PAGANI, Linda (Ph.D.)
linda.s.pagani@umontreal.ca

Career summary, research topics and interests

Linda Pagani Ph.D. was a Registered Nurse for 10 years prior to becoming a Psychologist. After earning degrees at both Concordia University (B.A. Psychology 1986-1989) and McGill University (M.A., Ph.D. Educational Psychology 1989-1993), she pursued a postdoctoral fellowship in child development at the Université de Montréal and became a faculty member at that institution in April 1994. Dr. Pagani is currently Professor at the École de Psychoéducation. In the past several years, she has devoted energy to understanding the impact of poverty and family processes on children's adjustment. In 1997, she launched a major longitudinal-experimental study that evaluates the long-term effects of the Montreal Head Start Program on children from impoverished areas of the city (n=1928). This work has been generously supported by the Fonds de Recherche sur la Société et la Culture, Fonds de la Recherche en Santé du Québec, and Canada's Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council. She hopes to gather information about the risk and protective factors during childhood that influence optimal adjustment during adolescence and adulthood. She has published numerous book chapters and scientific articles in international refereed journals and has presented her work at meetings worldwide. She is also a researcher at the Center for Pathways from Childhood to Adulthood, based at the University of Michigan, a multidisciplinary research unit funded by the National Science Foundation (US). Her work at the Center involves mostly secondary analyses of her longitudinal data. With respect to her clinical interests, she is editor of a book with Psychiatrist/Professor Georges-F. Pinard M.D., F.R.C.P. entitled, Clinical Assessment of Dangerousness: Empirical Contributions, published at Cambridge University Press (2001). This book has received very positive reviews in both the Journal of the American Medical Association (fall, 2001), Canadian Journal of Psychiatry (spring, 2002) among others. It also recently received the achievement of the year award by the Québec Order of Psychiatrists (AMPQ). While directing the longitudinal study on parents and children from the most impoverished areas of Montreal, Dr. Pagani is also producing other research: (1) Family functioning studies using developmental trajectory analyses of the NLSCY data; (2) Treatment versus dosage analyses of intervention effects (forthcoming); (3) Generating a risk factor model of violence toward parents by their adolescent children using the Québec Longitudinal Study Data (forthcoming); (4) A literature review addressing mathematical precursors in preschool enrichment programs; (5) Looking at the dynamics of ethnicity in achievement (project submitted to the FQRSC); and (6) Developing a prospective model of gambling behavior among youth.

Recent publications

• Duncan GJ, Dowsett CJ, Claessens A, Magnuson K, Huston A, Klebanov P, Pagani L, Feinstein L, Engel M, Brooks-Gunn J, Sexton HR, Duckworth K, Japel C , School readiness and later achievement, Developmental Psychology, 43(6):1426-1446, 2007.
• Pagani L, Japel C, Vaillancourt T, Coté S, Tremblay RE , Links between life course trajectories of family dysfunction and anxiety during middle childhood, Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 36:41-53, 2008.
• Pagani LS, Japel C, Tremblay RE, Vitaro F, Larose S, McDuff P, When prediction models fail: Developmental discontinuities in high school completion, Journal of Social Issues, 64(1):175-184, 2008.
• Pagani L, Derevensky JL, Japel C , Predicting gambling behavior in sixth grade from kindergarten impulsivity: A tale of developmental continuity, Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine, 163:238-243, 2009.
• Pagani L, Tremblay RE, Nagin D, Zoccolillo M, Vitaro F, McDuff P, Risk factor models for adolescent verbal and physical aggression toward fathers, Journal of Family Violence, 24:173-182 , 2009.

Awards and distinctions

• 2001 Bourse Carrière Junior (Chercheure Boursière - Renouvellement), Conseil Québécois de la Recherche Sociale - CQRS
• 1997 Bourse de Jeune Chercheur - Renouvellement (Axe santé mentale infantile et juvénile du Réseau santé mentale), Fonds de la Recherche en Santé du Québec)
• 1996 Bourse de Jeune Chercheur (Axe santé mentale infantile et juvénile du Réseau santé mentale), Fonds de la Recherche en Santé du Québec
• 1996 Bourse Carrière Junior (Chercheure Boursière), Conseil Québécois de la Recherche Sociale - CQRS