Ph.D., University of Virginia, 1998 Associate Professor Member, Community Psychology Program Editor, Undergraduate Newsletter Director of Undergraduate Studies scook@gsu.edu 1118 Urban Life 404-413-6265

Community psychology emphasizes contextual factors involved in human behavior and psychological well-being. These factors range across an individual's or community's ecology, and may include proximate variables related to family, school, the workplace and neighborhoods, to distal variables, such as institutions, public policies, and societal attitudes and values. Because community psychologists are interested in such a large range of influences on well-being, they think about opportunities for intervention across levels of analysis or within an ecological context.

I take a community psychology approach to understanding the social problem of violence against women. My primary scholarship goals are to contribute to improving research methods in the field of violence against women (VAW), and to synthesize and apply knowledge about VAW to public policy. My research balances the creation of new knowledge, synthesis, and application of existing knowledge, and dissemination of knowledge to the general public, policy makers, and an interdisciplinary audience in academia. In addition, I strive to integrate my expertise in two surprisingly disparate fields that co-exist but seldom interact: sexual assault (SA) and domestic violence (DV).

With an outstanding team of graduate and undergraduate students, I have just concluded data collection for The Women's Life Experiences Project (WLEP), a three-year study. We completed approximately 400 two-hour interviews with women incarcerated at Metro State Women's Prison and 200 with women seeking health care at Grady Hospital. Study goals are threefold: a) to develop a measure of appraisal of the context in which women's abusive experiences occur; b) to assess the impact of the use of technology on self-reports of abuse experiences; and c) to comprehensively review violence against women measures. We are now in the process of disseminating our findings through scholarly and professional publications. At the moment, my research team is developing proposal to evaluate child advocacy centers and beginning a meta-analysis project on re-victimization (with Drs. Bakeman and Anderson).

Representative Publications

Baker, C. K., Cook, S. L., Norris, F. H, (in press) Domestic violence and women's problems in housing: A contextual analysis of women's helpseeking, Received informal support, and formal system response. Violence Against Women.

Salazar, L. S., & Cook, S. L. (in press) Violence against women: Is Psychology part of the problem or the solution? A content analysis of psychological research from 1990 through 1999. Journal of Community and Applied Social Psychology.

Goodman, L. M., Dutton, M. A., Weinfurt, K. & Cook, S. L. (in press). The Intimate Partner Violence Strategies Index: Development and Application. Violence Against Women.

Koss, M. P., & Cook, S. L. (in press). Facing the facts: Date and acquaintance rape are significant problems for women. In Current Controversies on Family Violence, 2nd Ed. R. J. Gelles & D. L. Loseke, (Eds.), Newbury Park, CA: Sage.

Cook, S. L., Woolard, J. L., & Russell, H. M., (in press). Violence against women: Policies that promote strength, resilience, and resolution. In Strengths-based research and policy: Investing in children, youth, families and communities. K. Maton, C. Schellenback, B. Leadbeater, & A. Solarz (Eds). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.

Cook, S. L. (2002) Self-reports of sexual, physical, and nonphysical abuse perpetration: A comparison of three measures. Violence Against Women 8, 537-561.

Cook, S. L., & Reppucci, N. D. (2002). The nature and efficacy of child-centered, neighborhood-based, child protection programs: The record thus far. In Toward a child-centered, neighborhood-based, child protection system. G. Melton, (Ed.), Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press.

Cook, S. L. & Koss, M. P. (2001). Action-research: Informing male violence against women interventions. In Integrating behavioral and social sciences with public health. N. Schneiderman, J. Gentry, J. M. Silva, M. A. Speers, & H. Tomes (Eds.). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.

Woolard, J. L. & Cook, S. L. (2000). Common goals, competing interests: Preventing violence against spouses and children. University of Missouri-Kansas City Law Review, 69, 197-214.

Warren, J., Brown, D., Hurt, S., Cook, S., Branson, W., & Jin, R. (1999). The organizational context of non-lethal workplace violence: Its interpersonal, temporal, and spatial correlates. Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, 41, 567-581.

Cook, S. L., Reppucci, N. D., Britner, P. A., & Woolard, J. L. (1997). Parent education and family support for prevention of child maltreatment: What we know and don't know. In N. D. Reppucci, P. A. Britner, & J. L. Woolard, (Eds.) Preventing child abuse and neglect through parent education (pp. 1-21). Paul Brooks Publishing.

Cook, S. L. (1995). Acceptance and expectation of sexual aggression in college students. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 19, 181-194.

Reppucci, N. D., Jones, L. M., & Cook, S. L. (1994). Involving parents in child sexual abuse prevention programs. Journal of Child and Family Studies, 3, 137-142.

Koss, M. P. & Cook, S. L. (1993). Facing the facts: Date and acquaintance rape are significant problems for women. In Current Controversies on Family Violence (pp. 104-119). R. J. Gelles & D. L. Loseke, (Eds.), Newbury Park, CA: Sage.