School of Arts and Sciences

Dr. Hill earned her bachelor’s degree in psychology from McDaniel College and her master’s and doctorate degrees in developmental psychology from the University of Florida.  Broadly, her research interests are in adolescent and emerging adult development.  In particular, she is interested in adolescents’ and emerging adults’ sexual behaviors and attitudes, sexual identity development (broadly defined), and health risk behaviors.  Her research has implications for the health and well-being of adolescents and emerging adults, and it can be used to inform the development of prevention and educational programs.

In recent projects she has focused on ambivalent attitudes about engaging in penile-vaginal intercourse (PVI).  Her research investigated how ambivalence about PVI changes across the first year of college as well as the relationships among ambivalent attitudes about PVI, other cognitions about PVI, developmental constructs, sexual identity development, and depression.  In another recent line of research, Dr. Hill investigated college students’ motivations for “hooking-up” as well as their motivations for avoiding a hook-up.  Dr. Hill has also been involved with applied research, including a multi-site evaluation of teen pregnancy and STI prevention programs.  Across all of her projects, Dr. Hill seeks to involve and mentor students throughout all stages of the research process.

Beyond her developmental research, Dr. Hill has interests in the scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL) in psychology.  She is specifically interested in SoTL research investigating how to improve instruction and learning in research methods courses as well as improving instruction and learning of APA style and scientific writing.  She is active in the Society for Teaching Psychology (STP), participating in STP’s SoTL workshop and presenting SoTL research at STP’s Annual Conference on Teaching and at STP sponsored programming at regional conferences.

Outside of psychology, Dr. Hill enjoys hiking, camping, singing, and volunteering with youth organizations including Girl Scouts and Jersey Surf Drum and Bugle Corps.

Areas of Expertise

• sexual behaviors and attitudes in adolescence and emerging adulthood
• sexual identity development (broadly defined) in adolescence and emerging adulthood
• health risk behaviors in adolescence and emerging adulthood
• teaching and learning in research methods courses
• teaching and learning APA style and scientific writing

Education

• Ph.D., Developmental Psychology, University of Florida
• M.S., Developmental Psychology, University of Florida
• B.A., Psychology, McDaniel College (formerly Western Maryland College)

Teaching

• PSY 155 Introduction to Psychology
• PSY 210 Developmental Psychology
• PSY 330 Research Design I
• PSY 430 History and Systems of Psychology

Publications

Hill, J. C., Graber, J. A., Jean-Baptiste, E. & Johnson, K. J. (2017).  Factors associated with attitude-behavior conflicts among sexually experienced, rural, early adolescents.  Journal of Early Adolescence.Advance online publication. doi: 10.1177/0272431617725194

Hill, J. C. & Graber, J. A. (2017).  Evaluating a community based pregnancy prevention program using a quasi-experimental design and propensity scores.  SAGE Research Methods Cases Part 2.  doi: 10.4135/9781526409362

Werk, R., Hill, J. C., & Graber, J. A. (2017).  Impact of knowledge, self-efficacy, and perceived importance on steps taken toward cancer prevention among college men and women.  Journal of Cancer Education, 32(1), 148-154.  doi:  10.1007/s13187-016-0996-3

Hill, J. C., Lynne-Landsman, S. D., Graber, J. A., & Johnson, K. J. (2016). Evaluating a pregnancy and STI prevention programme in rural, at-risk, middle school girls in the USA. Health Education Journal, 75(7), 882 – 894.  doi: 0.1177/0017896916644845

Presentations and Posters

Hill, J. C. (2018, October).  Current Practices for Teaching APA Style. Poster presented at the 2018 the Society for Teaching Psychology’s 17thAnnual Conference on Teaching, Pheonix, AZ.

Hahlbeck, S., Ahrenholtz, R., Hayden, M., &Hill, J. C.(2018, April).  Emerging adults’ hook-up motivations as predictors of the positivity and negativity of their most recent hook-up experience.  Poster presented at the 2018 Society for Research on Adolescence Biennial Meeting, Minneapolis, MN.

Ahrenholtz, R., Hayden, M., Hahlbeck, S., &Hill, J. C.(2018, April).  Emerging adults’ motivations for never hooking up and their desire for a hook up. Poster presented at the 2018 Society for Research on Adolescence Biennial Meeting, Minneapolis, MN.

Hill, J. C.& Graber, J. A. (2018, April).  Sexual identity development and depressive symptoms during emerging adulthood.  Poster presented at the 2018 Society for Research on Adolescence Biennial Meeting, Minneapolis, MN.

Hill, J. C.(2017, April).  Active learning in an introductory research methods class: Using instructional manipulatives to teach experimental designs.  Poster presented at the Society for Teaching Psychology’s Creative Classroom Poster Session at the 2017 Midwestern Psychological Association Annual Meeting, Chicago, IL.

Hill, J. C.& Graber, J. A. (2014, November).  Ambivalence about sexual intercourse across the first year of college.  Paper presented at the 2014 Society for the Scientific Study of Sexuality Annual Meeting, Omaha, NE.

Professional Memberships

• American Psychological Association
• Society for Teaching Psychology
• Society for Research on Adolescence
• Society for Research in Child Development
• Society for the Scientific Study of Sexuality