Commentary: Dennis D. Drotar Distinguished Research Award: Reflections on People and Contexts Influencing a Research Career

Abstract

Journal of Pediatric Psychology Advance Access published September 16, 2015 Journal of Pediatric Psychology, 2015, 1–7 doi: 10.1093/jpepsy/jsv089 Commentary Commentary: Dennis D. Drotar Distinguished Research Award: Reflections on People and Contexts Influencing a Research Career Jan L. Wallander, P H D All correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Jan L. Wallander, P H D, Psychological Sciences, University of California, Merced, 5200 North Lake Road, Merced, CA 95340, USA. E-mail: jwallander@ucmerced.edu Received August 4, 2015; revisions received August 18, 2015; accepted August 19, 2015 I am deeply honored to receive the 2015 Dennis D. Drotar Distinguished Research Award by the Society of Pediatric Psychology (SPP). Indeed, I am humbled that my colleagues believed that my research contribu- tions are worthy of this award, named after probably the most impactful and productive pediatric psychol- ogy researcher in our history. Given that I suspect that the SPP Executive Committee made this decision based on my career contribution, I want to take this opportunity to reflect over my career (but please note, albeit 30þ years in the making, it is not over yet), not only in terms of what I did, but what influenced its evolution. It is not that I think my career path represents the model for achieving some success, even if success can be uniformly defined. Rather, there are numerous paths that can lead to success in a research career, but the direction I followed likely represents a less obvious one. That is, the prototypical research career path is one devoted to a relatively narrowly defined issue or problem, which is doggedly pursued through study af- ter study, evolving over years. This is certainly a most admirable path, because when well done, it is likely to lead to clarity of understanding about that issue and well-recognized expertise and accolades for the researcher. However, my path cannot be defined by strategic pursuit of a well-articulated goal. The major reason for this, aside probably from my easily getting bored, is that my research development has been largely influ- enced by the people and contexts I encountered. Today, I define my research as focused on the quality of life (QOL) of vulnerable children, but this distilla- tion evolved over my career. Early People and Contexts I spent my formative years, as they say, growing up in Sweden. As a bastion of equality and solidarity, this undoubtedly influenced my turning my research in more recent years toward the incredible injustice we see in the disparities in QOL, health, and well-being among different groups of children (to which I will re- turn later). I came to the United States as an exchange student in High School and later returned to Ashland, Ohio to attend Ashland University. There I was extremely fortunate to be taken under the wing of probably the only research-intensive pro- fessor at this small liberal arts college, Aaron Roy. Gratefully, I know that without him entering my life at that time, I would not be where I am today. Somehow, spending 3 years in a dark room running his rats through mazes instilled in me a passion for the research enterprise. And experiencing what he did on a daily basis, as well as the broader learning environ- ment of an American college, led to my discovery, “Wow, you can get paid to be a life-long student.” Consequently, I wanted to become a professor, which in my view is the best job ever. I would choose this ca- reer over again, without a doubt. Fortunately one (and only one) PhD program saw some potential in me, bringing me to Purdue University. Even though this was a hotbed in the 1970s for pediatric psychology training, I had absolutely no interest in this, indeed I had no professional interest in children. Yet, around me were fellow graduate stu- dents, such as Annette La Greca, Michael Roberts, and others, who embraced this new area and, unknowingly, left some positive trace in my brain associated with C The Author 2015. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Society of Pediatric Psychology. V All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com Downloaded from http://jpepsy.oxfordjournals.org/ at University of California, Merced on September 17, 2015 Psychological Sciences and Health Sciences Research Center, University of California, Merced