Roxane Cohen Silver

Silver has collaborated with other psychologists in studying people's mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic. The researchers examined stress and depressive symptoms that people began experiencing at the beginning of March 2020 and how they coped with the deaths of family members and friends caused by COVID-19. The researchers concluded that the media's continuous coverage of COVID-19 increased stress and anxiety. After studying how people dealt with depression and anxiety due to COVID-19, Silver and her colleagues concluded that technology use during this time helped promote mental health. The authors emphasized that reaching out to friends, family, and/or professionals to discuss emotions and thoughts were effective ways of coping and improving mental health during this time.

Silver received the American Psychological Association (APA) Award for Distinguished Service to Psychological Science in 2007. She was awarded the Public Advocacy Award from the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies in 2010 for “outstanding and fundamental contributions to advancing social understanding of trauma”. In 2011, she received both the American Psychological Association Award for Distinguished Contributions to Psychology in the Public Interest and the Award for Outstanding Service to the Field of Trauma Psychology (APA, Division 56, Trauma Psychology).

Silver received her B.A. degree in psychology with highest distinction and honors at Northwestern University in 1976. She continued her education at Northwestern, graduating in 1982 with a Ph.D. in social psychology. As an undergraduate and graduate student, Silver worked with Philip Brickman, whose suicide profoundly influenced her thinking about how people cope with traumatic events. Silver's dissertation, supervised by Camille Wortman, was titled Coping with an undesirable life event: A study of early reactions to physical disability.

Roxane Cohen Silver (born August 1955) is a social, health psychologist known for her work on personal, national, and international traumas and how people cope with these traumas. She holds the position of Vice Provost for Academic Planning & Institutional Research and Distinguished Professor of Psychological Science, Public Health, and Medicine at the University of California, Irvine.