https://medicine.ouhsc.edu/academic-departments Parent Page: Academic Departments id: 21552 Active Page: Research Faculty Profilesid:21580

Faculty

Elisabeth Ponce-Garcia, PhD

Elisabeth Ponce-Garcia, PhD

Associate Professor

Family Medicine Center Building
University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center
900 NE 10th Street
Oklahoma City, OK  73104

405-271-2370

Elisabeth Ponce-Garcia, PhD, is a developmental psychologist and her research focus is the life-span science of resilience. Dr. Ponce-Garcia has worked to train behavioral health professionals in developing personal resilience and in using resilience building strategies within their practice. Specifically, Dr. Ponce-Garcia has worked with the Department of Defense and the Army Substance Abuse Program (ASAP) to provide continuing education for behavior health clinicians, provided training for the Comanche Nation, Choctaw Nation, and the Sothern Plains Tribal Health Board, and worked with prevention agencies and community coalitions to build resilient communities and develop resilience within prevention specialists. Dr. Ponce-Garcia has taught courses in resilience, multi-cultural psychology, development, research methods, and learning at the graduate level in clinical programs to include school psychology, professional counseling, and marriage and family therapy programs.

Dr. Ponce-Garcia developed the Scale of Protective Factors (SPF) with a hierarchic structure measuring two cognitive/individual and two social/interpersonal factors of adult resilience. The SPF is included within the repository of resilience measures for public health professions by the Lee Kum Sheung Center for Health and Happiness at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. The scale has been replicated in multiple populations and is used in more than 13 countries. The psychometric properties of the SPF have been shown in multiple studies to outperform the historically used measures of adult resilience.

Within academic settings, the SPF is used to help identify strengths and deficits known to determine resilience. Strategies for supporting strengths and ameliorating areas of deficit have been shown to improve overall resilience and adaptation to chronic and acute stress.

Education:

PhD - Developmental Psychology, Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, 2014
MS - Developmental Psychology, Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, 2012
BS - Psychology, University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma, Chickasha, 2010

Clinical/Research Interests:

The relationship between risk and protective factors, social and cognitive development, and cultural factors in resilience during early and emerging adulthood.

Funding:

J. Herman, S. Crawford (PI). (2019-2023). Expansion and Enhancement of Medical School Curriculum to Increase Physicians in Underserved Oklahoma Sites. Award, $3,382,475. Health Resource & Services Administration (HRSA). Grant #: T99HP33558. E. Ponce-Garcia, Instructional Designer

Ponce-Garcia, E. (2020). Presidential Partners and Student Services Award, $1,180. In support of recruitment at the Southwestern Psychological Association conference. E. Ponce-Garcia, Primary Investigator

Madewell, A. N. & Ponce-Garcia, E. (2019). Presidential Partners and Student Services Award, $2,000. In support of the Oklahoma Network for the Teaching of Psychology conference. E. Ponce-Garcia, Primary Investigator

Ponce-Garcia, E. (2018). University travel grant, SOSU. $1,000. In support of research being presented at the Southwestern Psychological Association conference. E. Ponce-Garcia, Primary Investigator

Ponce-Garcia, E. (2018). S-STEM workshop travel award. National Science Foundation $1,500, (Houston, TX). E. Ponce-Garcia, Primary Investigator

Ponce-Garcia, E. & Calix, S. (2017). The Development of an Interpersonal Sexual Script Scale for Adult Heterosexual Women. Research Grant. Cameron University, $6,934, 1 year. E. Ponce-Garcia, Primary Investigator

Ponce-Garcia, E. & Calix, S. (2017). The Influence of Fathers Sexual Script Messages, Childhood Ecological Risk, and Warmth of Relationship with Father on adult daughter’s resilience. Research Grant. Cameron University, $4,798, 1 year. E. Ponce-Garcia, Primary Investigator

Ponce-Garcia, E. (2016). Providing Equipment for High Impact Learning in the Classroom: Innovative Instructional Grant. Cameron University, $1,116, 1 year. E. Ponce-Garcia, Primary Investigator

Ponce-Garcia, E. & Calix, S. (2015). Data Collection for Pilot and Feasibility Grant Application NIH. Cameron University, $500, 1 year. E. Ponce-Garcia, Primary Investigator

Select Publications:

  1. Ponce-Garcia E, McNeill C, Whaley G, Rohli RV, & Garrison MEB. (2023). The relationship between family and community resilience during the developmental transition of emerging adulthood. Journal of Social Science Research, Vol. 19
  2. Jordan EM, Thomas DG, & Ponce-Garcia E. (2020).  Infant social evaluations in response to unequal resource distribution. Children and Teenagers. 3, (2), 36-49. doi: 10.22158/ct.v3n2p36
  3. Madewell AN, Ponce-Garcia E, Bruno BD, Struck-Downen S, & Taylor H. (2019). An abbreviation of the Scale of Protective Factors: Resilience in a medical trauma sample. Current Psychology, doi: 10.1007/s12144-018-0110-6
  4. Ponce-Garcia E, Calix S, Madewell AN, Randell JA, et al. (2019). Through childhood relationship with grandparent, enculturation leads to resilience in Native American adults. Journal of Intergenerational Relationships. doi: 10.1080/15350770.2018.1535348
  5. Ponce-Garcia E. & Madewell AN. (2018). The Pursuit of Data: Using Exploratory and Confirmatory Factor Analyses and Collaboration to Develop a Measure of Adult Resilience as Early Career Researchers. SAGE Research Methods Cases. doi: 10.4135/9781526441027
  6. Ponce-Garcia E, Madewell AN & Brown ME. (2016). Resilience in men and women experiencing sexual assault or traumatic stress: Validation and replication of the Scale of Protective Factors. Journal of Traumatic Stress. 26(6), 537-545. doi: 10.1002/jts.22148
  7. Criss MM, Morris AS, Ponce-Garcia E & Cui L. (2016). Pathways to adaptive emotion regulation among adolescents from low-income families. Family Relations. 65(3), 517-529. doi: 10.1111/fare.12202
  8. Madewell AN, Ponce-Garcia E & Martin S. (2016). Data replicating the factor structure and reliability of commonly used measures of resilience: The Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale, Resilience Scale, and Scale of Protective Factors. NCHS Data in Brief. doi: 10.1016/j.dib.2016.08.001
  9. Madewell AN & Ponce-Garcia E. (2016). Assessing Resilience in Emerging Adulthood: The Resilience Scale (RS), Connor Davidson Resilience Scale (CD-RISC), and Scale of Protective Factors (SPF). Personality and Individual Differences, 97, 249-255. doi:10.1016/j.paid.2016.03.036
  10. Ponce-Garcia E, Madewell AN & Kennison MS. (2015). The development of the Scale of Protective Factors (SPF): Resilience in a violent trauma sample. Journal of Violence and Victims, 30(5), 735-55. doi: 10.1891/0886-6708
  11. Kennison SM & Ponce-Garcia E. (2012). The role of childhood relationships with older adults in reducing risk-taking by young adults. Journal of Intergenerational Relationships, 10(1), 22-23. doi: 10.1080/15350770.2012.645739