Title: Associate Professor
Office: 203 Coffey Hall
Phone: 773.508.8684
E-mail: sleon@luc.edu

 

Ph.D., Clinical Psychology, Northwestern University, 2002
B.A., University of California, San Diego, 1995

Website: Promoting Adjustment in Children through Evaluation (PACE) Lab

Rooted in Ecological Systems Theory and the Convoy Model of Social Relations and infused with a strengths-based and multicultural perspective, my research in recent years has explored how natural support networks (e.g., extended family, neighbors, mentors) influence children's developmental outcomes in the context of foster care. Simply put, I want to know how a child’s extended family and “fictive” family plays a role in their developmental, emotional and behavioral, and child welfare outcomes.  As we learn more about the role of natural support networks in human development, we can create programs and policies that are best suited to helping children cope with their traumatic past and even experience well-being.

Using data from a longitudinal study of 500 children in foster care, the PACE lab has published extensively on the contexts in which children’s natural support networks serve to help them cope with adversity.  For example, we found that children with strong natural support networks do not experience as many internalizing symptoms (e.g., anxiety and depression) in the aftermath of maltreatment as children without strong social support (Leon & Dickson, 2019).  We have also found that having a strong natural support network not only helps prevent negative outcomes, but also serves to promote positive outcomes, such as relationship strengths, community engagement, and positive educational outcomes.  

The scope of our work examining the kinship networks of children in foster care has also allowed us to explore another, often overlooked figure in the lives of children in foster care: their fathers. For example, my graduate students and I found that social support from the non-custodial fathers of children in foster care was associated with less externalizing behavior, the first time such an analysis had been conducted in the child welfare literature longitudinally (Leon et al., 2016).  In another study, we found that children in foster care with incarcerated fathers had worse externalizing behaviors trajectories, but the association was eliminated among the subsample of children who visited their fathers (Hindt, Leon, & Lurigio, 2020).  We are currently working on a manuscript exploring the relative influence of social network support from the paternal versus maternal side of children’s families. Our results indicate that both paternal family social support and maternal family social support are main effects predictors of children’s emotional and behavioral outcomes but the presence of social support from both sides of the family confers optimal benefit.

A recent collaboration has allowed us to explore a range of topics related to optimal well-being among children in foster care across multiple, diverse states (e.g., Idaho, Illinois, Washington, Wisconsin) using large datasets (e.g., 25,000 children). In a manuscript currently in development, we are comparing Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) and Positive Childhood Experiences (PCEs) in a sample of 16,000 children entering foster care.  Our results indicate that ACEs and PCEs interact in distinctive ways in the prediction of anger, affect dysregulation, anxiety, and depression.

Osborne, J, & Leon, S.C. (2024).  Beyond family: Patterns of kin and fictive kin caregivers among children in the child welfare system. Children and Youth Services Review, 163,107823.

Leon, S. C., Hodgkinson, N., Osborne, J., Lutz, N. M., & Hindt, L. A. (2023). Barriers to the involvement of extended family and fictive kin in the lives of children in foster care. Journal of Public Child Welfare, 1-20

Leon, S.C., Lutz, N., Hindt, L.A., Huguenel, B.M., & Osborne, J. (2022). Implicit self-esteem moderates the association between explicit self-esteem and externalizing behaviors. Journal of Child and Family Studies, 1-11.

 

Hindt, L.A., & Leon, S.C. (2022). Ecological disruptions and well-being among children in foster care.  American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 92(1), 39-50.

 

Osborne, J., Hindt, L.A., Lutz, N., Hodgkinson, N., & Leon, S.C. (2021).  Placement stability among children in kinship and non-kinship foster care placements across multiple placements. Children and Youth Services Review, 126, issue c.

 

Huguenel, BM., Leon, S.C., Hindt, L.A., Lutz, N., & Osborne, J. (2021). Profiles of maltreatment in the child welfare system: Predicting mental health outcomes and examining age as a moderator. Journal of Traumatic Stress, 34 (4), 721-732.

 

Hindt, L.A., Leon, S.C., & Lurigio, A.J. (2020). Visits with fathers involved in the criminal justice system and behavioral outcomes among children in foster care.  Children and Youth Services Review, 118(c).

 

Leon, S.C., Dickson, D.A. (2019). The impact of kinship networks on foster care children's outcomes. Family Relations: Interdisciplinary Journal of Applied Family Science, 68, 169-184.

 

Hindt, L.A., Jhe Bai, G., Huguenel, B.M., Fuller, A.K., & Leon, S.C. (2018).  Impact of emergency shelter utilization and kinship involvement on behavioral outcomes.  Child Maltreatment. DOI: 10.1177/1077559518797198

 

Blakely, G.L., Leon, S.C., Jhe Bai, G., & Fuller, A.K.  (2017).  Foster care children's kinship involvement and behavioral risks: A longitudinal study.  Journal of Child and Family Studies, 26, 2450-2462.

 

Jhe Bai, G., Leon, S.C., Garbarino, J., & Fuller, A.K. (2016). The protective effect of kinship involvement on the adjustment of youth in foster care.  Child Maltreatment, 21, 288-297.

 

Leon, S.C.,Saucedo, D.J., & Jachymiak, K. (2016). Keeping it in the family: The impact of a Family Finding intervention on placement, permanency, and well-being outcomes. Children and Youth Services Review, 70, 163-170.

Leon, S.C., Jhe Bai, G., Fuller, A.K., & Busching, M. (2016).  Emergency shelter care in child welfare: Who goes to the shelter?  How long do they stay? American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 86, 49-60.‌

Leon, S.C., Jhe Bai, G., & Fuller, A.K. (2016).  Father involvement in child welfare:  Associations with changes in externalizing behavior.  Child Abuse and Neglect, 55, 73-80.‌

Leon, S.C., Stoner, A.M., & Dickson, D.A. (2016). Does the hospital predict readmission? A multi-level survival analysis approach. Administration and Policy in Mental Health, 43, 514-523.‌

Sieracki, J.H, Fuller, A.K., Leon, S.C., Bai, G.J., & Bryant, F. (2015). The role of race, socioeconomic status, and System of Care services in placement decision-making. Children and Youth Services Review, 50, 3-11.‌

Leon, S. C., Miller, S. A., Stoner, A. M., Fuller, A., & Rolnik, A. M.  (2016). Change trajectories: Children’s patterns of improvement in acute-stay inpatient care. Journal of Behavioral Health Services and Research, 43, 233-245.‌

Stoner, A.M., Leon, S.C. & Fuller, A.F. (2015).  Predictors of reduction in symptoms of depression for foster care youth. Journal of Child and Family Studies, 24, 784-797.