Dr. Benjamin L. Hankin
Assistant Professor

Dr. Hankin earned his Ph.D. at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2001. He is an assistant professor in the Department of Psychology at USC. Dr. Hankin's major fields of interest are:

• the development of depression in children, adolescents, and young adults;
• vulnerability-stress models of depression;
• developmental psychopathology;
• sex differences in depression;
• comorbidity of depression and other psychiatric disorders
• longitudinal research designs and data analysi

To learn more about Dr. Hankin, please visit the USC Psychology Department's web page that features Dr. Hankin's research.

Child and Adolescent Mood Lab

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Child and Adolescent Mood Lab Projects

• Montreal-Chicago longitudinal study of the development of depression. This is a 7-year longitudinal study involving children, who were recruited when ages 11-14, and mothers, who are being followed every 3-6 months to examine prospective predictors of depression and anxiety based on psychosocial vulnerability-stress models, including cognitive, interpersonal, personality, and emotional vulnerabilities. Research has been funded by NIMH and RCCF, and is currently funded by American Foundation for Suicide Prevention and Canadian Institute of Health Research.
• Hurricane Katrina longitudinal study. This study is examining molecular genetic and psychosocial factors that predict prospective changes in emotions and psychopathological symptoms among Katrina evacuees and controls. The research is being funded by NSF.
• Emotion, cognition, and social vulnerability lab study. This study, being conducted in conjunction with Dr. Kate Flory, is a multi-method (lab tasks, interview, self and parent report) and multi-informant study of emotional, cognitive, and social vulnerabilities to depression, ADHD, and smoking. Research is funded by a RCCF grant to Dr. Flory.
• Depression prevention study. This study, being conducted in collaboration with Dr. Dawn Wilson, is examining whether engaging in physical activity might reduce levels of depressive or anxious symptoms among underserved youth in 6^th grades. The research is funded by a NIH grant to Dr. Wilson for her ACT project.

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Present External Grants

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Representative Publications

Books
Hankin, B.L., & Abela, J.R.Z. (2005). Development of Psychopathology: A Vulnerability-Stress Perspective. Edited volume. Sage Publishing.

Abela, J.R.Z., & Hankin, B.L. (in press, expected Spring 2007). Handbook of Child and Adolescent Depression. Edited volume. Guilford Press.

In Press
Hankin, B.L., Roesch, L., & Mermelstein, R. (in press). Sex differences in adolescent depression: Stress exposure and reactivity. Child Development.

Lakdawalla, Z., Hankin, B.L., & Mermelstein, R. (in press). Cognitive Theories of Depression in Children and Adolescents: A conceptual and quantitative review. Child Clinical and Family Psychology Review.

Weinstein, S.M., Mermelstein, R.J., Hankin, B.L., Hedeker, D., & Flay, B. (in press). Longitudinal Patterns of Daily Affect and Global Mood During Adolescence. Journal of Research in Adolescence.

Adams, P., Abela, J. R. Z., & Hankin, B. L. (in press). Factorial categorization of depression related constructs in children and early adolescents. Journal of Adolescence.

Hankin, B.L., Carter, I., Lakdawalla, Z., Abela, J.R.Z., & Adams, P. (in press). Are neuroticism, cognitive vulnerability and self-esteem overlapping or distinct risks for depression? Evidence from exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses. Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology.

Hollins, L., & Hankin, B.L. (in press). Mental health: The link between a history of childhood psychological maltreatment and cognitive vulnerability, depression, and self esteem. Child Abuse and Neglect.

Abela, J.R.Z., & Hankin, B.L. (in press). Cognitive vulnerability to depression in children and adolescence: A developmental psychopathology approach. In J.R.Z. Abela and B.L. Hankin (Eds.), Handbook of Child and Adolescent Depression. NY: Guilford Press.

Hankin, B.L., Cheely, C., & Wetter, E. (in press). Sex differences in child and adolescent depression: A developmental psychopathological approach. In J.R.Z. Abela and B.L. Hankin (Eds.), Handbook of Child and Adolescent Depression. NY: Guilford Press.

Hankin, B.L., Grant, K.E., Cheely, C., Wetter, E. (in press). Assessment, Conceptualization, and Treatment of Childhood Depression. In M. Hersen and D. Reitman (Eds.) Handbook of Assessment, Conceptualization, and Treatment. John Wiley and Sons.

Recent Publications (2006)
Weinstein, S.M., Mermelstein, R.J., Hedeker, D., Hankin, B.L., & Flay, B.R. (2006). The time-varying influences of peer and family support on adolescent daily positive and negative affect. Journal of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology 35, 420-430.

Hankin, B.L. (2006). Adolescent Depression: Description, Causes, and Interventions. Epilepsy and Behavior, 8, 102-114.

Abela, J.R.Z., Adams, P., & Hankin, B.L. (2006). The timing of parent and child depression: A Hopelessness Theory perspective. Journal of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology, 35, 253-263.

Abela, J.R.Z., Zuroff, D. C., Ho, R., Adams, P., & Hankin, B.L. (2006). Excessive Reassurance Seeking, Hassles, and Depressive Symptoms in Children of Affectively-Ill Parents: A Multi-Wave Longitudinal Study. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 34, 171-188.

Kassel, J.D. & Hankin, B.L. (2006). Smoking and depression. In Andrew Steptoe (Ed.), Depression and Physical Illness (pp.321-347). Cambridge University Press.

Past Publications (1997-2005)
Hankin, B.L. (2005). Childhood maltreatment and psychopathology: Prospective tests of attachment, cognitive vulnerability, and stress as mediating processes. Cognitive Therapy and Research, 29, 645-671.

Wang ZX , Conrad KJ, Hankin BL, Huang ZG. (2005). Rasch model comparison of Mood and Anxiety Symptom Questionnaire and Beck Depression Inventory. In Bezruczko N (Ed.), Rasch Measurement in Health Sciences, pp. 334-361. Maple Grove , MN : JAM Press.

Abela, J.R.Z., Hankin, B.L., Haigh, E.A.P., Adams, P., Vinokuroff, T., & Trayhern, L. (2005). Interpersonal vulnerability to depressive episodes in high risk children: The role of insecure attachment and reassurance seeking. Journal of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology, 34, 182-192.

Haeffel, G.J., Abramson, L.Y., Voelz, Z., Metalsky, G.I., Halberstadt, L., Dykman, B.,Donovan, P., Hogan, M., & Hankin, B.L. (2005). Negative Cognitive Styles, Dysfunctional Attitudes, and the Remitted Depression Paradigm: A Search for the Elusive Stable Cognitive Vulnerability Factor to Depression. Emotion, 5, 343-348.

Hankin, B.L., Fraley, R.C., & Abela, J.R.Z. (2005). Daily depression and cognitions about stress: Evidence for a trait-like depressogenic cognitive style and the prediction of depressive symptoms trajectories in a prospective daily diary study. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 88, 673-685.

Hankin, B.L., Fraley, R.C., Lahey, B.B., & Waldman, I. (2005). Is youth depressive disorder best viewed as a continuum or discrete category? A taxometric analysis of childhood and adolescent depression in a population-based sample. Journal of Abnormal Psychology 114, 96-110.
**Abstracted in July, 2005 issue of Clinician’s Research Digest, 23, 1.

Hankin, B.L., Kassel, J.D., & Abela, J.R.Z. (2005). Adult attachment styles and specificity of emotional distress: Prospective investigations of cognitive risk and interpersonal stress generation as mediating mechanisms. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 31, 136-151.
**Abstracted in May, 2005 issue of Clinician’s Research Digest, 23, 5.

Hankin, B. L., & Abela, J. R. Z. (2005). Depression from childhood through adolescence and adulthood: A developmental vulnerability-stress perspective. In B. L. Hankin and J. R. Z. Abela (Eds.), Development of Psychopathology: A Vulnerability-Stress Perspective (pp.245-288) . Thousand Oaks, California: Sage Publications.

Hankin, B. L., Abela, J.R.Z., Auerbach, R., & McWhinnie, C. (2005). Development of Behavioral Problems over the Life Course: A Vulnerability and Stress Perspective. In B. L. Hankin and J. R. Z. Abela (Eds.), Development of Psychopathology: A Vulnerability-Stress Perspective (pp. 385-416). Thousand Oaks, California: Sage Publications.

Wang Z.X., Conrad K.K., Hankin B.L., & Huang Z.G. (2005). Rasch model comparison of Beck Depression Index and Mood and Anxiety Symptoms Questionnaire in measurement of depression. Value in Health, 8, 395-395.

Wang ZX , Conrad KJ, Hankin BL, Huang ZG. (2005). Rasch model comparison of Mood and Anxiety Symptom Questionnaire and Beck Depression Inventory. In Bezruczko N (Ed.), Rasch Measurement in Health Sciences, pp. 334-361. Maple Grove , MN : JAM Press.

Lahey, B.B., Applegate, B., Waldman, I., Hankin, B.L., & Rick, J. (2004). The Structure of Child and Adolescent Psychopathology: Generating New Hypotheses. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 113, 358-385.

Hankin, B.L., Abramson, L.Y., Miller, N., & Haeffel, G.J. (2004). Cognitive vulnerability-stress theories of depression: Examining affective specificity in the prediction of depression versus anxiety in 3 prospective studies. Cognitive Therapy and Research, 28, 309-345.

Hankin, B.L., Lakdawalla, Z., & Lee, A. (2004). The elaborated cognitive vulnerability-transactional stress theory of depression: Introduction of an integrative general model and review of evidence. In J.T. Devito (Ed.), Focus in Depression Research. Hauppauge, NY: Nova Science Publishers.

Mezulis, A., Abramson, L.Y., Hyde, J.S., & Hankin, B.L. (2004). Is There a Universal Positivity Bias in Attributions? A Meta-Analytic Review of Individual, Developmental, and Cultural Differences in the Self-Serving Attributional Bias. Psychological Bulletin, 130, 711-747.

Haeffel, G.J., Abramson, L.Y., Voelz, Z., Metalsky, G.I., Halberstadt, L., Dykman, B., Donovan, P., Hogan, M., Hankin, B.L., & Alloy, L.B. (2003). Cognitive vulnerability to depression and lifetime history of axis I psychopathology: A comparison of Negative Cognitive Styles (CSQ) and Dysfunctional Attitudes (DAS). Journal of Cognitive Psychotherapy: An International Quarterly,17, 3-22.

Hankin, B.L. (2002). Gender differences in depression from childhood through adulthood: A review of course, causes, and treatment. Primary Psychiatry, 9, 32-36.

Hankin, B.L. & Abramson, L.Y. (2002). Measuring cognitive vulnerability to depression in adolescence: Reliability, validity, and gender differences. Journal of Child and Adolescent Clinical Psychology, 31, 491-504.

Abramson, L.Y., Alloy, L.B., Hankin, B.L., Haeffel, G.J., MacCoon, D., & Gibb, B.E. (2002). Cognitive vulnerability-stress models of depression in a self-regulatory and psychobiological context. In I.H. Gotlib & C.L. Hammen (Eds.), Handbook of Depression (pp.268-294). New York: The Guilford Press.

Hankin, B.L. & Abramson, L.Y. (2001). Development of gender differences in depression: An elaborated cognitive vulnerability-transactional stress theory. Psychological Bulletin, 127, 773-796.

Hankin, B.L., Abramson, L.Y., & Siler, M. (2001). A prospective test of the hopelessness theory of depression in adolescence. Cognitive Therapy and Research, 25, 607-632.

Abramson, L.Y., Alloy, L.B., Hankin, B.L., Clements, C.M., Zhu, L., Hogan, M.E., & Whitehouse, W.G. (2000). Optimistic cognitive styles and invulnerability to depression. In J. Gillham (Ed.), The science of optimism and hope: Research essays in honor of Martin E. P. Seligman (pp.75-98). Philadelphia, PA: John Templeton Foundation.

Abramson, L.Y., Alloy, L.B., Hogan, M.E., Whitehouse, W.G., Gibb, B.E., Hankin, B.L., & Cornette, M.M. (2000). The hopelessness theory of suicidality. In T.E. Joiner & M.D. Rudd (Eds.), Suicide science: Expanding boundaries (pp.18-32). Boston: Kluwer Academic Publishing.

Ellwanger, J., Rosenfeld, J.P., Hankin, B.L., & Sweet, J.J. (1999). P300 as an index of recognition in a standard and difficult match-to-sample test: A model of amnesia in normal adults. Clinical Neuropsychologist, 13, 100-108.

Hankin, B.L. & Abramson, L.Y. (1999). Development of gender differences in depression: Description and possible explanations. Annals of Medicine, 31, 372-379.

Hankin, B.L., Abramson, L.Y., Moffitt, T.E., Silva, P.A., McGee, R., & Angell, K.A. (1998). Development of depression from preadolescence to young adulthood: Emerging gender differences in a 10 year longitudinal study. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 107, 128-141.
**Abstracted in May, 1998 issue of Journal Watch for Psychiatry, 4, 39.
**Abstracted in August, 1998 issue of Evidence-Based Mental Health,1, 92.

Hankin, B.L., Roberts, J., & Gotlib, I. H. (1997). Elevated self-standards and emotional distress during adolescence: Emotional specificity and gender differences. Cognitive Therapy and Research, 21, 663-681.

Rosenfeld, J.P., Ellwanger, J., Bhatt, M., Hankin, B., Berman, R., & Sweet, J. (1995). Simulated malingering on an easy matching to sample test increases P3 amplitude: Genuine difficulty reduces the amplitude. Psychophysiology, 32, S65-S65.

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Honors and Awards

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