Clinical Assistant Professor of Human Development and Family Studies

(PhD, University of Massachusetts)

Research Interests

Scholarship of teaching and learning, emergent numeracy & literacy, preschool social-emotional development, preschool learning and behavior, school and home-based interventions

Contact Information

Hanley Hall, Rm. 245
Purdue University
1202 West State Street
West Lafayette , IN 47907-2055
Phone: (765) 494-2931
Fax: (765) 496-1144
E-mail: jendo@purdue.edu

• Biography
• Recent Publications
• Education
• Courses Recently Taught
• Honors
• Professional Service

Biography

As an Indiana native, the child of two Boilermakers, and a Purdue alumna myself, it only makes sense that I have made Purdue my academic home. I am pleased to be part of the Purdue community, and especially to work in a department that studies issues of individual, family, and community well-being and that prepares students to do meaningful work that improves people’s lives.

My graduate training at the University of Massachusetts was in clinical psychology, with a concentration on children, adolescents, and families. My research interests bridge the disciplines of psychology and education, focusing on the learning and behavior of preschool-aged children. I am interested in how young children’s pre-academic skills (including pre-literacy, pre-numeracy, and precursors of engineering thinking) are connected to their psychological functioning (including behavior and social-emotional development). In particular, I am interested in children who are at risk for negative outcomes due to poverty and early behavior problems. I am also interested in research that examines university teaching and learning, with an aim to continuously improve the undergraduate education of future early childhood educators, human services professionals, and developmental and family scientists.

Recent Publications

• NOTE:  Students whose work Dr. Dobbs-Oates has supervised are indicated with an asterisk.
• Dobbs-Oates, J., & Robinson, C. D.* (in press). Preschoolers’ mathematical skills and behavior: Analysis of a national sample. School Psychology Review.
• Dobbs-Oates, J., Pentimonti, J. M., Kaderavek, J. N., & Justice, L. M. (in press). Parent and attitudinal factors in a model of children's print-concept knowledge. Journal of Research in Reading.
• Tan, M., & Dobbs-Oates, J. (in press). Relationship between emergent literacy and early social-emotional development in preschool children from low-income backgrounds. Early Child Development and Care.
• Fisher, P. H., Dobbs-Oates, J., Doctoroff, G. L., & Arnold, D. H. (2012). Early math interest and the development of math skills. Journal of Educational Psychology, 104(3), 673-681. doi:10.1037/a0027756 
• Dobbs-Oates, J., Kaderavek, J. N., Guo, Y., & Justice, L. M. (2011). Effective behavior management in preschool classrooms and children’s task orientation:  Enhancing children’s emergent literacy and language development. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 26, 420-429.
• *Baroody, A., & Dobbs-Oates, J. (2011). Child and parent characteristics, parental expectations, and child behaviours related to preschool children’s interest in literacy. Early Child Development and Care, 181, 345-359.
  
• Evangelou, D., Dobbs-Oates, J., Bagiati, A., *Liang, S., & *Choi, J.Y. (2010). Talking about artifacts: Preschool children's explorations with sketches, stories, and tangible objects. Early Childhood Research and Practice, 12. Available at: http://ecrp.uiuc.edu/v12n2/evangelou.html.
• Dobbs, J., & Arnold, D. H. (2009). Relationship between preschool teachers’ reports of children’s behavior and their behavior toward those children. School Psychology Quarterly, 24, 95-105.
• Meagher, S. M., Arnold, D. H., Doctoroff, G. L, Dobbs, J., & Fisher, P. H. (2009). Social emotional problems in early childhood and the development of depressive symptoms in school-age children. Early Education and Development, 20, 1-24.
• Brown, S. A., Arnold, D. H., Dobbs, J., & Doctoroff, G. L. (2007). Parenting predictors of overt and relational aggression among school-aged children. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 22, 147-159.
• Arnold, D. H., Brown, S. A., Meagher, S., Baker, C. N., Dobbs, J., & Doctoroff, G. L. (2006). Preschool-based programs for externalizing problems. Education and Treatment of Children, 29, 311-340.
• Dobbs, J., Doctoroff, G. L., Fisher, P. H., & Arnold, D. H. (2006). The association between preschool children's socio-emotional functioning and their mathematical skill. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 27, 97-108.
• Dobbs, J., Arnold, D. H., & Doctoroff, G. L. (2004). Attention in the preschool classroom: The relationships among child gender, child misbehavior, and types of teacher attention. Early Child Development and Care, 174, 281-295.
• Dobbs, J., Doctoroff, G. L., & Fisher, P. H. (2003). The "Math is Everywhere" preschool mathematics curriculum and its success in Head Start classrooms. Teaching Children Mathematics, 10(1), 20-22.
• Arnold, D. H., Fisher, P. H., Doctoroff, G. L., & Dobbs, J. (2002). Accelerating math development in Head Start classrooms: Outcomes and gender differences. Journal of Educational Psychology, 94, 762-770.
• Hoza, B., Pelham, W. E., Dobbs, J., Owens, J. S., & Pillow, D. R. (2002). Do boys with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder have positive illusory self-concepts? Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 111, 268-278.

Education

• PhD, Clinical Psychology, 2006, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA.
• Clinical Psychology Internship, 2005-2006, University of Tennessee, Health Science Center, Memphis, TN.
• MS, Clinical Psychology, 2002, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA.
• BA, Psychology, 2000, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN.

Courses Recently Taught

• HDFS 313:  Adolescent Development
  HDFS 331:  Skills for Helping Professionals in Individual, Family, and Group Settings
  HDFS 332:  Stress Points in Contemporary Families
  HDFS 406:  Curriculum Applications of Math/Science Development
  HDFS 408:  Curriculum Applications of Atypical Development
  HDFS 415:  Approaches to Early Childhood Education
  HDFS 621:  Children’s Development in Child Care and School Settings
  HDFS 685R:  Research Seminar
  

Honors

• 2011: Teaching for Tomorrow Award, Purdue University
• 2008: Selected to attend the Leadership Training Institute, sponsored by the 3C Institute for Social Development and the National Institute of Mental Health
• 2008: Selected to attend the ECLS-B Database Training Seminar, sponsored by the National Center for Education Statistics, Institute for Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education.

Professional Service

Editorial Boards

• 2012-present: Consulting Editor, Early Childhood Research Quarterly

Member

• American Educational Research Association
• American Psychological Association
• National Association for the Education of Young Children
• Society for Research on Child Development

Ad Hoc Reviewer

• Child Development, Developmental Psychology, Early Childhood Research Quarterly, Early Education & Development, Fathering, Social Development