jill holm-denoma
Lecturer/Clinical Associate, Clinical Child

Research Interests

My research focuses on the multi-level examination of eating disordered behaviors. Specifically, I assess cultural, psychosocial, personality, and biological variables relevant to restrictive syndromes (e.g., anorexia nervosa), bingeing/purging syndromes (e.g., bulimia nervosa), and obesity. By developing an understanding of the interplay of these factors, I hope to contribute meaningfully to the understanding of classification, etiology, maintenance, and treatment of eating disorders. My current research interests fall into the following areas:

• Developing an empirically-supported classification system of eating disorders and related syndromes using taxometric, latent profile, and latent class analyses
• Identifying multi-level risk factors for the development of eating disordered behaviors both among young Caucasian women and among traditionally understudied populations (e.g., members of ethnic minority groups, middle-aged women, men, etc.)
• Identifying risk factors of obesity across the lifespan, and exploring gender differences of the identified risk factors
• Determining which factors help and/or hinder mental health professionals from recognizing eating disorders in their patients

Clinical Interests

In line with the scientist-practitioner view, I believe that students benefit from learning how empiricism informs clinical work and vice versa. Each semester, I supervise graduate students who are working in the Child Study Center. Although I primarily supervise comprehensive assessment cases, I am also interested in providing supervision for therapy cases. In both therapy and assessment cases, I encourage students to use the relevant literature to select high quality measures and treatments, and to inform their case conceptualization. I also encourage students to collect data when engaging in clinical work because it allows them a) to continually refine their treatment approach with an individual client (an ideographic aim), and b) to pool data across clients and present results in peer-reviewed journal articles (a nomothetic aim). I approach the majority of my clinical work and supervision from a cognitive-behavioral orientation.

I also teach the Undergraduate Field Experiences in Clinical Settings course, which offers senior psychology majors the opportunity to work in a clinical mental health setting 10 - 15 hours per week.

Representative Publications

Editied Book:

Buckner, J., Castro, Y., Holm-Denoma, J., & Joiner, T. (2007). Mental Health Care for People of Diverse Backgrounds. Edited volume. Oxford: Radcliffe Publishing.

Peer-Reviewed Journal Articles:

Holm-Denoma, J., Scaringi, V., Gordon, K., Van Orden, K., & Joiner, T. (in press). Eating    Disorder Symptoms among College Varsity Athletes, Club Athletes, Independent Exercisers, and Non-Exercisers. International Journal of Eating Disorders.

Holm-Denoma, J., Gordon, K., & Joiner, T. (in press). The Classification of Eating Disorders: A review of the recent literature. Annual Review of Eating Disorders.

Holm-Denoma, J., Gordon, K., Donohue, K., Waesche, M., Castro, Y., Brown, J., Jakobsons, L., Merrill, K., Buckner, J., & Joiner, T. (in press). A Case for the Clinical Utility of Diagnostic Labels. Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology.

Holm-Denoma, J., Witte, T., Gordon, K., Herzog, D., Franko, D., Fichter, M., Quadfleig, N., & Joiner, T. (2008). Case Reports of Anorexic Women’s Deaths by Suicide as Arbiters Between Competing Explanations of the Anorexia-Suicide Link. Journal of Affective Disorders, 107, 231-236.

Holm-Denoma, J., Joiner, T., Vohs, K., & Heatherton, T. (2008). The "Freshman Fifteen" (The Freshman Five Actually): Predictors and Possible Explanations. Health Psychology, 27, S3-S9.

Gordon, K., Holm-Denoma, J., Fink, E., Smith, A., & Joiner, T. (2007). Taxometric Analysis: Introduction and Overview. International Journal of Eating Disorders, 40(S3), S35-S39.

Maner, J., Holm-Denoma, J., VanOrden, K., Gailliot, M., Gordon, K., & Joiner, T. (2006). Evidence for Attentional Bias in Women Exhibiting Bulimotypic Symptoms. International Journal of Eating Disorders, 39(1), 55-61.

Holm-Denoma, J., Gordon, K., Bardone, A., Vohs, K., Abramson, L., Heatherton, T.,& Joiner, T. (2005). A Test of an Interactive Model of Bulimic Symptomatology in Adult Women. Behavior Therapy, 36(4), 311-321.

Holm-Denoma, J., Lewinsohn, P., Gau, J., Joiner, T., Striegel-Moore, R., & Otamendi, A. (2005). Parents' Reports of the Body Shape and Feeding Habits of 36-Month Old Children: An Investigation of Gender Differences. International Journal of Eating Disorders, 38(3), 228-235.

Jill Holm-Denoma

Lecturer/Clinical Associate, Clinical Child
e-mail: jill.holm-denoma@psy.du.edu