Experts Available to Discuss Halloween Costumes, Body Image, Sexualization of Girls

What

Psychologists with expertise on body image, gender roles and the negative impact of the sexualization of girls can talk about the importance of age-appropriate Halloween costumes for young children and teenagers. These members of the 2005-2007 APA Task Force on the Sexualization of Girls offer information and insight primarily regarding girls, but can discuss how these issues also affect boys. 

Who

Tomi-Ann Roberts, PhD
Colorado Springs, Colo.
Email
Work: (719) 389-6838

Expertise: A professor of psychology at Colorado College, Roberts specializes in the social psychology of emotion, gender and the body and psychological consequences of the sexual objectification of women and girls. 

Eileen Zurbriggen, PhD
Santa Cruz, Calif.
Email
Work: (831) 459-5736
Cell: (831) 227-9988

Expertise: A professor of psychology at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and chair of the APA Task Force on the Sexualization of Girls, Zurbriggen can discuss sexual decision-making, sexuality and the media, and sexualization and objectification of girls and women. 

Rebecca L. Collins, PhD
Santa Monica, Calif.
Email
Work: (310) 393-0411 ext. 7247

Expertise: A behavioral scientist and director of the RAND Health Promotion and Disease Prevention Program, Collins’s most recent projects focus on the effects of media on health among children and adolescents. 

Sharon Lamb, EdD
Boston
Email
Work: (617) 287-7698
Cell: (802) 578-3437
Website

Expertise: A professor of counseling psychology at the University of Massachusetts Boston, Lamb specializes in children, adolescents, moral development, sexual development, girls and the media, boys and the media, victimization and healthy sexuality in adolescents.

Deborah L. Tolman, EdD
New York
Email: The City University of New York or Gmail
Work: (212) 396-7526 

Expertise: A professor of social welfare and psychology at Hunter College School of Social Work and The Graduate Center, City University of New York, Tolman specializes in adolescent sexuality, gender development and gender equity. Her research focuses on how messages about masculinity and femininity can affect boys’ and girls’ abilities to maintain healthy relationships. 

For more information about the sexualization of girls, APA offers several online resources. You can also read the “Report of the APA Task Force on the Sexualization of Girls” (PDF, 804KB).

The American Psychological Association, in Washington, D.C., is the largest organization of psychologists in the United States. APA's membership includes more than 134,000 researchers, educators, clinicians, consultants and students. Through its divisions in 54 subfields of psychology and affiliations with 60 state, territorial and Canadian provincial associations, APA works to advance the creation, communication and application of psychological knowledge to benefit society and improve people's lives.