Melissa Holt

About

Melissa Holt is the Director of the Kilachand Honors College and a Professor of Counseling Psychology at Boston University. She earned her Bachelor of Science in Psychology from Tufts University and completed her Master’s and PhD in Counseling Psychology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She also completed a clinical psychology internship at the University of Illinois at Chicago Department of Psychiatry and is a licensed Psychologist. Her scholarship focuses on bias-based harassment among adolescents, school-based prevention programs, and the experiences of gender diverse youth. Her research emphasizes ways in which contexts and systems can better support youth well-being and amplify their strengths. Melissa Holt’s research has been funded by the National Institutes of Justice, and she has published her findings in a wide range of academic journals. She has also co-edited a book titled 'Critical Issues in School Mental Health: Evidence-based Research, Practice, and Interventions' and co-authored another book called 'Bullying and Peer Victimization.' In addition to her research, she has taught courses ranging from undergraduate first-year experience courses to doctoral-level seminars and is committed to mentoring students at all levels of their academic careers. She was awarded the Excellence in Graduate Advising Award from BU Wheelock in 2016.

Research topics

• Medicine
• Psychology
• Psychiatry
• Computer Science
• Virology
• Internal medicine
• Economics
• Demography
• Criminology
• Psychotherapist

Selected publications

• Time trends and disparities in anxiety among adolescents, 2012–2018

  Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology · 2021 · 127 citations

  DOI

• The COVID-19 Pandemic Disrupted Both School Bullying and Cyberbullying

  American Economic Review Insights · 2022 · 73 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding

  One-fifth of US high school students report being bullied each year. We use internet search data for real-time tracking of bullying patterns as COVID-19 disrupted in-person schooling. We first show that pre-pandemic internet searches contain useful information about actual bullying behavior. We then show that searches for school bullying and cyberbullying dropped 30–35 percent as schools shifted to remote learning in spring 2020. The gradual return to in-person instruction starting in fall 2020…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• School Connectedness Still Matters: The Association of School Connectedness and Mental Health During Remote Learning Due to COVID-19

  The Journal of Primary Prevention · 2021 · 46 citations

  DOI

• Fluidity in Gender Identity and Sexual Orientation Identity in Transgender and Nonbinary Youth

  The Journal of Sex Research · 2023-08-16 · 35 citations

  articleSenior author

  Changes in sexual orientation identity (SOI) and gender identity (GI) have rarely been studied in transgender and/or nonbinary youth (TNBY), but documenting such changes is important for understanding identity development and gender transition and supporting the needs of TNBY. This study examined the frequency and patterning of changes in GI and SOI across 3 months (T1-T2) and 1.5 years (T1-T4) among 183 TNBY (baseline age 14-17 years; 83.6% White, 16.9% Hispanic/Latinx) who participated in a lo…

  PublisherDOI

• Parenting stress and competence among mothers of young children with substance use disorders: The roles of trauma and reflective functioning

  Infant Mental Health Journal · 2023-02-20 · 12 citations

  articleSenior author

  Posttraumatic stress symptoms are prominent in the lives of parents of young children with substance use disorders (SUD). Parenting experiences, particularly stress and competence, impact parenting behaviors and concomitant child growth and development. Factors that promote positive experiences of parenting, such as parental reflective functioning (PRF), and protect the mother and child from negative outcomes are crucial to understand to develop effective therapeutic interventions. The current U…

  PublisherDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Jennifer Green

  Boston University

  67 shared

• Rachel Oblath

  Boston Medical Center

  25 shared

• Dorothy L. Espelage

  University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

  25 shared

• Jennifer L. Matjasko

  23 shared

• Kristin M. Holland

  20 shared

• Brian W. Koenig

  McGill University

  16 shared

• Katharine B. Parodi

  Boston University

  15 shared

• Sarah DeGue

  National Center for Injury Prevention and Control

  14 shared

Education

• Ph.D., Counseling Psychology

  University of California, Los Angeles

  2000

• M.A., Counseling Psychology

  University of California, Los Angeles

  1997

• B.A., Psychology

  University of California, Los Angeles

  1995

Awards & honors

• Excellence in Graduate Advising Award from BU Wheelock (2016…
• funded by the National Institutes of Justice

Similar researchers at Boston University

• Muhammad Zamanh-42
• Samuel Cookh-7
• Anna Henchmanh-5