Biography
I grew up in Arizona, and after high school I came to BYU with plans to become a pediatrician. Along the way, I started to do research with BYU faculty and developed a passion for research that seeks to understand how human behavior is related to health and well-being. I changed course and went to graduate school at Purdue University. After finishing my Master's degree, studying how temperament and personality influence helping children's behaviors, my advisor left and I was forced to make a change. I decided to work for the State of Indiana Department of Child Services as a family case manager for a year and a half while applying to other PhD programs. Then I came back to BYU and completed my Ph.D. studying emotional regulation and perceptual development in young children, as well as how parental work roles influence health and well-being in the family. Next, I was a postdoctoral research fellow at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where I was mentored by Dr. Barbara Fiese, an expert in how daily family routines influence children's health and well-being. Following my postdoc, I returned to Purdue University as an assistant professor in Human Development and Family Sciences. In 2018, my family felt it was time to move closer to our extended families and back to the mountains. I was thrilled to return to BYU as a Psychology professor, and my family and I have loved being here!
Research Interests
My research program addresses the influence of daily routines and behaviors on health and well-being. Specifically, I am interested in how daily routines such as family mealtimes, bedtime routines, media use, and parental work schedules are associated with obesity, sleep problems, and hypertension in children and adolescents. I am also interested in identifying how physiological stress, psychological stress, and hormones influence the relationship between routines and health outcomes.
See professor Blake Jones's website at fhssfaculty.byu.edu.