Dr. Hafetz's primary interests are in parenting and child and adolescent physical and mental health. She explores this topic in the areas of transportation safety (injury prevention) and separation and divorce.

She attended the University of Delaware, earning a BA in Psychology, and Fordham University, earning a PhD in Psychology (Applied Developmental). She completed her practicum training at The Children's Aid Society of New York focusing on the development and evaluation of health promotion programs for young children and their parents. She then spent two years in the non-profit sector developing and evaluating positive youth development programs for at-risk urban youth. Prior to joining the Department of Clinical and Health Psychology, she was an Assistant Professor at the University of Alabama at Birmingham from 2016-2019, and a scientist at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia's Research Institute and Division of Adolescent Medicine from 2008-2016.