Wendy A. Plante, PhD

Wendy Plante, PhD, is a staff psychologist at the Bradley Hasbro Children’s Research Center/Rhode Island Hospital and clinical assistant professor of psychiatry and human behavior at The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University. She is associate clinical director of SibLink, a clinical research program dedicated to the adjustment of healthy siblings to medical, developmental, and psychiatric disorders in their brothers and sisters. She also provides clinical services to children at Hasbro Children’s Hospital, including the pediatric gastroenterology, nutrition and liver diseases clinic. 

Her clinical interests include individual and family adjustment to pediatric chronic illness, pain management, and pediatric clinical hypnosis. Plante participates in the teaching of residents and fellows in clinical psychology, child psychiatry, and gastroenterology. She has an interest in bioethics and psychology practice issues, serving on several hospital, state psychological association, and national psychological association committees devoted to ethics, disaster mental health, and colleague assistance.

Plante earned her bachelor of arts degree in psychology from Clark University, and her master’s and doctoral degrees in clinical psychology from the State University of New York at Buffalo. She completed a predoctoral clinical internship at duPont Hospital for Children in Wilmington, Delaware and a postdoctoral fellowship at The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University. She joined the staff of Rhode Island Hospital and Alpert Medical School in 2001.

Research Interests

Wendy Plante’s research interests focus on family adjustment to pediatric chronic illness and disability, with particular attention to the experiences of brothers and sisters. She collaborates with Debra Lobato, PhD, and Barbara Kao, PhD, on projects examining factors (including family and cultural variables) affecting sibling functioning, as well as how siblings influence and support family management of childhood disease.  

Selected Publications

• Lobato, D., Kao, B., Plante, W., Seifer, R., Grullon, E., Cheas, L., Canino, G. (2011). Psychological and school functioning of Latino siblings of children with intellectual disability. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 52, 696-703. NIHMSID#249304
• Sieberg, C., Flannery-Schroeder, E., & Plante, W.A. (In Press). Children with co-morbid recurrent abdominal pain and anxiety disorders:  Results from a multiple-baseline intervention study. Journal of Child Health Care.
• Kao, B., Lobato, D., Grullon, E., Cheas, L., Plante, W., Seifer, R., & Canino, G. (In Press). Recruiting Latino and non-Latino families in pediatric research: Considerations from a study on childhood disability. Journal of Pediatric Psychology.
• Kao, B., Romero-Bosch, L., Plante, W., & Lobato, D. (In Press). The experiences of Latino siblings of children with developmental disabilities. Child: Care, Health & Development.