Erin Atkinson

Erin began attending UNB in 2006 with the goal of becoming a high school teacher. After taking an Introductory Psychology course, she became interested in psychology and was pleased to discover a career path that combined her love of education with her interest in psychology: School Psychology.

In 2010, Erin completed her Honours degree in Psychology under the supervision of Dr. Ronis, who was open to and interested in supervising a project related to Educational Psychology. Erin’s honours thesis was entitled A Retrospective Investigation of Post-Secondary Education Information Sources, and examined the sources of information (e.g. school counselors, teachers, parents, peers) that high school students turned to when making the decision to attend a post-secondary institution. Upon graduating from UNB, Erin was accepted into the School and Clinical Child Psychology program at the University of Alberta.

Erin completed her Masters of Education in School Psychology, graduating in November 2012. She is currently working toward her PhD in School and Clinical Child Psychology at the University of Alberta, and has received a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) Doctoral Fellowship to support her studies. Her research interests include examining ways in which to foster teacher self-efficacy in the classroom, especially among new teachers and in relation to working with students who often encounter challenges in school, such as those with fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD), autism spectrum disorders (ASD), and other behavioural and learning disorders.

Erin has also developed an interest in Program Evaluation, and has been involved in a number of evaluations of FASD service delivery and prevention efforts in the province of Alberta. She is also currently working as a teaching assistant for a Masters level Psycho-educational Assessment course, and a Doctoral level Program Evaluation course, gaining skills in administering, scoring, and interpreting psychological assessment measures, designing program evaluations, and mentoring students.

Erin plans to complete her doctoral studies by 2016 and return home to New Brunswick to practice as a school psychologist. Students interested in pursuing studies in School/Educational Psychology are welcome to contact her with questions or concerns!

Publications (& Technical Reports)

Atkinson, E., Job, J., Pei, J., Poth, C, O’Riordan, T., & Taylor, L. (in press). Capturing the Experiences of FASD Prevention Workers through Quilting. Paper submitted to the First Peoples Child and Family Review: Focus on Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD).

Pei, J. , Job, J. , Poth, C. & Atkinson, E. (2013). Assessment for Intervention of Children with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders: Perspectives of Classroom Teachers, Administrators, Caregivers, and Allied Professionals. Psychology, 4, 325-334. doi: 10.4236/psych.2013.43A047.

Poth, C., Pei, J., Atkinson, E., & the Alberta Clinical and Community-based Evaluation Research Team (2012). Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) 10-year strategic plan: A summary of the year five evaluation project. Report for Alberta Centre for Child, Family, and Community Research, Edmonton, AB.

Presentations

Atkinson, E., Job, J., Pei., J., Poth, C., O’Riordan, T., Taylor, L. (2013, September). Capturing the Experiences of Mentors in the Parent Child Assistance Program: Towards Enhanced Prevention Practice. Paper accepted for presentation at the First International Conference on the Prevention of FASD, Edmonton, Alberta.

Atkinson, E., Hutchison, M., Radil, A., Pei, J., Daniels, L. (2013, June). Supporting students with neurodevelopmental disorders in the classroom: The role of causal attributions in predicting teacher self-efficacy. Symposium accepted for presentation at the Canadian Psychological Association Annual Convention, Quebec City, Quebec.

Atkinson, E., Daniels, L., & Pei, J. (2013, February). Pre-service Teachers’ Self-Efficacy in Working with FASD: The Role of Causal Attributions. Poster accepted for presentation at The 5th International Conference on Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder, Vancouver, British Columbia.

Atkinson, E., Leung, W., McCallum, K., Pei, J., Poth, C. (2012, October). Strengths of the Alberta Parent-Child Assistance Program (PCAP). Poster presented at the Alberta FASD Conference 2012: Creating Connections, Building Relationships, Growing Communities, Edmonton, Alberta.

Leung, W., Chan, E., Atkinson, E., St. Arnault, D., Poth, C., Pei, J. (2012, October). Alberta FASD Clinic Demographics. Poster presented at the Alberta FASD Conference 2012: Creating Connections, Building Relationships, Growing Communities, Edmonton, Alberta.

St. Arnault, D., Job, J., Poth., C., Pei, J., Chan, E., Atkinson, E., Leung, W., et al. (2012, October). To what extent is research informing service planning and delivery for individuals with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders in Alberta, Canada? Poster accepted to the Second European Conference on FASD, Barcelona, Spain.

Atkinson, E., Daniels, L., & Pei, J. (2012, June). Pre-Service Teachers’ Attributions about FASD and their Teaching Self-Efficacy. Poster presented at the Canadian Psychological Association Annual Convention, Halifax, Nova Scotia.

Atkinson, E., Daniels, L., & Pei, J. (2012, March). How Teachers’ Attributions about FASD Relate to their Teaching Self-Efficacy. Poster presented at the Dunlop Graduate Student Colloquium, Edmonton, Alberta.

McDowell, P., Szeligo, F., Wheaton, C., Atkinson, E., & McDowell, A. (2011, June). Sex differences in face recognition on the WMS-Immediate Faces Subtest. Paper presented at the Canadian Psychological Association Convention, Toronto, Ontario.

McKeown, C., Ronis, S., & Atkinson, E. (2011, April). Moving on up: To whom do students turn for information on post-secondary education? Poster presented at the meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development, Montreal, Quebec.

Atkinson, E. & Ronis, S. (2010, April). Factors Related to High School Students’ Acquisition of Information on Post-Secondary Education. Paper presented at the Atlantic Provinces Council on the Sciences Conference, Antigonish, Nova Scotia.