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Contact
E-mail
hilld [at] chop.edu
Location - People View
Room 11-140

2716 South Street
Philadelphia, PA 19146
United States

Research Topics
Douglas L. Hill, PhD
Douglas L. Hill
Social Psychologist

Dr. Hill’s research interests include identifying strategies to help parents, children, and healthcare providers cope with stressful situations; coping skills in the context of serious illness; how parents develop new goals when a child’s health is declining; good parent beliefs of parents of seriously ill children; and changes in self-concept for parents caring for a child with a life-threatening illness.

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Bio

In his career as a social psychologist, Dr. Hill has focused on identifying strategies to help parents, children, and healthcare providers cope with stressful situations and health threats.

For the past five years, he has worked with Dr. Chris Feudtner at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia on research topics that apply social psychology to different aspects of pediatric palliative care and chronic pediatric illness including: hopeful thinking among parents of children with life-threatening illness, how parents develop new goals when a child’s health is declining; good parent beliefs of parents of seriously ill children; the well-being of siblings of children with life-threatening illness; and identifying pediatric patients who are unable to communicate.

In addition, Dr. Hill designed and implemented a behavioral weight loss intervention for overweight adolescents and their parents and he also helped implement a childhood obesity prevention intervention implemented in a pediatric primary care setting.

The underlying theme his research is that serious illness is frightening and, for many people, overwhelming. Providing quality medical care and information to patients and their families is necessary but not sufficient to improve their outcomes. Many patients, parents, and other family members need additional support to help them manage the stress, powerful emotions, and demands associated with negotiating with a serious illness and the healthcare system.

Education and Training

BA, Colby College (Psychology), 1994

MA, University of Maryland, College Park (Social Psychology), 1999

PhD, University of Maryland, College Park (Social Psychology), 2002

Titles and Academic Titles

Behavioral Researcher

Publication Highlights

Hill, D. L., Faerber, J. A., Li, Y., Miller, V. A., Carroll, K. W., Morrison, W., Hinds, P.S., Feudtner, C. Changes Over Time in Good-Parent Beliefs Among Parents of Children With Serious Illness: A Two-Year Cohort Study. J Pain Symptom Manage. 2019 Jan; 58(2): 190-197. doi:10.1016/j.jpainsymman.2019.04.018
Hill, D.L., Walter, J.K., Szymczak, J.E., DiDomenico, C., Parikh, S., Feudtner. C. Seven Types of Uncertainty when Clinicians Care for Pediatric Patients with Advanced Cancer. J Pain Symptom Manage. 2019 Jan; doi: 10.1016/j.jpainsymman.2019.08.010
Hill DL, Carroll KW, Snyder KJG, Mascarenhas M, Erlichman J, Patterson CA, Barakat LP, Feudtner C. Development and pilot testing of a coping kit for parents of hospitalized children. Acad Pediatr. 2018 Nov; doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.acap.2018.11.001 (In Press)
Hill DL, Walter JK, Casas JA, DiDomenico C, Szymczak JE, Feudtner C. The codesign of an interdisciplinary team-based intervention regarding initiating palliative care in pediatric oncology. Support Care Cancer. 2018 Sep; 26(9):3249-3256. PMID: 29627863
Hill DL, Nathanson PG, Carroll KW, Schall TE, Miller VA, Feudtner C. Changes in Parental Hopes for Seriously Ill Children. Pediatrics. 2018 Apr; 141(4). pii: e20173549. PMID: 29567813

Links of Interest