Education
Ph.D. West Virginia University, Psychology, 1989
M.A. West Virginia University, Psychology, 1988
B.A. The American University, Cairo, Egypt, Anthropology, Psychology, Sociology, 1984
Research Interest
• Sleep and Development
• Developmental Psychobiology
• Developmental Psychopathology
• Family Conflict
• Marital and Parent-Child Relationships
• Health Disparities
Courses Taught
Sleep and Development
Families from a Cross-Cultural Perspective
Marital Conflict and Child Adjustment
Accomplishments
2018 Nominated by Auburn University for the Southeastern Universities Research Association
Distinguished Scientist Award
2017 Research Advisory Board Advancement of Research and Scholarship Award, Auburn University
Research Projects
National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NIH)
Child Sleep as a Mechanism and Moderator in the Development of Health Disparities
Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NIH)
Family aggression and trajectories of adolescent adaptation: Bioregulatory effects
Selected Publications
El-Sheikh, M., & Kelly, R. J. (2017). Family Functioning and Children’s Sleep. Child Development Perspectives, 11, 264-269. DOI: 10.1111/cdep.12243
El-Sheikh, M., & Sadeh, A. (Eds.) (2015). Sleep and development: Advancing theory and research. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, 80, vii-215. doi: 10.1111/mono.12140
Hinnant, B., Erath, S. A., & El-Sheikh, M. (2015). Harsh parenting, parasympathetic activity, and development of delinquency and substance use. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 124, 137-151. doi: 10.1037/abn0000026
Kelly, R.J., & El-Sheikh, M. (2014). Reciprocal relations between children’s sleep and their adjustment over time. Developmental Psychology, 50, 1137-1147. doi: 10.1037/a0034501
El-Sheikh, M., Keiley, M., Erath, S., & Dyer, W., J. (2013). Marital conflict and growth in children’s
internalizing symptoms: The role of autonomic nervous system activity. Developmental
Psychology, 49, 92-108. doi: 10.1037/a0027703
