J Clin Psychol Med Settings (2017) 24:37–40 DOI 10.1007/s10880-017-9484-0

PROFESSIONAL PAPER

Autobiography of Edward R. Christophersen Edward R. Christophersen1 

Published online: 25 February 2017 © Springer Science+Business Media New York 2017

presentations and publications have paved the way for other psychologists to contribute to the care of pediatric patients in medical settings, and to children’s health and safety in daily life as well. With one foot firmly planted in pediatric medicine and the other in child and adolescent psychology, his outstanding record is hard to match. Few psychologists have done as much as Dr. Christophersen to facilitate the acceptance and incorporation of behavioral strategies into the work of our pediatric colleagues. Beyond these professionally-oriented contributions, we also note Dr. Christophersen’s tireless work in disseminating valid, empiricallybased information and guidelines on parenting behavior, both to parents and to the general public.

Citation The Association of Psychologists in Academic Health Centers (APAHC) honors Edward R. Christophersen, recipient of the 2014 Joseph D. Matarazzo Award for Distinguished Contributions to Psychology in Academic Health Centers. Dr. Christophersen’s efforts to advance the field of psychology in health care settings are truly endless. Now, after four decades, he continues to see patients, supervise students, mentor countless former students, and contribute publications. Moreover, he has been an active member of the medical community, especially in pediatric medicine. His work has demonstrated the value of psychologists’ research and clinical services in pediatric settings. His numerous * Edward R. Christophersen [email protected] 1



Division of Developmental Medicine and Behavioral Sciences, Department of Pediatrics, Children’s Mercy Hospital - Kansas, 5520 College Blvd., Suite 425, Overland Park, KS 66211, USA

Biosketch Edward R. Christophersen received his doctorate in Developmental and Child Psychology from the University of Kansas in 1970. He then completed a 3-year postdoctoral fellowship in the Bureau of Child Research at the University of Kansas in Lawrence, with a focus on applied research. Under the mentorship of Drs. Mont Wolf, Todd Risley, and Dick Schiefelbush, his postdoctoral training prepared him for his later work at the University of Kansas Medical Center. Christophersen’s mentors were wonderful about submitting manuscripts, presentations, and grants and, later, with editing his manuscripts, presentations, and grant applications prior to submission on which they were not co-authors. He appreciated their mentoring style so much that, throughout his own career, he attempted to model his mentoring style after theirs. Christophersen’s initial research focus was on behavioral parent training, which was supported by NICHD Grants under the auspices of the Juniper Garden’s Children’s

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Project. Researchers who had NICHD support met once a year at a meeting originally organized by Gerry Patterson, Ph.D., and titled, Social Learning in the Family, to discuss progress and problems. One of the first multi-site outcome studies was published by this group (Blechman et al., 1981). This was also a time when the Achievement Place in Lawrence, KS, had recently opened, and focused on treating boys with behavioral problems in a home-style rehabilitation setting. Christophersen was on the Board of the Optimist Boy’s Home in Overland Park, KS, and served on their Admissions Committee. The Optimist Boy’s Home was the first urban replication of the Achievement Place’s “Teaching Family” treatment model for court adjudicated male juveniles. Christophersen’s initial peer-reviewed pediatric research, which was sponsored by a small grant from the General Motors Corporation, was published in Pediatrics (Christophersen, 1977), the official journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics. The research article, “Children’s Behavior During Automobile Rides: Do Car Seats Make a Difference?”, used actual live observations during car rides, and demonstrated that children who were correctly restrained in an automobile safety seat behaved better than children who were unrestrained during automobile travel. It was the beginning of establishing Christophersen as a behavioral researcher in the area of Accident Prevention/Injury Control. Subsequent research showed that, using a positive approach to educating parents about child restraints, resulted in much higher rates of car seat usage (Christophersen, & Gyulay, 1981; Christophersen, 1982, 1983; Christophersen, & Sullivan, 1982; Thomas, Hassanein, & Christophersen, 1984; Christophersen, SoslandEdelman, & LeClaire, 1985). Multiple presentations at pediatric conference meetings, such as those of the Ambulatory Pediatrics Association, helped disseminate these important findings. In order to make lasting improvements in child safety seat usage in the State of Kansas, Christophersen began working with other professionals in the State of Kansas to encourage the Kansas Legislature to introduce legislation that would mandate the use of child passenger safety seats. Kansas was only the third state to pass such legislation and the first state to pass the legislation in the first year that it was introduced. He also worked with pediatricians in several other states to help get child safety legislation passed. The next generation of Christophersen’s research was during 1982–1986 and involved subspecialty physicians as co-authors. The research examined compliance with medical regimens, otitis media regimens, toileting problems, juvenile rheumatoid arthritis, appointment keeping, testicular cancer, bedtime problems, feeding disorders, and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (AD/HD). In the course of disseminating these research findings, Christophersen

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published manuscripts in Pediatrics and in other pediatric/medical journals and book chapters, and he gave presentations at international and national/regional pediatric meetings sponsored by the American Academy of Pediatrics. During that same time period, Christophersen also remained anchored in psychology, his home discipline. He authored and co-authored publications in psychology journals and book chapters, and made presentations at psychology meetings, with more than half of those presentations at annual meetings of the American Psychological Association (APA). He was also a Charter Member of the Board of Directors of the Society of Behavioral Medicine and served on the Editorial Board of the Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis. During his career, Christophersen was the recipient, as PI or Co-PI, of 33 research grants, with total direct costs of over 6-million dollars. Much of Christophersen’s research was conducted with doctoral students from the University of Kansas as a part of their training. He served as both a research and clinical supervisor and participated on the doctoral committees for 27 Ph.D. students, as well as numerous other M.A. and Ph.D. committees. As an integral part of their training, trainees served as first authors or co-authors on manuscripts they published with Christophersen, and trainees participated with him as first authors or co-authors of presentations at international and national/regional meetings. Over 90% of his trainees published their work either in peer-reviewed publications or as chapters in books; they contributed to advancing knowledge in the field of behavioral pediatrics. A number of Christophersen’s Ph.D. students have continued the mentoring model that he practiced and learned from Wolf, Risley and Schiefelbush, including by way of example: Drs. Michael Rapoff and Martye Barnard at the University of Kansas College of Medicine and Hospital; Dr. Pat Friman at Boys and Girls Town of Nebraska; and Dr. Jack Finney at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. In 1986, Christophersen was asked by Gene Baska, M.D., to become the Chief of a new Behavioral Pediatrics Section at Children’s Mercy Hospital, which serves the Kansas City area. This opportunity set the course for the remainder of Christophersen’s career, which combined research, clinical work, and training. In 1994, Christophersen and his two colleagues in the new Section, Drs. Patty Purvis and Kathryn Pieper, applied for and received certification from the Office of Accreditation of the American Psychological Association for a Predoctoral Clinical Child Psychology Internship Program. In 1996, the Children’s Mercy Hospital Sections of Developmental Medicine, Child Psychiatry, and Behavioral Pediatrics combined to form the Developmental and Behavioral Sciences Section, which is now a Division of the Hospital. Since that time, well over 100 trainees have completed their training

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at Children’s Mercy Hospital. Today there are 51 doctoral level psychologists employed, either full or part time, that provide dedicated clinical services to many of the pediatric subspecialty clinics, which is a testament to the efforts of all of the psychologists on staff over the past 20 years. While at Children’s Mercy Hospital, Christophersen published the best-selling APA textbook, with Susan Mortweet Vanscoyoc, Ph.D. (a former intern and post­ doctoral Fellow), Treatments that Work with Children: Empirically Supported Strategies for Managing Childhood Problems (Christophersen, & Mortweet, 2001, 2013). With Pat Friman, Ph.D., a former intern and post-doctoral Fellow, he published Elimination Disorders in children and adolescents (Christophersen, & Friman, 2010). Christophersen also published a trade book with Dr. Susan Vanscoyoc, Parenting that Works: Building Skills that Last a Lifetime (2003), a book that has been translated into Chinese, Icelandic, Italian, Korean, and Spanish. Additionally, as sole author, he had published three trade books: Little People: Guidelines for Commonsense Child Rearing (Christophersen, 1998); Beyond Discipline: Parenting that Lasts a Lifetime (Christophersen, 1998); and Baby Owner’s Manual: What to Expect and How to Survive the First Year (Christophersen, 1988). These trade publications were dedicated to translating research on parenting into recommendations for parents. The very same theme, translating parenting research into recommendations for parents, is also evident in Christophersen’s 450 radio and television interviews, and more than 350 print interviews. In recognition of his seminal work in Behavioral Pediatrics, Christophersen was invited to become a Member of the Society for Pediatric Research in 1978, and to serve as the Editor of: three editions of Pediatric Clinics of North America (with co-authors) for the 1982, 1986, and 1992 editions; one edition of Current Opinion in Pediatrics in 1990; two editions of Current Opinion in Psychiatry in 1992 and 1993; and one edition of Perinatal Clinics of North America in 1985. Additionally, in 1982 and 1986, he was invited to present at Ross Roundtables, which resulted in publications (Dershewitz, & Christophersen, 1984; Brazelton et al., 1999). Subsequently, he published a textbook, Pediatric Compliance: A guide for the primary care physician (Christophersen, 1994), which described much of the relevant research conducted in pediatric settings. He was also awarded three Ray Kroc Visiting Professorships in Pediatrics, one at Fitzsimmons Army Medical Center in 1993, another at Dartmouth Medical Center in 1996, and yet another at the University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center in 1996. In 1998, he was recognized by the American Academy of Pediatrics as a Fellow (Honorary) for his contributions to the field of pediatrics. In parallel with his contributions in the domain of pediatric medicine, Christophersen was active in

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psychology, his home discipline. In 1984, he became a Fellow in the Society of Clinical Psychology, Division 12, of the American Psychological Association. In 1991, he was invited to join the Editorial Board of the Journal of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics, a post he still holds today. Later he was invited to join the Editorial Board of Clinical Practice in Pediatric Psychology. Through Division 12’sSection VIII, the Association of Psychologists in Academic Health Centers (APAHC), Christophersen and Zeeshan Butt, Ph.D., published a Primer on Career Development and Promotion (Christophersen, & Butt, 2012), which is available for download. He was later recognized by APAHC with the 2014 Joseph D. Matarazzo Award for Distinguished Contributions to Psychology in Academic Health Centers. Also, during this period, he was given the Society for Pediatric Psychology’s Award for Outstanding Mentorship in Pediatric Psychology. With respect to leadership positions in professional associations, for the past 6 years, Christophersen has served as a Member of and is currently the Chair of the Society of Pediatric Psychologists, APA’s Division 54, Fellow Committee. He also serves in a multi-year appointment as a Liaison from the Society of Pediatric Psychologists, APA Division 54, to the American Academy of Pediatrics’ Committee on Psychosocial Aspects of Child and Family Health. At the local level, for the past 12 years, Christophersen has served as Chair of the University of Missouri at Kansas City School of Medicine’s Non-Physician and NonClinical Physician Promotion Committee. Additionally, he has been recognized for his contributions as a mentor. He received the Golden Apple Award for mentoring from Children’s Mercy Hospital in 2013, 2014, and 2015; in 2016, he was nominated for a Lifetime Mentoring Award from the University of Missouri at Kansas City School of Medicine. Dr. Christophersen was married to Miki Richardson Christophersen for 43 years until her unexpected passing in 2015 following a brief illness. Her unwavering support was instrumental in the development of his career. He is deeply grateful to Miki for their life together and for their two wonderful and accomplished children, Hunter Christophersen and Cathy Hanna and her husband Mark. He feels very fortunate that both of their children, and their grandchildren, reside in the Kansas City area. Compliance with Ethical Standards  Conflict of interest  Edward R. Christophersen declares that he has no conflict of interest. Informed Consent  No animal or human studies were carried out by the author for this article.

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References Blechman, E. A., Budd, K. S., Christophersen, E. R., Szykula, S., Wahler, R., Embry, L. H., ... & Riner, L. S. (1981). Engagement in behavioral family therapy: A multisite investigation. Behavior Therapy, 12, 461–472. Brazelton, T. B., Christophersen, E. R., Filmer, R. B., Frauman, A. C., Gorski, P. A., Poole, J. M., ... & Wright, C. L. (1999). Instruction, timeliness, and medical influences affecting toilet training. Pediatrics, 103, 1353–1358. Christophersen, E. R. (1977). Children’s behavior during automobile rides: Do car seats make a difference? Pediatrics, 60, 69–74. Christophersen, E. R. (1982). Incorporating behavioral pediatrics into primary care. Pediatric Clinics of North America, 29(2), 261–296. Christophersen, E. R. (1983). Automobile accidents: Potential years of life lost. Pediatrics, 71, 855–856. Christophersen, E. R. (1994). Pediatric Compliance: A Guide for the Primary Care Physician. New York: Plenum. Christophersen, E. R., & Gyulay, J. E. (1981). Parental compliance with car seat usage: A positive approach with long-term followup. Journal of Pediatric Psychology, 6, 301–312. Christophersen, E. R., & Mortweet, S. L. (2001). Treatments that work with children: Empirically Supported strategies for managing childhood problems. Washington, D.C.: APA Books. Christophersen, E. R., & Mortweet, S. L. (2003). Parenting that works: Building skills that last a lifetime. Washington, D.C.: APA Books. Christophersen, E. R., & Mortweet, S. L. (2013). Treatments that work with children: Empirically Supported strategies for managing childhood problems (2nd  ed.). Washington, D.C.: APA Books.

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J Clin Psychol Med Settings (2017) 24:37–40 Christophersen, E. R., Sosland-Edelman, D., & LeClaire, S. (1985). Evaluation of two comprehensive infant car seat loaner programs with l-year follow-up. Pediatrics, 76, 36–42. Christophersen, E. R., & Sullivan, M. (1982). Increasing the protection of newborn infants in cars. Pediatrics, 70, 21–25. Christophersen, E.R. (1988). The baby owner’s manual: What to expect and how to survive the first year. (3rd ed.). Kansas City, MO: Westport Publishers. Christophersen, E.R. (1998). Little people: Guidelines for commonsense child rearing. (4th Ed.). Shawnee Mission, KS: Overland Press. Christophersen, E.R. (1998). Beyond discipline: Parenting that lasts a lifetime. (2nd Ed.). Shawnee Mission, KS: Overland Press. Christophersen, E.R. & Butt, Z. (2012). A primer for career development and promotion: Succeeding as a psychologist in an academic health center. Journal of Clinical Psychology in Medical Settings, 19 (4), 349–352. Supplement to this article can be retrieved at https://static-content.springer.com/ esm/.../10880_2012_9334_MOESM1_ESM.pdf. Christophersen, E.R., & Friman, P.C. (2010). Elimination disorders in children and adolescents: Enuresis and encopresis. Goettingen: Hogrefe & Huber. Dershewitz, R. A., & Christophersen, E. R. (1984). Childhood household safety: An overview. American Journal of Diseases of Children, 183, 85–88. Thomas, K. A., Hassanein, R. S., & Christophersen, E. R. (1984). Evaluation of group well-child care for improving burn prevention practices in the home. Pediatrics, 74, 879–882.