Publications & Presentations

This is a more academic look at some of my work when publishing in journal articles and presenting at conferences. You can download my resume here or email me for access to my digital portfolio.

Bri Hightower and Kelly Sheehan presenting “The Effects of Parent Confidence on Preschool Children's Informal STEM Activities and Media Use" at the 2019 Society for Research on Child Development Biennial meeting. Findings have been obscured, but be in touch if you'd like to learn more!

PUBLICATIONS

Katz, V., & Hightower, B. (2023). How Class Matters: Examining Working-Class Children’s Home Technology Environments From a Developmental Perspective. International Journal Of Communication, 17, 22. Retrieved from https://ijoc.org/index.php/ijoc/article/view/19734

Hightower, B., Sheehan, K.J., Lauricella, A.R. & Wartella E. (2021). “Maybe we do more Science than I had Initially Thought”: How Parental Efficacy Affects Preschool-Aged Children’s Science and Math Activities and Media Use. Early Childhood Education Journal. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10643-021-01231-z

Hightower, B., Sheehan, K., Lauricella, A., & Wartella, E. (2019). Exploring Parent Use of Early STEM Media to Inform Design for Children. Proceedings of the ACM Interaction Design for Children Conference (IDC 2019). https://doi.org/10.1145/3311927.3323124 Best Short Paper Honorable Mention Award

Hightower, B., Lovato, S., Davison, J., Wartella, E., & Piper, A. M. (2019). Haptic explorers: Supporting science journaling through mobile haptic feedback displays. International Journal of Human-Computer Studies, 122, 103-112. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhcs.2018.09.005

Sheehan, K. J., Hightower, B., Lauricella, A. R., & Wartella, E. (2018). Having a family member in a STEM career and exposure to STEM media as predictors of preschool-aged children’s science and math skills. European Journal of STEM Education, 3(3), 17. https://doi.org/10.20897/ejsteme/3877 

Wartella, E. A., Lovato, S. B., Pila, S., Lauricella, A. R., Echevarria, R., Evans, J., & Hightower, B. (2018). Digital media use by young children: Learning, effects and health outcomes. In C. K. Olson & E. Beresin (Eds.), Child and adolescent psychiatry and the media. 

Hurwitz, L. B., Lauricella, A. R., Hightower, B., Sroka, I., Woodruff, T. K., & Wartella, E. (2017). “When you’re a baby you don’t have puberty: Understanding of puberty and human reproduction in late childhood and early adolescence.” Journal of early adolescence, 37(7), 925-947. https://doi.org/10.1177/0272431616642323

Conference Presentations

Hightower, B. (2019, May). “Navigating tough topic television: Factors influencing related parent-adolescent communication.” Research escalator to be presented at the International Communication Association Conference, Washington, D.C.

Hightower, B., Sheehan, K., Lauricella, A., & Wartella, E. (2019, April). “‘Maybe we do more science than I had initially thought’: The effects of parent confidence on preschool children’s informal STEM activities and media use.” Paper presented at the American Educational Research Association Annual Meeting, Toronto, Canada.  

Hightower, B., Sheehan, K., Lauricella, A., & Wartella, E. (2019, March). “The effects of parent confidence on preschool children’s informal STEM activities and media use.” Poster presented at the Society for Research on Child Development Biennial Meeting, Baltimore, MD.  

Hightower, B., Sheehan, K., Lauricella, A., & Wartella, E. (2018, May). “How parents support early math and science learning: The role of media and parent comfort.” Session presented at the International Communication Association, Prague, Czech Republic. 

Rosenfeld, D., Hightower, B., Llorente, C., & Hupert, N. (2016, July). “Supports for Teachers, Parents, and Children in the Use of Digital Media for Mathematics Learning.” Session presented at the Administration for Children and Families National Research Conference on Early Childhood, Washington, D.C.

Bookser, B., Gerard, S. N., Gutierrez, J., Hightower, B., & Sharifnia, E. (2016, July). “Texting to Support Early Learning Opportunities at Home.” Session presented at the Administration for Children and Families National Research Conference on Early Childhood, Washington, D.C. 

Hightower, B., Gutierrez, J., & Sharifnia, E. (2015, December). “Conducting a Home Study: Successful Family Engagement Methods.” Session presented at the National Head Start Parent & Family Engagement Conference, San Diego, CA. 

Hurwitz, L. B., Hightower, B., Lauricella, A. R., & Wartella, E. (2015, March). “When you’re a baby you don’t have puberty: Understanding of puberty and human reproduction in late childhood and early adolescence.” Poster presented at the Society for Research on Child Development Biennial Meeting, Philadelphia, PA.  

Rosenfeld, D., Hupert, N., Llorente, C., Moorthy, S., Jo, I. Y., Gerard, S., Kamdar, D., & Hightower, B. (2015, March). “Media-supported early math learning: Results of a randomized control trial.” Poster presented at the Society for Research on Child Development Biennial Meeting, Philadelphia, PA.  

Gutierrez, J., Hightower, B., Bookser, B., & Lemley, B. (2015, March). “Pre-school centered design: Creating and selecting websites to suit the cognitive development of preschoolers.” Poster presented at the Society for Information Technology and Teacher Education Meeting, Las Vegas, NV. 

Online

Sheehan, K., & Hightower, B. (2018, February 14). How parents can use media to support their children’s STEM learning [Web log post]. Retrieved from http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/parenting4digitalfuture/2018/02/14/using-media-to-support-childrens-stem-learning/ 

Hightower, B. (2015, November 19). Using texting to encourage participant engagement and retention [Web log post]. Retrieved from http://ltd.edc.org/using-texting-encourage-participant-engagement-and-retention.  

Bri Hightower presenting “How parents support early math and science learning: The role of media and parent comfort” at the 2018 International Communication Association conference. Implications have been obscured, but be in touch if you'd like to learn more!