Dr. Cassidy is Professor of Psychology at the University of Maryland at College Park, and Director of the Maryland Child and Family Development Laboratory. She received her Ph.D. in 1986 from the University of Virginia, where her mentor was Mary Ainsworth, one of the developers of attachment theory and research. Her research focuses on attachment, social and emotional development in children and adolescents, social information-processing, peer relations, early intervention, and longitudinal prediction of adolescent risk behavior.
Dr. Cassidy serves as coeditor of the journal Attachment and Human Development, and, along with Phillip Shaver, is the coeditor of the Handbook of Attachment: Theory, Research, and Clinical Implications (2008). She received the Boyd R. McCandless Young Scientist Award from the American Psychological Association in 1991, and is a Fellow of the Association for Psychological Science. Her research has been funded by the National Institute of Mental Health, the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, the National Institute of Drug Abuse, and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.
Awards and Credentials
- Fellow, Association for Psychological Science
- Boyd R. McCandless Young Scientist Award. American Psychological Association, Division 7, 1991
- Coeditor, Attachment and Human Development
