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Christine Wekerle

Associate Professor of Pediatrics, McMaster University

Dr. Wekerle is an Associate Professor in Pediatrics and an Associate Member of the Offord Centre for Child Studies, McMaster University. She obtained her Ph.D. (Clinical Psychology) in 1995 from The University of Western Ontario, an American and Canadian Psychological Association accredited program and conducted her accredited internship at McMaster, in Pediatrics.

Dr. Wekerle's research areas are broadly in the areas of parenting and the prevention of family violence. She has edited a book on the overlap among child maltreatment, dating and courtship violence, partner violence and substance abuse ("The Violence and Addiction Equation," Taylor Francis), written a book for a broad audience on maltreatment ("Childhood Maltreatment," Hogrefe, translated into Spanish and Japanese), as well as a book and treatment manual on a dating violence prevention program ("The Youth Relationships Project”). She led a study on child welfare-involved youth, the Maltreatment and Adolescent Pathways (MAP) Study. Related content can be found on the ResilienceInYouth YouTube channel.

Dr. Wekerle has been an active scientist, publishing in peer-reviewed journals since 1987. She is Editor-in-Chief if the international journal, Elsevier’s Child Abuse & Neglect. Dr. Wekerle's research program is invested in supporting health and resilience within populations experiencing trauma and ACEs, disseminating actively to policy and practice.Dr. Wekerle and colleagues have a Canadian Institutes of Health Research Team Grant to advance boys' and men's health in the area of health and resilience among male youth with sexual violence experiences (CIHRTEAMSV). With Clearbridge Mobile, she has created a resilience app for youth, called JoyPop, and has extended her resilience research to Indigenous youth living on reserve. For more information, see youthresilience.net.

Experience

  • –present
    Associate Professor of Pediatrics, McMaster University

Honours

2016 Canadian Psychological Association – Trauma Stress Section Psychologist of the Year