Heather Littleton, Ph.D.

Dr. Littleton is a Professor of Psychology at UCCS and Director of Research Operations at the Lyda Hill Institute for Human Resilience. She received her PhD in Psychology from Virginia Tech in 2004. She completed her predoctoral internship at the Boston Consortium in Clinical Psychology and a postdoctoral fellowship in Women’s Health/Clinical Health Psychology at the University of Texas Medical Branch. Prior to joining the Lyda Hill Institute for Human Resilience, Dr. Littleton was a Professor of Psychology at East Carolina University in North Carolina where she served as a core faculty member in the Clinical Health Psychology doctoral program from 2008 to 2020.

• Ph.D., Psychology, Virginia Tech
• M.S., Psychology, Virginia Tech
• B.A., Psychology, Clemson University

Dr. Littleton’s work spans clinical, health, social, and trauma psychology. Much of her work has examined the role of social cognitive factors, including coping behaviors, social support, disclosure responses, and attributions, in adjustment following trauma. She has primarily focused on the experiences of survivors of sexual assault, but she also has conducted research among survivors of mass shootings, natural disasters, and intimate partner violence.

In more recent years, Dr. Littleton has been interested in leveraging technology to deliver efficacious intervention and prevention programming, as well as to assess victimization risk behavior and adjustment among trauma survivors. She developed an online asynchronous therapist-facilitated program for sexual assault survivors with PTSD, the From Survivor to Thriver program. She is also the lead developer of the Healthy Families Bright Futures program, an online group intimate partner violence and alcohol use prevention program for LGBTQ+ youth and their families.

Finally, several of Dr. Littleton’s more recent projects have evaluated how experiences with discrimination at the individual and institutional levels affect sexual, gender, and racial/ethnic minority individuals’ vulnerability to, and recovery from, violence.

Dr. Littleton has published over 100 peer-reviewed journal articles and received funding for her research from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, the National Institute of Mental Health, and the National Science Foundation. She currently serves as co-editor of the Journal of Aggression, Maltreatment, and Trauma, and on the editorial boards of the Journal of Traumatic Stress, Psychology of Women Quarterly, and Psychology of Violence. She is a Fellow of Division 35 (Psychology of Women) of APA.

Dr. Littleton’s research lab interests include the following:

• Examining the role of social cognitive factors, including coping behaviors, social support, disclosure responses, and attributions, in adjustment following trauma
• The experiences of survivors of sexual assault, mass shootings, natural disasters, and intimate partner violence
• Leveraging technology to deliver efficacious intervention and prevention programming, as well as to assess victimization risk behavior and adjustment among trauma survivors
• How experiences with discrimination at the individual and institutional levels affects sexual, gender, and racial/ethnic minority individuals’ vulnerability to, and recovery from, violence

https://resilience.uccs.edu/research/research-labsprojects/dr-heather-littletons-lab

1. Littleton, H., Edwards, K., Lim, S., Wheeler, L., Chen, D., Huff, M., Sall, K. E., Siller, L., & Mauer, V. A. (in press). Examination of the multilevel sexual stigma model of intimate partner violence risk among LGBQ+ college students: A prospective analysis across eighteen institutions of higher education. Journal of Sex Research.

2. Littleton, H., Ricca, B., Higgins, M., Zamundu, A., Dolezal, M., Allen, A. B., & Benight, C. C. (in press). Evaluating the dynamic interrelations among coping self-efficacy, coping behaviors, and PTSD symptoms: Analysis using mixed methods EMA data. Journal of Aggression, Maltreatment and Trauma

3. Dolezal, M., Decker, M., & Littleton, H. (2024). The sexual scripts of transgender and gender 
nonconforming emerging adults: A thematic analysis. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 48, 271-289.

4.   Littleton, H., McConnell, A., Messman, T. L., & Layh, M. (2021). Typologies of rape victimization among women attending college: A latent class analysis. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 45(2), 229-242.

5. Littleton, H. L., Grills, A. E., Layh, M., & Rudolph, K. (2017). Unacknowledged rape and re-
victimization risk: Examination of potential mediators. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 41, 437-450.

6. Littleton, H. L., Grills, A. E., Schoemann, A., Drum, K., & Dodd, J. S. (2016). From Survivor to Thriver: Results of an RCT of a therapist-facilitated online intervention for rape victims.  Journal of Anxiety Disorders, 43, 41-51.

7. Littleton, H. L., & Ullman, S. E. (2013).  PTSD symptomatology and hazardous drinking as risk factors for sexual assault re-victimization: Examination in European American and African American women. Journal of Traumatic Stress, 26, 1-9.

8. Littleton, H. L. (2010).  The impact of social support and negative disclosure reactions on sexual assault victims: A cross-sectional and longitudinal investigation. Journal of Trauma and Dissociation, 11, 210-227.

9. Littleton, H. L., Axsom, D., & Grills-Taquechel, A. E. (2009).  Adjustment following the mass shooting at Virginia Tech: The roles of resource loss and gain. Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, Practice, and Policy, 1, 206-219.

10. Littleton, H. L., & Radecki Breitkopf, C. (2006). Coping with the experience of rape. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 30, 106-116.
 

Heather L. Littleton