Bradley Hasbro Children's Research Center

Julie Boergers, PhD

Staff psychologist at Rhode Island Hospital
Assistant professor of psychiatry and human behavior (clinical) at theWarren Alpert Medical School of Brown University

Background Information

Julie Boergers, PhD, is a licensed clinical psychologist who works primarily with children and families who have medical issues and psychological concerns. She provides clinical services to the Pediatric Hematology/Oncology Clinic, and is the co-director of the Pediatric Sleep Disorders Clinic. She participates in the teaching of interns, residents, and fellows in psychology, psychiatry, and pediatrics at Brown Medical School.

Boergers graduated magna cum laude from the University of Rochester with a bachelor of arts degree in psychology. She earned her master’s and doctorate in child clinical psychology from the University of Denver. She completed an internship in child clinical/pediatric psychology at Children's National Medical Center, and a fellowship in pediatric psychology at Brown Medical School before joining the faculty in 1998.

Research Interests

Boergers' primary research interests focus on smoking prevention, smoking behaviors and emotional/behavioral problems. She is currently studying the impact of insufficient sleep and mood problems on smoking relapse during the postpartum period.

She participates in research on family, peer, and social contextual influences on smoking, and is part of the Brown Transdisciplinary Tobacco Use Research Center. She also conducts research on childhood sleep disorders, adolescent suicidal behavior and other health risk behaviors.

Honors

Boergers received the Teaching Recognition Award from Brown Medical School in 2005 for her work with interns, residents, and postdoctoral fellows.

Selected Research Projects

Boergers, J., Spirito, A., & Donaldson, D. (1998). Reasons for adolescent suicide attempts: Associations with psychological functioning. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 37(12), 1287-1293.
Mehlenbeck, R., Spirito, A., Owens, J., & Boergers, J. (2000). The clinical presentation of childhood partial arousal parasomnias. Sleep Medicine, 1, 307-312.
Prinstein, M.J., Boergers, J., Spirito, A., Little, T.D., & Grapentine, W.L (2000). Peer functioning, family dysfunction, and psychological symptoms in a risk factor model for adolescent inpatients' suicidal ideation severity. Journal of Clinical Child Psychology, 29(3), 392-405.
Prinstein, M.J, Boergers, J., & Spirito, A. (2001). Adolescents' and their friends' health-risk behavior: Factors that alter or add to peer influence. Journal of Pediatric Psychology, 26, 287-298.
Spirito, A., Boergers, J., Donaldson, D., Bishop, D., & Lewander, W. (2002). An intervention trial to improve adherence to community treatment by adolescents after a suicide attempt. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 41, 435-442.
Boergers, J., & Spirito, A. (2002). The outcome of suicide attempts among adolescents. In A. Spirito and J. Overholser (Eds.), Evaluating and Treating Adolescent Suicide Attempters: From Research to Practice (pp. 261-276). Academic Press.
Jelalian, E., Boergers, J., Alday, C.S., & Frank, R. (2003). Survey of physician attitudes and practices related to pediatric obesity. Clinical Pediatrics, 42, 235-245.
Jelalian, E., Boergers, J., Spirito, A., & Sourkes, B. (2003). Psychologic aspects of leukemia and hematologic disorders. In D.G. Nathan, S.H. Orkin, D. Ginsburg, & A.T. Look (Eds.), Nathan and Oski's Hematology of Infancy and Childhood, 6th Edition (pp. 1671-1683). Philadelphia: W. B. Saunders.
Stanton, C., Spirito, A., Donaldson, D., & Boergers, J. (2003). Risk-taking behavior and adolescent suicide attempts. Suicide and Life Threatening Behavior, 33, 74-79.
Boergers, J., Hart, C., Owens, J.A., Streisand, R., & Spirito, A. Child sleep disorders: Associations with parental sleep duration and daytime sleepiness. Journal of Family Psychology. (in press)

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