Sigan Hartley100 Women Distinguished Chair in Human Ecology | Professor of Human Development & Family Studies

My research seeks to promote health and well-being in individuals with developmental disabilities and their families across the life course. My research focuses on developmental disabilities such as autism spectrum disorder, Down syndrome, and fragile X syndrome. I am interested in understanding how biological, cognitive, and behavioral factors interact with the environmental context, including the family, support services, and broader community, to contribute to health and well-being in children and adults with developmental disabilities and their parents. My research employs multifaceted methodologies (e.g., daily diaries, medical and public record reviews, observational coding systems, physiological measures, biological markers), using a range of analytic approaches (e.g., multilevel longitudinal modeling and survival analyses).

Selected Publications

Piro-Gambetti, B., Greenlee, J. L., Hickey, E., Lorang, E., & Hartley, S. L. (2023). Parental Depression Symptoms and Internalizing Mental Health Problems in Autistic Children. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 53(6), 2373-2383. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-022-05518-x

Fleming, V., Helsel, B. C., Ptomey, L. T., Rosas, H. D., Handen, B., Laymon, C., Christian, B. T., Head, E., Mapstone, M., Lai, F., Krinsky-McHale, S., Zaman, S., Ances, B. M., Lee, J. H., Hartley, S. L., & the Alzheimer’s Biomarker Consortium–Down Syndrome Consortium. (2023). Weight loss and Alzheimer’s disease in Down syndrome. Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease, 91(3), 1215-1227. https://doi.org/10.3233/JAD-220865

Piro-Gambetti, B., Schworer, E. K., Handen, B., Glukhovskaya, M., & Hartley, S. L. (2023). Does Employment Complexity Promote Healthy Cognitive Aging in Down Syndrome? Journal of Intellectual Disabilities, epub ahead of print. https://doi.org/10.1177/17446295231169379.

Greenlee, J., Steilter, C., Piro-Gambetti, B., & Hartley, S. L. (2021). Trajectories of emotion dysregulation in children with autism spectrum disorder. Journal of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology, 50(6), 858-873. https://doi.org/10.1080/15374416.2021.1907752

Hartley, S.L., Handen, B. L., Devenny, D., Tudorasu, D., Piro-Gambetti, B., Zammit, M.D., Laymon, C. M., Klunk, W., Zaman, S., Cohen, A., & Christian, B. T. (2020). Cognitive indicators of transition to preclinical and prodromal stages of Alzheimer’s disease in Down syndrome. Alzheimer’s and Dementia: Diagnosis, Assessment and Disease Monitoring, 12(1), e12096. https://doi.org/10.1002/dad2.12096

For a full list of publications, see Hartley’s CV.

Featured Media

• American Psychological Association, Working with adults with developmental disabilities
• Wisconsin State Journal, ‘A lot of stress’: School closure strains families with children who have disabilities
• UW News, Weight loss may be early predictor of Alzheimer’s disease in Down syndrome