Jodi Dworkin

Degrees

Ph.D., Human and Community Development, University of Illinois
M.S., Human and Community Development, University of Illinois
B.S., Psychology, Allegheny College

Honors & Awards

2007 National Extension Association of Family & Consumer Sciences Internet Education Technology Award, First Place, Central Region

2006 National Family Life Extension Specialists Early Achievement Award

2006 Innovations in Student Development Award, Minnesota College Personnel Association

2006 College of Human Ecology Award for Innovation and Mission Advancement, University of Minnesota

2005 New Career Excellence Award, College of Human Ecology

Research & Discovery

Jodi's research and discovery attempts a paradigm shift away from the historically negative model of youth risk-taking behaviors to a normative model of youth exploration, one that sees this behavior as functional, intentional and part of an active process of identity formation.

Study of Healthy Youth Experimentation – This project includes collecting focus group data from teenagers and parents of teenagers from across Minnesota, to better understand youths’ experiences exploring a variety of behaviors, and the experiences of parents raising youth who are exploring. Next, these data were used to develop and pilot test a self-report measure of youth risk-taking designed to: (1) get rich descriptive information on the context in which youth exploration occurs, and (2) begin to identify the factors that determine whether exploration is healthy and functional (i.e. promotes positive development) or whether it is simply dangerous (i.e. prevents or interferes with positive development).

Adolescent and Young Adult Health-Related Behaviors and Family Development- Jodi is utilizing data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health) to explore the experiences and family relationships of youth who describe themselves as risk-takers.

Outreach & Engagement

Outreach and engagement project web page: Parenting Teens

Teen-Link - A searchable database of books, journal articles and web sites on teen issues.

Jodi's outreach and engagement focuses on developing resources to help parents understand normative adolescent and college student development and communicate with their adolescent and college student around risk-taking behaviors, and training professionals in this area of research. She is currently involved in four key projects.

1. Partnering with Marjorie Savage, Director of the Parent Program at the University of Minnesota, they develop on-line resources for parents of college students and soon-to-be college students. The on-line course Seminar for Parents: Alcohol use on campus is available at: Seminar for Parents
2. As part of a national workgroup, they compile and develop age-paced newsletters for parents, starting prenatally and continuing through adolescence. To learn more visit: Just In Time Parenting Community Page
3. In collaboration with a team of Extension Educators, they are expanding and evaluating the Teen Talk fact sheet series, and developing take-and-teach lessons, designed to be used by professionals and volunteers in a one-hour session with parents of teenagers: Parenting Education Resources.
4. In collaboration with a team of Extension Educators, they are developing online research updates for professionals, What's new with teenagers and their families? Research update for professionals.

Publications

1. Willoughby, B., & Dworkin, J. (in press). The relationships between emerging adults’ expressed desire to marry and frequency of participation in risk behaviors. Youth & Society.

2. Schneider, K., Dworkin, J., Gengler, C., & Olson, K. (2008). Online or face-to-face? A comparison of two methods of training professionals. Journal of Family & Consumer Sciences, 100, 28-33.

3. Emil, C., Dworkin, J., & Skelly, C. (2007). Youth Teaching Youth: Evaluation of the Alcohol/Tobacco Decisions cross-age teaching program. The Forum for Family and Consumer Issues [Online], 12(2). Available at: http://ncsu.edu/ffci/publications/2007/v12-n2-2007-summer-fall/emil.php

4. Dworkin, J., & Larson, R. (2006). Adolescents’ negative experiences in organized youth activities. Journal of Youth Development [Online], 1(3). Available at: http://www.nae4ha.org/directory/jyd/index.htm

5. Marczak, M., Dworkin, J., Skuza, J., & Beyer, J. (2006). What’s up? What young teens and parents want from youth programs. New Directions in Youth Development: Theory, Research, and Practice, 112, 45-56.

6. Dworkin, J., & Walker, S. K. (2006). Successfully navigating the Extension job market. Journal of Family & Consumer Sciences, 98, 38-40.

7. Senyurekli, A. R., Dworkin, J., & Dickinson, J. (2006). Online professional development for Extension Educators. Journal of Extension [Online], 44(3). Available at: http://www.joe.org/joe/2006june/rb1.shtml

8. Dworkin, J., & Lee, C-Y. S. (2005). Individuation revisited: Implications for parent education. Journal of Extension [Online], 43(6). Available at: http://www.joe.org/joe/2005december/rb8.shtml

9. Dworkin, J. (2005). Risk-taking as developmentally appropriate experimentation for college students. Journal of Adolescent Research, 20, 219-241.

10. Dworkin, J. B., & Karahan, A. (2005). Parents Forever: Evaluation of a divorce education curriculum. Journal of Extension [Online], 43(1). Available at: http://www.joe.org/joe/2005february/rb6.shtml

11. Dworkin, J., & Bremer, K. L. (2004). "If you want to win, you have to learn to get along:" Youth talk about their participation in extracurricular activities. The Prevention Researcher, 11, 14-16.

12. Dworkin, J. B., Larson, R., & Hansen, D. (2003). Adolescents' accounts of growth experiences in youth activities. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 32, 17-26.