Amy Bohnert
Professor, Clinical & Developmental Psychology; Director of Clinical Training
Current Research Support
Evaluation of After-School Programming 8/1/13 - 7/31/28
Girls in the Game
Making a Difference in the Lives of Chicago Girls
Role: Principal Investigator
Through an ongoing partnership with a community-based program, Girls in the Game (GIG), this project seeks to evaluate the effect of an after-school program on health, well-being, and social and leadership skills among low-income, minority girls.
National Institute of Child Health & Development (NICHD) 8/15/25 - 4/30/30
National Institute of Health
Understanding Longitudinal Relationships between Sleep and Menstrual Pain in Adolescents
Role: Co-Investigator
This project examines relationships between sleep deficiency, menstrual pain and activity limitations during pubertal maturation. Sleep deficiency is a modifiable risk factor and characterization of its etiology will inform future clinical trials to test sleep interventions in adolescents with menstrual pain.
Education
Post-Doctorate Fellowship: Vanderbilt University
Ph.D.: Penn State University
Masters: Penn State University
Bachelors: University of Michigan
Research Interests
Dr. Bohnert is a Professor in Clinical and Developmental Psychology. Her work focuses on how various contexts may promote better outcomes among youth. Guiding themes of her research are emphasizing developmental transitions as points of reorganization, as well as conducting translatable work that can reduce health disparities among youth. Through collaborations across Chicago and the country, she utilizes principles of developmental science to examine health and well-being in children and adolescents, including several papers that characterize sleep and physical activity among girls during early adolescence. She also serves as a program evaluation consultant for the past 20 years designing and conducting multi-method evaluations to examine the effectiveness of after-school and summer programs, green schoolyards, as well as community-based initiatives to improve health and well-being among youth and families.
Courses Taught
Social Development
Wellness Center Practicum
General Psychology
Publications/Research Listings
Bryant, B.L, Burns, M. T. S., Tu, P.L. & Bohnert, A.M. (In press). Accelerating place-based scholarship in developmental science: Utilizing geocoded indices to capture neighborhood-level effects.
Roth, G. E., Jabaay, K. M., Silton, R. L., Tu, F. F., Walker, L. S., Bohnert, A. M., Kmiecik, M. J., & Hellman, K. M. (2026). Somatic symptoms before menarche: The role of parents and pain sensitivity. Journal of Early Adolescence. Advance online publication.
Weaver, R.G., Finnegan, O., White III, J.W., Kiely, K., Armstrong, B., Beets, M.W., Adams, E.L., Burkart, S., Savidge, M.C., Randolph, G., Culverhouse, J., Holmes, A., Sarzynski, M.A., Kaczynski, A.T., Bohnert, A., Moreno, J.P. (2026). The Weight of Summer: Children’s Fat and BMI Gain Accelerate during Summer. Childhood Obesity. Advance online publication. https://doi:.
Hagy, H. A., Bohnert, A. M., Smith, Z. R., De Hart, T., & Maki, P. M. (2026). Identifying and characterizing cognitive profiles in midlife women: a latent profile analysis. Journal of Clinical and Experimental Neuropsychology, 1–18. https://doi.org/10.1080/13803395.2026.2673085
Adornetti, J.P., Karbassi, N., Houlihan, A., Smith, E.M., Hagy, H & Bohnert, A.M. (2026). Sensory processing sensitivity: Associations with psychological well-being and sleep health among adolescent girls. Journal of Adolescence, 10.1002/jad.70122. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1002/jad.70122
Burns, M. T. S., Bohnert, A.M., Brooks, B., & Chen, E. (2025). A person-centered approach to examining out-of-school participation among Black adolescents and its association with racial and ethnic identity. Journal of Adolescence, 98, 2, 438-449. .
Hagy, H., Hidalgo-Lopez, E., Portengen, C., Holman, A., Schrepf, A., Clauw, D.J, Harte, S.E., Beltz, A., Bohnert, A.M. & Kaplan, C.M. (2025). The emergence of sex differences in nociplastic pain during adolescence: A conceptual developmentally-oriented biopsychosocial model and opportunities for further investigation. BMC Pediatrics, 25(1).
Hagy, H., Bohnert, A.M., Hellman, K.M. & Tu, F. F. (2025) Psychosocial predictors of dysmenorrhea stability and change: A two-year longitudinal study. Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology Canada, 48, 1.
Bohnert, A.M., Burns, M.T.S., Adornetti, J.P., Matthews, G.J., Tu, P. L., Chen, M.A., Moon, H., Kim, J., & Chen, E. (2025). Evaluating associations between neighborhood resources and sleep health among urban-dwelling Black adolescents. Sleep Health, 11(4), 423-430.
Rea, E.M., Bohnert, A.M. & Crowley, S. J. (2025). Napping, sleep, and affect in short and late-sleeping adolescents: An actigraphy and daily diary study. Sleep Health, 11, 317-325.
Adornetti, J.P., Wolfson, A.R., Bohnert, A.M. & Crowley, S.J. (2025). Clash between the circadian and school clocks: Implications for cognitive functioning and school-related behavior during adolescence. Current Sleep Medicine Reports, 11, 10 https://doi.org/10.1007/s40675-025-00321-3
DeZelar, M., Burns, M., Rosania, K. & Bohnert, A.M. (2024). Strategies for evaluating collective impact initiatives: Lessons learned from a community-academic partnership. American Journal of Evaluation, 45(4), 536-547. https://doi.org/10.1177/10982140241244782.
Tu, F. F., Hellman, K.M., Darnell, S.E., Harber, K.A., Bohnert, A. M., Singh, L., & Walker, L. (2024). A multidimensional appraisal of early menstrual pain experience. American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, 230, e1-550. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ajog.2024.01.017
Schrepf, A., Hellman, K., Bohnert, A. M., Williams, D. A. & Tu, F. F. (2023). Generalized sensory sensitivity is associated with comorbid pain symptoms: A replication study in women with dysmenorrhea. Pain, 164, 142-148.
Rea, E.M., Santiago, C.D., Nicholson, L.M., Egbert, A.H. & Bohnert, A.M. (2023). Sleep, affect, and emotion reactivity in first year college students: A daily diary study. International Journal of Behavioral Medicine, 30, 753–768. doi.org/10.1007/s12529-022-10127-0
Nicholson, L., Bohnert, A.M., & Crowley S. J. (2023). A developmental perspective on sleep consistency: Early childhood through emerging adulthood. Behavioral Sleep Medicine, 21, 97-116. doi.org/10.1080/15402002.2021.2024192
Rea, E.M., Nicholson, L.M., Mead, M.P., Egbert, A.H. & Bohnert, A.M. (2022). Daily relations between nap occurrence, duration, and timing and nocturnal sleep patterns in college students. Sleep Health, 8, 356–363. doi.org/10.1016/j.sleh.2022.05.002
Egbert, A.H., Stockdale, L.A., Nicholson, L., Sroka, A., Szpak, V., Morrison, R.G., Silton, R.,& Bohnert, A.M. (2022). Delicious and difficult to resist?: Inhibitory control differs after exposure to food and non-food commercials. Appetite, 173, 105993. doi: 10.1016/j.appet.2022.105993.
Loren, D. M., Rea, E. M., Harber, K. A., & Bohnert, A. M. (2022). Testing an ecological model of obesity among children: Identifying targets for intervention. Health Psychology, 41(3), 193-203. doi: 10.1037/hea0001163.
Bohnert, A.M., Nicholson, L.M., Mertz, L., Bates, C.R., & Gerstein, D. (2021). Green schoolyard renovations in low-income urban neighborhoods: Benefits to students, schools, and the surrounding community. American Journal of Community Psychology. doi: 10.1002/ajcp.12559. PMID: 34713911.
Gerstein, D. E., Bates, C., & Bohnert, A.M. (2021). Evaluating a green schoolyard transformation: A protocol using the RE-AIM framework. Children, Youth and Environments, 31, 187-198.
Nicholson, L., McLeod Loren, D., Reifenberg, A., Beets, M., & Bohnert, A.M. (2021). School as a protective setting for excess weight gain and child obesity: A meta-analysis. Journal of School Health, 91(1) 19-28. doi: 10.1111/josh.12972.
Bohnert, A.M., Loren, D. M., & Miller, A. (2020). Examining childhood obesity through the lens of developmental psychopathology: Framing the issues to guide best practices in research and intervention. American Psychologist, 75(2), 163-177. doi: 10.1037/amp0000581.