Professor Sydney L. Hans directs the unit for Research in Child Psychiatry and Development and has been an Affiliated Faculty member with the Committee on Human Development at the University of Chicago since 1989, and an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychiatry since 1984. She received her B.A. from Cornell and then went on to earn a Ph.D. in personality and developmental studies from Harvard University. In 2000, Professor Hans received the University of Chicago Award for Excellence in Graduate Teaching.

Professor Hans is interested in how biological and social factors interact in contributing to risk and resilience in human development over time. She studies how early influences in development, particularly the relationship between mother and infant, affect the development of children at later ages. Her research focuses on the development of young children whose parents are substance abusers, have mental disorders, have experienced traumatic events, and/or live in conditions of extreme poverty.

She is currently working with the Harris Foundation and physicians at the Friend Family Health Center to study the effectiveness of "doula" intervention to help adolescent mothers with their transition to motherhood.

Contact Information:
Department of Psychiatry
CH 305B, MC 3077
5841 S. Maryland Avenue
Chicago, IL 60637
Fax: 779-702-5352
Email: shans@uchicago.edu

Research Interests
Dr. Hans is interested in how biological and social factors interact in contributing to risk and resilience in human development over time. She studies how early influences in development, particularly the relationship between mother and infant, affect the development of children at later ages. Her research focuses on the development of young children whose parents are substance abusers, have major mental disorders, have experienced traumatic events, and/or live in conditions of extreme poverty. Her current projects include: a twenty-year follow-up study of infants born to schizophrenic parents, designed to determine whether early neurobehavioral abnormalities are markers of genetic vulnerability to schizophrenia; a fourteen year follow-up study of infants exposed in utero to opioid drugs, designed to explore how prenatal drug exposure and post-natal rearing experiences interact to affect the development of cognitive, motor and attentional processes; two studies of substance abusing women, designed to investigate how maternal psychopathology and exposure to various types of traumatic experiences affect parenting and the development of children's attachment to their mothers; and a study of families with young children living in Chicago's public housing projects designed to explore how family members support one another in conditions of extreme poverty and violence to raise and protect their children.

Recent Publications
Articles and Book Chapters
Hans, S.L. (in press). When mothers abuse drugs. In M.J. Gopfert (ed.), Parental Psychiatric Disorder: Distressed Parents and Their Families. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Hans, S.L., Bernstein, V.J., & Henson, L.G. (2002). Children born to drug-using mothers: A longitudinal perspective on maternal care and child adjustment. In N. LeProhn, K. Wetherbee, E. Lamont, T. Achenbach, & P. Pecora (eds.), Assessing Youth Behaviors: Using the Child Behavior Checklist in Family and Children's Services. Washington, DC: Child Welfare League of America, pp. 107-120.

Wakschlag, L.S. & Hans, S.L. (2002). Maternal smoking during pregnancy and conduct problems in high-risk youth: A developmental framework. Development and Psychopathology, 14, 351-369.

Hans, S.L. (2002). Studies of prenatal exposure to drugs: Focusing on parenatal care of children. Neurotoxicology and Teratology, 24, 1-9.

Hans, S.L., & Jeremy, R.J.  (2001).  Post-neonatal mental and motor development of infants exposed in utero to opioid drugs.  Infant Mental Health Journal, 22, 300-315.

Hans, S.L., Bernstein, V.J., & Sims, B. (2000). Change and continuity in ambivalent attachment relationships from infancy through adolescence. In P.M. Crittenden (ed.), The Organization of Attachment Relationships: Maturation, Culture, and Context. New York: Cambridge University Press, pp. 277-299.

Cox, S.M., Hopkins, J., & Hans, S.L.  (2000).  Attachment in preterm infants and their mothers: Neonatal risk status and maternal representations.  Infant Mental Health Journal, 21, 464-480.

Hans, S. L., Auerbach, J. G., Asarnow, J. R., Styr, B., & Marcus, J. (2000).  Social adjustment of adolescents at risk for schizophrenia:  The Jerusalem Infant Development Study.  Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 39, 1406-1414.

Wakschlag, L.S., & Hans, S.L.  (1999).  Relation of maternal responsiveness during infancy to the development of behavior problems in high-risk youths.  Developmental Psychology, 35, 569-579.

Goodman, G., Hans, S. L., & Cox, S. M.  (1999).  Attachment behavior and its antecedents in offspring born to methadone-maintained women.  Journal of Clinical Child Psychology, 28, 58-69.

Hans, S.L.  (1999).  Demographic and psychosocial characteristics of substance abusing pregnant women.  Clinics in Perinatology, 26, 55-74.

Hans, S.L., Bernstein, V. J., & Henson, L. G.  (1999).  The role of psychopathology in the parenting of drug dependent women.  Development and Psychopathology, 11, 957-977.

Hans, S.L., Marcus, J., Nuechterlein, K.H., Asarnow, R.F., Styr, B., & Auerbach, J.G.  (1999).  Neurobehavioral deficits at adolescence in children at risk for schizophrenia:  The Jerusalem Infant Development Study, Archives of General Psychiatry, 56, 741-748.

Wakschlag, L.S. & Hans, S.L. (1999). Early parenthood in context: Implications for development and intervention. In C. Zeanah (ed.), Handbook of Infant Mental Health (2nd Edition), pp. 129-144.

Selected Courses
Introduction to Developmental Psychology

Psychology of Childbirth