Faculty

Stephanie D Stepp, PhD

Stephanie D Stepp, PhD

Professor of Psychiatry and Associate Professor of Psychology

Contact Details

3811 O'Hara St.
Pittsburgh
 
PA
 
15213
Email
Website
Child and Family Development Studies
Assistant
Jennifer Wilson
bresjl@upmc.edu

Education & Training

PhD
Clinical Psychology, University of Missouri
Clinical Psychology, Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic of UPMC
Clinical Psychology, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine

Professional Affiliations

President, North American Society for the Study of Personality Disorders

Research Interests

Borderline personality disorder; Preschool emotion regulation; Proximal markers of suicide risk
Selected Research Publications & Products
  1. Chugani CD, Byrd AL, Pedersen SL, Chung T, Hipwell AE, Stepp SD. Affective and sensation-seeking pathways linking borderline personality disorder symptoms and alcohol-related problems in young women. (2020) Journal of Personality Disorders. 34(3):420-31.
  2. Vine V, Byrd AL, Mohr H, Scott LN, Beeney JE, Stepp SD. (2020) The structure of psychopathology in a sample of clinically referred, emotionally dysregulated early adolescents. (2020) Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology. 1-15.
  3. Stepp SD, Lazarus SA & Byrd AL. (2016). A systematic review of risk factors prospectively associated with borderline personality disorder: Taking stock and moving forward. Personality Disorders: Theory, Research, and Treatment, 7(4), 316-323. PMCID: PMC5055059
  4. Stepp SD, Scott LN, Jones NP, Whalen DJ & Hipwell AE. (2016). Negative emotional reactivity as a marker of vulnerability in the development of borderline personality disorder symptoms. Development and Psychopathology, 28, 213-224. PMCID: PMC4418187
  5. Stepp SD, Whalen D, Scott LN, Zalewski M, Loeber R & Hipwell AE. (2014). Reciprocal effects of parenting and borderline personality disorder symptoms in adolescent girls. Development and Psychopathology, 20, 1-18. PMID:24443951. PMCID: PMC4103652

Clinical Interests

Dialectical behavior therapy; Suicide prevention; Mother-child interaction
Selected Clinical Publications & Products
  1. Zalewski M, Stepp SD, Whalen D, Scott LN. (2015). A qualitative assessment of the parenting challenges and treatment needs of mothers with borderline personality disorder. Journal of Psychotherapy Integration, 25, 75-89. PMCID: PMC4538980
  2. Zalewski M, Stepp SD, Scott LN, Whalen DJ, Beeney JF & Hipwell AE. (2014). Maternal borderline personality disorder symptoms and parenting of adolescent daughters. Journal of Personality Disorders, 28(4), 541-554. PMCID: PMC4114999
  3. Stepp SD, Whalen DJ, Pilkonis PA, Hipwell AE & Levine MD. (2012). Children of mothers with borderline personality disorder: Identifying parenting behaviors as potential targets for intervention. Personality Disorders: Theory, Research, and Treatment, 3, 76-91. PMCID: PMC3268672

Education Interests

Research mentorship; Clinician training and supervision

University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine Promotes Stephanie Stepp, PhD, to Professor of Psychiatry

Stephanie Stepp, PhD

We are pleased to announce that Stephanie Stepp, PhD, has been promoted to Professor of Psychiatry by the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. Dr. Stepp received her PhD in clinical psychology from the University of Missouri. She joined the University of Pittsburgh Department of Psychiatry and UPMC Western Psychiatric Hospital (WPH) as a clinical psychology intern, then undertook postgraduate research...

Pitt Psychiatry Awarded $16.2M National Institute of Mental Health Center Grant Focused on Addressing Adolescent Suicide, with Focus on Black and Hispanic Youth

ETUDES Investigators

The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) has awarded Pitt Psychiatry a Center of Excellence (P50) grant renewal for Enhancing Triage and Utilization for Depression and Emergent Suicidality (ETUDES), led by David Brent, MD (Distinguished Professor of Psychiatry, Pediatrics, Epidemiology, and Clinical and Translational Science, and Endowed Chair in Suicide Studies). The Center is co-led by Bruce Rollman, MD...

Applying NIMH Research Domain Criteria Dimensions to the Development of Emotion Regulation

Byrd et al. Development and Psychopathology 2021

The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)’s Research Domain Criteria (RDoC) is a research framework that integrates multiple levels of information (from genomics and circuits to behavior and self-report) to explore basic dimensions of functioning that span the full range of human behavior. While environmental and developmental influences represent important elements of the RDoC framework, it offers little...

Congratulations to the UPMC Western Psychiatric Hospital Resident and Fellow Class of 2021!

Resident & Fellow Graduation - Class of 2021

This year the Department of Psychiatry held a hybrid graduation for the UPMC Western Psychiatric Hospital (WPH) resident and fellow class of 2021, with graduates gathering in person and friends and family celebrating through a virtual livestream. Michael Travis, MD (Senior Director for Postgraduate Physician Training) opened the ceremony with remarks on the challenges of COVID, as well as the heightened awareness...

Now in Psychological Medicine: Respiratory Sinus Arrythmia Reactivity to Parent-Child Conflict Linked to Emotion Dysregulation in Youth

https://www.psychiatry.pitt.edu/about-us/our-people/faculty/stephanie-d-stepp-phd

Pitt Psychiatry investigators including Amy Byrd, PhD (Assistant Professor of Psychiatry), Vera Vine, PhD (postdoctoral fellow), Joseph Beeney, PhD (Assistant Professor of Psychiatry), Lori Scott, PhD (Assistant Professor of Psychiatry), J. Richard Jennings, PhD (Emeritus Professor of Psychiatry, Psychology, and Clinical and Translational Science), and Stephanie Stepp, PhD (Associate Professor of Psychiatry and...