hardship, Trauma

The effects of economic hardship and trauma during early childhood are the focus of speakers for the 2010 Sulzberger Distinguished Lecture Series at Duke University.

The lectures are from 3:30-5 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 2 and Tuesday, April 13 in the Rhodes Conference Room of the Sanford School of Public Policy, 201 Science Drive, on Duke's West Campus. The talks, which are free and open to the public, each include a reception after the lectures.

For more information or to register for either lecture, call (919) 613-9350, e-mail ehlayko@duke.edu or visit www.childandfamilypolicy.duke.edu.

Glen H. Elder, a research professor at the Carolina Population Center at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, begins the series Tuesday, Feb. 2. His talk, "Overcoming Disadvantage: From Great Depression to Great Recession," will explore the relevance of his longitudinal studies of children affected by the Great Depression for understanding the impact of the current economic crisis on young lives.

Elder has served on the faculties of Cornell University and the University of California at Berkeley, where he launched his career of longitudinal studies in the early 1960s.

More information on Glen Elder is available at http://www.unc.edu/~elder.

On Tuesday, April 13, Alicia Lieberman, the Irving B. Harris Endowed Chair in Infant Mental Health at the University of California, San Francisco, will present "Babies Remember and Babies Can't Wait: Translating research into public policy for young children and their families."

Lieberman, who is director of the Child Trauma Research Project at San Francisco General Hospital, will summarize current knowledge about the impact of trauma on young children and describe promising models that link mental health intervention with primary health care, community-based resources, child protection services and the legal system.

More information on Lieberman is available at http://psych.ucsf.edu/faculty.aspx?id=322.

The Center for Child and Family Policy at Duke sponsors the Sulzberger Distinguished Lecture Series. The series, begun in 2006, is endowed by the Arthur Sulzberger Family.

The center, which is affiliated with the Social Science Research Institute and the Sanford School of Public Policy at Duke, bridges the gap between research and public policy to improve the lives of children and families.