Dr. Francesca Kassing in an Associate Professor and the Director of Clinical Training of the Clinical Psychology PsyD Program at California School of Professional Psychology at Alliant International University, Fresno. She is a licensed psychologist and has specialty experience and research interests in trauma and adversity, suicidality, LGBTQIA+ individuals, and child, adolescent, and young adult populations. Dr. Kassing received her M.A. and Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from the University of Alabama, and completed her doctoral internship at Augusta University/Medical College of Georgia and her postdoctoral fellowship at Baylor College of Medicine/Texas Children’s Hospital. She serves as a Co-Investigator for a multi-site, NIMH-funded study focused on treating suicidality in college students. She previously served as a co-chair of the Sexual Orientation and Gender Diversity Special Interest Group of the International Society of Traumatic Stress Studies and was awarded the Deborah L. Rhatigan Early Career Award for Excellence in Violence Research in 2019 for her work on polyvictimization and health outcomes among LGBTQIA+ populations.
Dr. Kassing’s research interests include trauma and adversity, minority stress and resilience among LGBTQIA+ populations, interventions to address posttraumatic stress and suicidality, and effectiveness and implementation-based mental health services research. Her current research explores adaptive treatment strategies to address suicidality in college students and mental health correlates of gender minority stress and resilience.
- Duke University, B.A.
- University of Alabama, M.A.
- University of Alabama, Ph.D.
- Drescher, C. F., Kassing, F., Mahajan, A., & Stepleman, L. M. (2023). "The impact of transgender minority stress and emotion regulation on suicidality and self-harm." Psychology & Sexuality, 14, 432-444. https://doi.org/10.1080/19419899.2023.2164867
- Dodd, C. G., Kassing, F., Alvis, L. A., Hill, R. M., & Kaplow, J. B., (2022). "Prevalence and correlates of externalizing behaviors among youth seeking treatment following trauma exposure." Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, Practice, and Policy, 5(Suppl 1), S20–S28. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/tra0001219
- Kassing, F., Lochman, J. E., Vernberg, E., & Hudnall, M., (2021). "Using crime data to assess longitudinal relationships between community violence and aggressive behavior among at-risk youth." The Journal of Early Adolescence, 42, 431-448.https://doi.org/10.1177/02724316211042941
- Kassing, F., Casanova, T., Griffin, J., Wood, E., & Stepleman, L. R., (2021). "The effects of polyvictimization on mental and physical health outcomes in an LGBTQ sample." Journal of Traumatic Stress, 34, 161-171. https://doi.org/10.1002/jts.22579
- Kassing, F., Alvis, L., Hill, R. M., Kaplow, J. B., (2021). "A person-centered approach to examining polytraumatization among traumatized and bereaved youth." Journal of Loss and Trauma, 26, 352-365. https://doi.org/10.1080/15325024.2020.1783105
- Kassing, F., Dodd, C. G., Palmer, L. E., Hill, R. M., (2020). "Comfort expressing emotions and suicide ideation: Evidence of indirect effects via perceived burdensomeness and thwarted belongingness", 26, 886-895. Archives of Suicide Research. https://doi.org/10.1080/13811118.2020.1841053
- McDonald, K., Vernberg, E., Lochman, J. E., Abel, M., Jarrett, M., Kassing, F., Powell, N., Qu, L., (2019). "Trajectories of tornado-related post-traumatic stress symptoms and pre-exposure predictors in a sample of at-risk youth." Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 87, 1003-1018.
- Lochman, J. E., Boxmeyer, C., Kassing, F., Powell, N., & Stromeyer, S., (2019) "Cognitive-behavioral interventions for youth at-risk for conduct problems: Future directions." Journal of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology, 48, 799-810.
- Kassing, F., Godwin, J., Lochman, J. E., Coie, J. D., & Conduct Problems Prevention Research Group (2018). "Using early childhood behavior problems to predict adult convictions." Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 47, 765-778.
- Kassing, F., Lochman, J. E., & Glenn, A. L, (2018). "Autonomic functioning in reactive versus proactive aggression in children: The influential role of parenting." Aggressive Behavior, 44, 524-536.