Home > Research > Research Staff > Kathrin Boerner PhD

Senior Research Associate
kboerner@lighthouse.org

Dr. Boerner joined the Arlene R. Gordon Research Institute of Lighthouse International in 2000, shortly after receiving her Ph.D. in Life-Span Developmental Psychology from the Free University Berlin, Germany. While completing her dissertation entitled "Family Dynamics following Parental Loss", she also held the position of a Research Fellow at Massachusetts General Hospital/ Harvard Medical School.

At Lighthouse International, she has since served as Co-Investigator and Project Director on two five-year longitundal studies; one study funded by the National Institute on Aging (NIA) on driving and vision loss in later life, and the other funded by the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) examining the strategies used by older persons with visual impairment to balance and rebalance control in daily life.

In addition, Dr. Boerner was the Principal Investigator of a completed NIMH funded study on vision-related disability, coping and mental health in mid- versus late life, as well as of a foundation-funded project on life goals and rehabilitation among younger persons with vision loss. She is also currently the Principal Investigator of a NIMH funded two-year study on coping with disability in midlife.

Next to her role as Research Associate at Lighthouse International, Dr. Boerner served as an Adjunct Professor at the Department of Psychology, Hunter College, CUNY, from 2002-2003. She also continues to work on the topic of coping with loss in the context of bereavement.

Interests:

Adaptation to major life changes involving loss and decline in adulthood, with a focus on functional loss/chronic disability as well as bereavement in mid- and later life; the role of personal and social resources in the adaptation process.

Journal Publications:

Boerner, K., & Silverman, P. R. (2001). Gender specific coping patterns in widowed parents with dependent children. Omega: Journal of Death and Dying, 43(3), 201-216.

Horowitz, A., Boerner, K., & Reinhardt, J. P. (2002). Psychosocial aspects of driving transitions in elders with low vision. Gerontechnology, 1, 262-273.

Silverman, P. R., Baker, J., Cait, C. A., & Boerner, K. (2002-2003). The effects of negative legacies on children's adjustment after parental death. Omega: Journal of Death and Dying, 64, 359-376.

Boerner, K., & Heckhausen, J. (2003). To have and have not: Adaptive bereavement by transforming mental ties to the deceased. Death Studies, 27(3/April), 199-226.

Boerner, K., & Reinhardt, J. P. (2003). Giving while in need: Support provided by disabled older adults. Journal of Gerontology: Social Sciences, 58B(5), S297-S304.

Horowitz, A., Reinhardt, J. P., Boerner, K., & Travis, L. (2003). The influence of health, social support quality, and rehabilitation on depression among disabled elders. Aging & Mental Health, 7(5), 342-350.

Reinhardt, J. P., Boerner, K, & Benn, D. (2003). Predicting individual change in received support over time among chronically impaired older adults. Psychology & Aging, 18(4), 770-779.

Boerner, K. (2004). Adaptation to disability among middle-aged and older adults: The role of assimilative and accommodative coping. Journal of Gerontology: Psychological Sciences, 59(1), P35-P42.

Boerner, K., Reinhardt, J. P., Horowitz, A., & Raykov, T. (2004). Stability and change in social negativity in later life: Reducing received while maintaining initiated negativity. Journal of Gerontology: Social Sciences, 59(4), S230-S237.

Boerner, K., Schulz, R., & Horowitz, A. (2004) Positive aspects of caregiving and adaptation to bereavement. Psychology and Aging., 19(4), 668-675.

Travis, L. A., Boerner, K., Reinhardt, J. P., & Horowitz, A. (2004). Exploring functional disability in older adults with low vision. Journal of Visual Impairment and Blindness, 98(9), 534-545.

Boerner, K., Wortman, C. B., & Bonanno, G. (2005). Resilient or at risk? A four-year study of older adults who initially showed high or low distress following conjugal loss. Journal of Gerontology: Psychological Sciences, 60B(2), P67-P73.

Boerner, K., & Cimarolli, V. (2005). Optimizing rehabilitation for adults with visual impairment: attention to life goals and their links to well-being. Clinical Rehabilitation, 19 (7), 790-798.

Cimarolli, V. R., & Boerner, K. (2005). Social support and well being in adults with visual impairment. Journal of Visual Impairment and Blindness, 99(9), 521-534.

Horowitz, A., Reinhardt, J. P., & Boerner, K. (2005). The effect of rehabilitation on depression among visually disabled older adults. Aging & Mental Health, 9(6), 563-570.

Reinhardt, J. P., Boerner, K., & Horowitz, A. (2006). Good to have but not to use: Differential impact of perceived and received support on well-being. Journal of Personal and Social Relationships, 23(1), 117-129.

Boerner, K., Reinhardt, J. P., & Horowitz, A. (2006). The effect of rehabilitation use on coping patterns over time among older adults with age-related vision loss. Clinical Rehabilitation, 20(6),478-487.

Boerner, K., Wang, S., & Cimarolli, V. R. (2006). The impact of functional loss: Nature and implications of life goals. Journal of Loss & Trauma, 11, 265-287.

Cimarolli, V. R., Boerner, K., & Wang, S. (2006). Life goals in vision rehabilitation: Are they addressed and how? Journal of Visual Impairment and Blindness, 100(6), 343-352.

Schulz, R., Boerner, K., Shear, K., Zhang, S., Gitlin, L. N. (2006). Predictors of complicated grief among dementia caregivers: A prospective study of bereavement. The American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, 14(8), 650-8.

Boerner, K., & Jopp, D. (in press). Improvement/maintenance and reorientation as central features of coping with major life change and loss: Contributions of three life-span theories. Human Development.

Book chapters and other publications:

Boerner, K., & Wortman, C. B. (1998). Grief and loss. In H. Friedman (ed.), Encyclopedia of mental health, (pp. 289-300). New York: Academic Press.

Boerner, K., & Wortman, C. B. (2001). Bereavement. In N. J. Smelser & P. B. Baltes (Eds.-in-Chief), International encyclopedia of the social and behavioral sciences (pp. 1151-1155). Oxford: Elsevier Science.

Boerner, K. (2003). Perspectives on Bereavement. In J. R. Miller, R. M. Lerner, L. B. Schiamberg, & P. M. Anderson (Eds.), Human ecology: An encyclopedia of children, families, communities, and environments, (pp. 70-74). Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-Clio.

Boerner, K. (2003). The importance of compensatory strategies to maintain quality of life. Aging & Vision, 15(2), 4-5.

Boerner, K., Horowitz, A., Reinhardt, J. P., & Brennan, M. (2004). Coping behavior and mental health in elders with vision loss: Preliminary findings from a longitudinal study. Maximizing Human Potential, 12(2), pp. 3, 7.

Boerner, K. (2005). Chronic disability in old age. In C. B. Fisher & R. M. Lerner (Eds.), Encyclopedia of applied developmental science, (pp. 252-254). Thousand Oaks: Sage.

Boerner, K., & Schulz, R. (2006). The role of positive aspects of caregiving in adaptation to bereavement. In B. Vellas, L. J. Fitten, H. Feldman, E. Giacobini, M. Grundman, B. Winblad, & A. Kurz (Eds.), Research and Practice in Alzheimer's Disease and Cognitive Decline, Vol. 11 (pp. 332-335). Paris: Serdi Publisher.

Wortman, C. B., Boerner, K. (2006). Reactions to the death of a loved one: Myths of coping versus scientific evidence. In H. S. Friedman, & R. C. Silver (Eds.), Foundations of Health Psychology, (pp. 285-324).. Oxford University Press.

Bonanno, G. A., Boerner, K., & Wortman, C. B. (in press). Trajectories of grieving. In M. Stroebe, Hansson, R., Schut, H., & Stroebe, W., Handbook of Bereavement Research and Practice: 21st Century Perspectives. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association Press.

Schulz, R., Boerner, K, & Hebert, R. S. (in press). Caregiving and bereavement. In M. Stroebe, Hansson, R., Schut, H., & Stroebe, W., Handbook of Bereavement Research and Practice: 21st Century Perspectives. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association Press.