Richard Stevick

Richard A. Stevick, professor emeritus of psychology at Messiah College, Mechanicsburg, Pa., has his doctorate from Texas Tech University. In addition to psychology, he has taught classes on Amish life over the past 25 years. The adolescent experience has been his major focus of research and writing. Besides covering all aspects of Amish youth, his most recent book, Growing Up Amish: The Rumspringa  Years (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2013), examines the implications of the “electronic Rumspringa,” that period when large numbers of teens venture into Facebook, Twitter, Spotify, and other popular electronic venues via their smartphones. Stevick has also published or presented papers nationally and internationally on Amish spirituality and on the influence of peers versus parents in acceptable or deviant youthful behavior. Since retiring, he has worked at Philhaven Hospital, a mental health facility that treats clients from the plain community in culturally sensitive ways. He has also been a consultant for an ongoing National Institute of Mental Health study on Amish children and youth with autistic tendencies or behaviors.

Contact information:
rstevick@messiah.edu
330-231-0373

Home address:
Box 209
Walnut Hills, OH 44687