Dr. Rasnake came to Denison in 1987 after completing a 2- year post-doctoral fellowship in pediatric psychology. She teaches courses in clinical psychology, abnormal psychology, the psychology of women, and history and systems. Her research interests are in the areas of psychological consequences of illness in children and adolescents (e.g., Health-Related Quality of Life) and the relationship between gender, nutritional knowledge, nutritional judgments, body image, and eating/nutritional behaviors.
Research
One of my primary research interests involve psychosocial adjustment of children with chronic illnesses. Using a developmental framework, I ask questions about how expected developmental events or milestones may be impacted by medical conditions and what the long term implications for such impact may be. For example, for several years I investigated the development of autonomy and mastery in toddlers (18-36 months of age) with a variety of medical conditions (e.g., cystic fibrosis, jra, immune deficiencies). I measured disease variables (e.g., hospitalizations) and parent variables (e.g., marital relationships) and looked for relationships between these and child outcome. I have recently expanded my age range of interest and with several students have looked at adolescent issues with regard to chronic illnesses (i.e., Health-Related Quality of Life).
I also am interested in and involved in research on psychology of women issues. I have supervised student research in the areas of women and achievement motivation, women and tolerance of abusive situations, the impact of gender on perceptions of juvenile delinquents, and the factors associated with Breast Self Examination (BSE) in college age women (e.g., Health Belief Model, Theory of Reasoned Action Model, and Objectification Model).
Finally, as a bridge between my interests in the health of children and gender studies, several students and I are studying the impact of nutrition education on eating attitudes in middle school and high school boys and girls. Based on findings that eating disorder prevention programs can sometimes have a negative effect (i.e., lead to less healthy behaviors), we are asking whether nutritional knowledge may lead some students (more likely girls than boys) to develop rigid ideas about good and bad foods (i.e., all foods with fat are bad) and ultimately result in poor health and anorexic-like behaviors. We have also looked at this phenomenon in college age women and men. And, a senior research student is exploring such issues in a sample of American-born and international college students
Student Research
"Chronically Ill Toddlers: Impact on Parental Stress and Mood State" Rasnake, L. K., Harbeck-Weber, C., and Chorpenning, J. Poster presented at the 101st Annual Convention, American Psychological Association, Toronto, Canada, August, 22, 1993.
"Predictors of Tolerance for Abusive Relationships: Victim and Abuser Characteristics" Johnson, D. M. and Rasnake, L. K. Poster presented at the 6th Annual Convention, American Psychological Society, Washington, D. C., July 2, 1994.
"The Assessment of Social Competence in Toddlers with Chronic Illnesses" Rasnake, L. K., Harbeck-Weber, C., Steen, L., Pingel, K., Baack, N., and Lee, T. Poster presented at the 5th Florida Conference on Child Health Psychology, Gainesville, Florida, April 21, 1995
"Psychosocial Adjustment of Toddlers with Chronic Illnesses: DiseaseVariables and Parent Variables as Predictors" Rasnake, L. K.,Harbeck-Weber, C., Lee, T., Baack, N., and Steen, L. Poster presented at the Great Lakes Regional Pediatric Psychology Conference, Toronto, Canada, April 26, 1996.
"Use of Behavioral Observations to Assess Developmental Outcome of Toddlers with Chronic Illnesses" Rasnake, L. K., Harbeck-Weber, C., Lee, T., Baack, N., and Steen, L. Poster presented at the Annual Convention of the Association for Behavior Analysis, San Francisco, CA, May 27, 1996.
"Perceptions of Classroom Environments: Influence of Student Gender Composition" McKaig, K., and Rasnake, L. K. Poster presented at the 105th Annual Convention, American Psychology Association, Toronto, Canada, August, 1996.
"Adolescents with Diabetes and Their Healthy Siblings: Predictors of Developmental Outcome" Brown, K., Baack, N., King, K., Dow, G., Rasnake, L. K., Harbeck-Weber, C., and Zipf, W. Poster presented at the Society for Research in Child Development, Washington, D. C., April 3, 1997.
"Adolescents with Diabetes and Their Healthy Siblings: Predictors of Self-Acceptance and Self-Efficacy" Baack, N., King, K., Brown, K., Rasnake, L. K., Dow, G., Harbeck-Weber, C., and Zipf, W. Poster presented at the 6th Florida Conference on Child Health Psychology, Gainesville, Florida, April 23, 1997.
"Peer Acceptance of a Hypothetical Adolescent with Diabetes" Brown, K., and Rasnake, L. K. Poster presented at the 107th Annual Convention, American Psychological Association, San Francisco, CA, August 24, 1998.
"Can Nutrition Education Hurt More Than Help?" Rasnake, L. K., Laube, E., and Linscheid, T. R. Poster presented at the Seventh Florida Conference on Child Health Psychology, Gainesville, Florida, April 21, 1999.
"Long-term Follow-up of Pediatric Patients Treated for Feeding Problems" Cook, C., Linscheid, T. R., Rasnake, L. K., and Lukens, C. T. Paper presented at the Millenium Conference of the Great Lakes Society of Pediatric Psychology, Cleveland, OH, March 31, 2000.
"Diagnosis and Treatment of ADHD: A Comparison of Strategies used by Pediatricians and Child Clinical Psychologists" Sullivan, M., and Rasnake, L. K. Poster presented at the Millenium Conference of the Great Lakes Society of Pediatric Psychology, Cleveland, OH, March 31, 2000.
"Predicting Breast Self-Examination with the Health Belief Model, the Theory of Reasoned Action, and Objectification Theory" Rhodes, B., Rasnake, L. K., and Przybyla, D. Presented at the 108th Annual Convention of the American Psychological Association, Washington, DC, August 5, 2000.
"Child and Parent Perceptions of Child Health Related Quality of Life: A Comparison of Well and Chronically Ill Children" Rasnake, L. K., Mervis, K., Belpedio, K., Higgins, G., and Rennebohm, R. Poster presented at the Great Lakes Regional Meeting on Child Health Psychology, Milwaukee, WI, April 19, 2002.