Faculty & Staff

Stephen J. Lepore, PhD
Professor of Public Health

Director, PhD in Public Health

Stephen Lepore is Professor of Public Health, Director of the PhD Programs in Public Health, and Founding Director of the Social and Behavioral Health Interventions Laboratory. Dr. Lepore holds degrees from the University of California, Irvine, Harvard University, and Clark University. Prior to his appointment at Temple University, he held faculty positions at Carnegie Mellon University, Brooklyn College and the Graduate Center of CUNY, and Columbia University. Dr. Lepore’s work addresses basic questions about how people adjust to traumatic or chronic stressors in their lives, including cancer diagnosis and treatments, bereavement, and exposure to community violence. He has a strong interest in reducing social disparities in health, particularly through the development and application of evidence-based behavioral and social interventions. Much of his work has focused on how the social context of people’s lives influences both their exposure to stressors and their ability to cope with them. This work, which has culminated in the Social Cognitive Processing model, has been used as the basis for designing individual- and community-level interventions to promote health in vulnerable populations.

Dr. Lepore has received numerous awards in recognition of his research accomplishments, including an Award for Outstanding Contributions to Health Psychology from Division 38 of the American Psychological Association, the Young Investigator Award for Outstanding Contributions to Behavioral Medicine from the Society of Behavioral Medicine, Distinguished Lecturer at Old Dominion University, Distinguished Visiting Faculty Award at University of Kentucky, and a Fulbright Award. He is a Fellow of the Society of Behavioral Medicine and the Academy of Behavioral Medicine Researchers, and a Charter Member of the National Institutes of Health Behavioral Medicine Interventions study section. His work regularly appears in leading scientific journals in health, psychology and medicine, and has been supported by over $10 million in grants from federal agencies and private foundations.

Research support (past 5 years):

PI, Prostate cancer education in African-American men, NCI, $2.1 million.

PI, Expressive writing & adjustment to colorectal cancer, NCI, $237k.

Co-PI (with W. Kliewer), School-based expressive writing intervention trial to youth exposed to community violence, NIMH, $1.9 million.

Co-I (C. Basch, PI), Evaluating alternative retinopathy screening approaches, NEI, $3.2 million.

Mentor, (D. Latini, PI) Prostate cancer symptom management in low literacy men. Mentored Research Scientist Grant, American Cancer Society, $61k.

Co-PI, (with W. Kliewer). Community violence, expressive writing, and adjustment, CDC, $127k.

PI, Adjustment to thyroid cancer: Needs assessment, Thyroid Head and Neck Cancer Foundation, $33k.

PI, Training Minorities in Bio-behavioral Cancer Research, NCI, $616k.

Recent publications:

     Wolf, R., Lepore, S. J., Vandergrift, J. L., Basch, C. E., & Yaroch, A. L. (2009). Tailored telephone education to promote awareness and adoption of fruit and vegetable recommendations among urban and mostly immigrant black men: A randomized controlled trial. Preventive Medicine, 48, 32-38.
        Kernan, W. & Lepore, S. J. (2009).   Searching for and making meaning after breast cancer: Prevalence, patterns, and negative affect. Social Science & Medicine, 68, 1176-1182.
     Lepore, S. J., & Kernan, W. (2008). Positive outcomes in the context of serious illness: An expanded social-cognitive processing model. In C. Park et al. (Eds.), Positive life changes in the context of medical illness. Washington, DC: APA.
     Lepore, S. J., Glaser, D., & Roberts, K. (2008). On the positive relation between received social support and negative affect: A test of the triage and self-esteem threat models in women with breast cancer. Psycho-Oncology, 17, 1210-1215. .
   Collins, B. N., & Lepore, S. J. (2008). Association between anxiety and smoking in sample of urban black men. Journal of Immigrant & Minority Health, 11, 29-34.
   Revenson, T.A., Lepore, S.J., Pranikoff, J.R., & Margola, D. (2009). Expressive Writing: indicazioni, risultati di ricerca e applicazioni cliniche in psico-oncologia. In E. Saita (Ed.), Psico-oncologia. Elementi di psicologia della salute nella prospettiva relazionale, 121-154. Milano, Italy: Unicopli.
   Roberts, K. J., Lepore, S. J., & Urken, M. (2008). Quality of life after thyroid cancer: An assessment of patient needs and preferences for information and support. Journal of Cancer Education, 23, 186-191.
   Wolf, R. L., Lepore, S. J., Vandergrift, J. L., Wetmore-Arkader, M. A., McGinty, E., Pietrzak, G., & Yaroch, A. L. (2008). Knowledge, barriers, and stage of change as correlates of fruit and vegetable consumption among urban and mostly immigrant black men. Journal of the American Dietetic Association, 108, 1315-1322.
   Evans, G. W., Lepore, S. J. (2008). Psychosocial processes linking the environment and mental health. In H. Freeman & S. A. Stansfeld (Eds.), The impact of the environment on psychiatric disorder. London: Routledge.
   Lepore, S. J., & Revenson, T. A. (2007). Social constraints on disclosure and adjustment to cancer. Social & Personality Psychology Compass: Health, 1 (1), 313-333.
   Lepore, S. J., & Roberts, K. J. (2007). Cancer: prostate. In S. Ayers et al., (Eds.), The Cambridge handbook of psychology, health, & medicine (2nd Ed.), 607-609. London: Cambridge University Press.
   Weston, R. E., Weston, P. J., Futterman, R. F., Lepore, S. J., Carolina, D. S., Pinto, J. T., Lang, M. A., Thomas, R. I., Cardwell, J. J., & Gordon, A. P. (2007). Effectiveness of a modified computer assisted instructional tool in the dissemination of prostate cancer information to men of African descent through black churches. Journal of African American Studies, 11(2), 1081-1753.
   Weston, R. E., Weston, P. J., Carolina, D., Lepore, S. J., & Pinto, J. (2007). Evaluation of a prostate cancer computer assisted instructional model for communities of African descent. Journal of Human Behavior in the Social Environment, 15(1), 45-68.
   Lepore, S. J. & Coyne, J. C. (2006). Psychological interventions for distress in cancer patients: A review of reviews. Annals of Behavioral Medicine, 32, 85-92.
   Coyne, J. C., Lepore, S. J., & Palmer, S. C. (2006). Efficacy of psychosocial interventions in cancer care: The evidence is weaker than it first looks. Annals of Behavioral Medicine, 32, 104-110.
   Coyne, J. C. & Lepore, S. J. (2006). Rebuttal: The black swan fallacy in evaluating psychological interventions for distress in cancer patients. Annals of Behavioral Medicine, 32, 115-118.
   Lepore, S. J., & Revenson, T. A. (2006). Resilience & posttraumatic growth: Recovery, resistance, & reconfiguration. In L. G. Calhoun & R. G. Tedeschi (Eds.), Handbook of Posttraumatic Growth: Research and Practices, (pp. 24-46). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc., Publishers.
   Lepore, S. J., Revenson, T. A., Weinberger, S. L., Weston, P., Frisina, P. G.    Robertson, R., Mentor Portillo, M., Jones, H., & Cross, W. (2006). Effects of social stressors on cardiovascular reactivity in Black and White women. Annals of Behavioral Medicine, 31, 120-127.
   Helgeson, V. S., Lepore, S. J., & Eton, D. T. (2006). Moderators of the benefits of psychoeducational interventions for men with prostate cancer. Health Psychology, 25, 348-354.
   Roberts, K. J., Lepore, S. J., & Helgeson, V. (2006). Social-cognitive correlates of adjustment to prostate cancer. Psycho-0ncology, 14, 1-10.
   Eton, D. T., Lepore, S. J., & Helgeson, V. S. (2005). Psychological distress in spouses of men treated for early-stage prostate carcinoma. Cancer, 103(11), 2412-2418.
   Frisina, P. G., Lepore, S. J., Borod, J. C. (2005). Written emotional disclosure and clinical populations: Confirming and updating our meta-analytic findings. Journal of Nervous & Mental Disease, 93, 425-426.
    Lepore, S. J., Fernandez-Berrocal, P., Ragan, J., & Ramos, N. (2004). It’s not that bad: Social challenges to emotional disclosure enhance adjustment to stress. Anxiety, Stress & Coping: An International Journal, 17, 341-261.
   Helgeson, V. S., & Lepore, S. J. (2004). Quality of life following prostate cancer: The role of agency and unmitigated agency. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 34, 2559-2585.
   Frisina, P. G., Borod, J., & Lepore, S. J. (2004). A meta-analysis of the effects of written emotional disclosure on health outcomes of clinical populations. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 192: 629-634.
   Greenberg, M. A., & Lepore, S. J. (2004). Theoretical mechanisms involved in disclosure: From inhibition to self-regulation. In I. Nyklicek, L. R. Temoshok & A. J. J. M. Vingerhoets (Eds.), Emotional expression and health: Advances in theory, assessment and clinical applications (pp. 43-60). London: Brunner-Routledge.
   Helgeson, V. S., Novak, S. A., Lepore, S. J., & Eton, D. T. (2004). Spouse social control efforts: Relations to health behavior and well-being among men with prostate cancer. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 21, 53-68.
   Feldman, P., Cohen, S., Hamrick, N., & Lepore, S. J. (2004). Psychological stress, appraisal, emotion and cardiovascular response in a public speaking task. Psychology & Health, 19, 353-368.
   Lepore, S. J., Helgeson, V. S., Eton, D., & Schulz, R. (2003). Improving quality of life in men with prostate cancer: A randomized controlled trial of group education interventions. Health Psychology, 22, 443-452.