Jennifer M. Grossman, PhD

Jennifer M. Grossman, Ph.D., is a senior research scientist at the Wellesley Centers for Women (WCW) and a former National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) postdoctoral research fellow at WCW. Her research uses quantitative and qualitative methods to investigate adolescent development, sexual health, and risk-taking, with an emphasis on family communication about sex and relationships, and contexts of teens’ environment and identities, such as gender, race, and ethnicity.

Grossman initially joined WCW in August 2006 as a NICHD postdoctoral research fellow. She received her B.A. from Oberlin College, her M.A. in counseling at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, and her Ph.D. in Counseling Psychology from Boston College in 2005. In addition to her research work, Grossman is a licensed psychologist. She completed her clinical internship and postdoctoral training at Massachusetts General Hospital, working primarily with children and adolescents. Her clinical experiences inform her research work and enhance her commitment to addressing health inequities through research, program development, and systemic change in support of healthy youth development.

Grossman is currently principal investigator of an R21 award from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development -- Adolescent Communication with Family and Reproductive Health, which includes the first comprehensive assessment of teens’ sexuality communication with extended family and its associations with sexual behavior as well as an exploration of extended family approaches to talking with teens about sex. Grossman is also principal investigator of an R03 award from the National Institutes of Child and Human Development -- Risk Behaviors Among Offspring of Teen Parents: Effects of Parenting on the Next Generation, which addresses the potential of maternal and paternal parenting to reduce the high risk of early sex and teen pregnancy for offspring of teen parents.

She recently completed a project funded by Planned Parenthood League of Massachusetts (PPLM) – the Formative Evaluation of Planned Parenthood Family Communication App, which assessed the preliminary effectiveness of a mobile website for parents of youth enrolled in PPLM’s middle school curriculum, Get Real: Comprehensive Sex Education That Works. Findings showed that parents and teens reported significantly more talk with teens about relationships and sexuality after exposure to Get Real family activities than before participating in the program. Parents described the online activities as useful in talking with their teens about sexuality and relationships and found the activities helped bring up new conversation topics about teens’ health.

Grossman’s current research focuses on adolescent sexual risk and prevention, evaluation of preventive programs, teens’ communication with parents and extended family about sex and relationships, and how that communication influences teen sexual attitudes and behavior.