Heather Sears

Not considering graduate supervision for the 2027 intake.

My research focuses on various aspects of adolescents' development. My primary interest is adolescents' help-seeking behavior, particularly how adolescents' gender and individual and relational characteristics combine to predict this behaviour, and how parents, siblings, and peers socialize adolescents to use help seeking to manage problems.

I am also interested in families with adolescents, particularly how parents and youths work through normative events (e.g., talking about sexual health) and non-normative events (e.g., a parent's illness with cancer).

Education

• BSc (Hons), Acadia University;
• MA & PhD, University of Victoria;
• Licensed Psychologist, New Brunswick

Selected publications

Byers, E.S., Sears, H.A., & Bockaj, A. (2025). Congruence and discrepancies in mothers’ and adolescents’ reports of the extent of sexual communication. Sex Education. Advance online publication.

Byers, E.S., El-Khoury, A., & Sears, H.A. (2024). How do mothers prepare for sexual health discussions with their young adolescents? Sex Education, 24(1), 45-60.

Sears, H.A., & MacIntyre, L.J. (2023). Adolescents’ individual characteristics and intentions to seek help from types of peers and parents. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 40(7), 2227-2251.

Sears, H.A. (2020). Adolescents’ first choice for help: Distinguishing characteristics of youth who select a friend, a parent, or no one. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 49(8), 1731-1746.

Presentations

Sears, H. A., & Watson, K. T. (2026, June). Bottling it up, going it alone, and playing nice: Gender norms and youth’s help seeking from informal helpers. Poster presented at Development 2026 – a Canadian Conference on Developmental Psychology, Montreal, QC.

Sears, H. A., & Webber, S. A. (2026, June). Understanding variation in adolescents’ reluctance to seek help. Poster presented at Development 2026 – a Canadian Conference on Developmental Psychology, Montreal, QC.

Sears, H. A. (2026, April). Evaluating different interpretations of adolescents’ moderate intentions to seek help from their mother and their father. Poster presented at the Biennial Meeting of the Society for Research on Adolescence, Toronto, ON.

Levins, N., & Sears, H.A. (2025, June). Different relationship features predict adolescents seeking help from a parent and a close friend. Poster presented at the Annual Meeting of the Canadian Psychological Association, St. John’s, NL.

Sears, H.A., & Levins, H.A. (2025, June). Parent coaching and parent-adolescent relationship quality interact to predict adolescents seeking help from their mother and their father. Poster presented at the Annual Meeting of the Canadian Psychological Association, St. John’s, NL.

Teaching

• Undergraduate courses:
  • Adolescent Development
  • Child and Adolescent Psychopathology
  • Social Development
• Graduate courses:
  • Lifespan Psychopathology
  • Child and Adolescent Development

Professional awards

2023 UNB Arts Faculty Teaching Award