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Education:

  • ClinPsyD - University of East Anglia, U.K

  • PhD - University of London, U.K.

  • MA - University of Cambridge, U.K.

  • BSc - University of Birmingham, U.K.

Department of Psychiatry
University of Pittsburgh
3811 O'Hara Street, Pittsburgh, PA 15213

About

Dr. Hipwell is a clinical and developmental psychologist. She completed a research doctorate (PhD) at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King’s College London, UK in 1992 and obtained a clinical doctorate (ClinPsyD) from the University of East Anglia, UK in 2000. She joined the Department of Psychiatry faculty at the University of Pittsburgh in 2001, where she has been actively engaged in research, teaching and mentorship.

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Research Interests

Dr. Hipwell’s research interests are in the domains of developmental psychopathology, infant behavioral science, intergenerational risk transmission and reproductive mental health among girls and women. Her work integrates multiple levels of development with the goal of informing the targets of early prevention of clinical and functional impairments in mothers and their offspring. Early research work examined the effects of postpartum psychosis on offspring jointly admitted to a psychiatric mother-baby unit and led to the development of a tool to aid detection of infants at risk of neglect or injury. Postdoctoral research focused on emotion dysregulation and peer conflict as well as prosocial adjustment among preschool-aged children of mothers who experienced postpartum depression. Dr. Hipwell joined the investigative team of the Pittsburgh Girls Study (PGS) 20 years ago and has been integrally involved in the scientific direction of this large-scale study as well as multiple PGS sub-studies that have focused on the transition to motherhood and infant health. Current projects include examination of preconception stress exposures on prenatal stress regulation and infant neurodevelopmental outcomes (part of the Environmental influences on Child Health Outcomes [ECHO] program), peripartum stress effects on cardiovascular disease risk among Black women, and investigation of infant brain-behavior development in the context of caregiving. She has supported her research activities through federal awards from the National Institutes of Health (NIH, NIMH, NIDA, NHLBI, NICHD) and the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention.

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Completed Studies

PGS Teen Mom Study

This PGS substudy funded by the National Institute of Mental Health (MH071790: Hipwell) enrolled teenage mothers aged 12-19 years and their infants into an observational study. The study investigated: 1) mental health in the context of teenage pregnancy; 2) childhood adversity and lifetime experiences associated with postpartum psychopathology; and 3) the reciprocal relationships between teenage parenting, maternal psychopathology and infant emotion and behavioral regulation. The study was completed in 2013.

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​PGS Mother-Baby Study

This PGS substudy funded jointly by the National Institute of Child Health and Development and the National Institute of Mental Health (HD067185) aimed to: 1) elucidate the neural signature of postpartum depression and characteristics of maternal caregiving; 2) explain heterogeneity in postpartum affective neural functioning from child and adolescent psychosocial factors and own parenting experience; and 3) explore the extent to which postpartum neural response explains subsequent maternal sensitivity at 6 months. This study was completed in 2016.

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Representative Publications

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  1. Hipwell AE, Guo C, Phillips ML, Swain JE, Moses-Kolko EL. Right Frontoinsular Cortex and Subcortical Activity to Infant Cry Is Associated with Maternal Mental State Talk. J Neurosci. 2015 Sep 16;35(37):12725-32. PubMed PMID: 26377462; PMCID: PMC4571605.

  2. Hipwell AE, Murray J, Xiong S, Stepp SD, Keenan KE. Effects of Adolescent Childbearing on Maternal Depression and Problem Behaviors: A Prospective, Population-Based Study Using Risk-Set Propensity Scores. PLoS One. 2016 May 13;11(5):e0155641. PubMed PMID: 27176826; PMCID: PMC4866683.

  3. Hipwell AE, Stepp SD, Moses-Kolko EL, Xiong S, Paul E, Merrick N, McClelland S, Verble D, Keenan K. Predicting adolescent postpartum caregiving from trajectories of depression and anxiety prior to childbirth: a 5-year prospective study. Arch Womens Ment Health. 2016 Oct;19(5):871-82. PubMed PMID: 26971266; PMCID: PMC5018913.

  4. Hanford LC, Schmithorst VJ, Panigrahy A, Lee V, Ridley J, Bonar L, Versace A, Hipwell AE, Phillips ML. The impact of caregiving on the association between infant emotional behavior and resting state neural network functional topology. Front Psychol. 2018 Oct 15;9:1968. PubMed PMID: 30374323; PMCID: PMC6196255.

  5. Hipwell AE, Kahn LG, Factor-Litvak P, Porucznik CA, Siegel EL, Fichorova RN, Hamman RF, Klein-Fedyshin M, Harley KG; program collaborators for Environmental influences on Child Health Outcomes. Exposure to non-persistent chemicals in consumer products and fecundability: a systematic review. Hum Reprod Update. 2019 Jan 1;25(1):51-71. PubMed PMID: 30307509; PMCID: PMC6295794.

  6. Hipwell AE, Tung I, Northrup J, Keenan K. Transgenerational associations between maternal childhood stress exposure and profiles of infant emotional reactivity. Dev Psychopathol. 2019 Aug;31(3):887-898. PubMed PMID: 31025614; PMCID: PMC6620149.

  7. Northrup JB, Ridley J, Foley K, Moses-Kolko EL, Keenan K, Hipwell AE. A Transactional Model of Infant Still-Face Response and Maternal Behavior During the First Year. Infancy. 2019 Sep-Oct;24(5):787-806. PubMed PMID: 32030091; PMCID: PMC7003676.

  8. Tung I, Beardslee J, Pardini D, Chung T, Keenan K, Hipwell AE. Adolescent childbirth, miscarriage, and abortion: associations with changes in alcohol, marijuana, and cigarette use. J Child Psychol Psychiatry. 2020 Jan;61(1):104-111. PubMed PMID: 31424096; PMCID: PMC6906255.

  9. Tung I, Keenan K, Stepp SD, Hipwell AE. The moderating effects of traumatic stress on vulnerability to emotional distress during pregnancy. Dev Psychopathol. 2020 May;32(2):673-686. PubMed PMID: 31204636; PMCID: PMC6918013.

  10. Tung I, Chung T, Krafty RT, Keenan K, Hipwell AE. Alcohol Use Trajectories Before and After Pregnancy Among Adolescent and Young Adult Mothers. Alcohol Clin Exp Res. 2020 Aug;44(8):1675-1685. PubMed PMID: 32701186; PMCID: PMC7484369.

  11. † Moses-Kolko E, Banihashemi L, Hipwell AE. Reduced postpartum hippocampal volume is associated with positive mother-infant caregiving behavior. J Affect Disord. 2021 Feb;281:297-302. PMID 33341012.

  12. Nannini, S., Tung, I., Northrup, J., Keenan, K., Stepp, S. & Hipwell, AE. Changes in severity of depression and borderline personality disorder symptoms from pregnancy to three years postpartum in adolescent mothers. J Affect Dis. 2021 Nov 1;294:459-463. PubMed PMID: 34325165; PMCID: PMC8410668

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