Zachary Meehan

Education

• Ph.D. in Psychology, University of Delaware (2025)
  Dissertation: A Meta-Analysis of Susceptibility to Peer Influence Effects in Adolescence
• M.A. in Psychology – Clinical Science, University of Northern Iowa (2019)
• B.S. in Psychology, Truman State University (2016)
  Minors: Biology & Statistical Methods
   

Biography

Zachary Meehan, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences and serves as Clinic Director of the Institute for Community Mental Health (ICMH-Clinic) at the University of Delaware. His work focuses on strengthening Delaware’s mental health workforce, developing evidence-based clinical training pipelines, and expanding access to care through academic-community partnerships. He is especially committed to improving the availability of high-quality services in low-income communities across metropolitan, suburban, and rural Delaware.

Dr. Meehan’s research bridges science and practice, with projects on school-based prevention, outcome monitoring in community clinics, and strategies to grow and sustain the state’s behavioral health workforce. Clinically, he is trained in evidence-based assessment and interventions for children, adolescents, and adults, with specializations in ADHD, peer relations, and stressor-related psychopathology.
 

Courses Regularly Taught

• PSYC683 Clinical Research Design
• PSYC681 Ethics & Clinical Practice
• PSYC207 Research Methods
• PSYC209 Measurement & Statistics
   

Representative Publications

Shadowen, N. L., Meehan, Z. M., Webb, C., Fowles, T., & Beveridge, R. M. (2023). Early intervention in youth psychosis: Novel approaches to understanding change. Psychiatry Research, 115269. 

Meehan, Z. M., & Shaffer, F. (2023). Adding core muscle contraction to wrist-ankle rhythmical skeletal muscle tension increases respiratory sinus arrhythmia and low-frequency power. Applied Psychophysiology and Biofeedback, 48, 127-134. 

Grassetti, S. N., Meehan, Z. M., Beveridge, R. M., Teachman, B.A., Stanton, A.G., Cooper, P. J., & Daniel, K. E. (2023). Evaluation of health service psychology graduate program “visit days” that target recruitment of underrepresented students. Training and Education in Professional Psychology, 17, 43-52.

Meehan, Z. M., Hubbard, J. A., Bookhout, M.K., Swift, L.E., Docimo, M., & Grassetti, S. N. (2023). School absenteeism and in-class avoidant behaviors mediate the link between peer victimization and academic outcomes. School Mental Health, 1-9. 

Meehan, Z. M., Hubbard, J. A., Moore, C. M., & Mlawer, F. (2022). Susceptibility to peer influence in adolescence: Associations between psychophysiology and behavior. Development & Psychopathology, 1-13. 

Shaffer, F., & Meehan, Z. M. (2022). An undergraduate program with heart: Thirty years of Truman HRV research. Applied Psychophysiology and Biofeedback, 1-10. 

Shaffer, F., Moss, D., & Meehan, Z. M. (2022). Rhythmic skeletal muscle tension increases heart rate variability at 1 and 6 contractions per minute. Applied Psychophysiology and Biofeedback, 1-10. 

Mlawer, F., Moore, C.C., Hubbard, J.A. & Meehan, Z. M. (2021). Pre-pandemic peer relations predict adolescents’ internalizing response to COVID-19. Research on Child and Adolescent Psychopathology (Formerly the Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology), 1-9. 

Meehan, Z. M., Hubbard, J. A., Grassetti, S. N., Docimo, M. A., Swift, L. E., & Bookhout, M. K. (2021). Using three reporters to identify pre-adolescent peer victims through latent profile analysis. Research on Child and Adolescent Psychopathology (Formerly the Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology), 1-12. 

Shaffer, F., Meehan, Z. M., & Zerr, C. L. (2020). A critical review of ultra-short-term heart rate variability norms research. Frontiers in Neuroscience, 14.