Summary of Research Interests
The research of faculty in the department addresses significant social issues encountered by individuals and families. Examples of research currently in progress include:
- Adolescent gender, grief, and sexualities
- Adolescent risk, resiliency, and developmental issues
- Adolescent social competence, development, emerging adulthood
- Behavioral risks
- Child care work force issues
- Contexts of early development, particularly in family and child care settings
- Culture and women's social construction of relationships and self
- Custodial fathers
- Divorce and remarriage
- Ethnically diverse elders
- Evaluation of parenting education programs
- Family and domestic violence
- Global families (Chinese, Kenyan, Mexican)
- Grief and loss: Family, the media, and international perspectives
- Influence of the home and child care environments on children’s language and literacy skills
- Intergenerational relationships
- Non-traditional college student learning
- Parent-youth relations
- Physical and psychological health among elders
- Progressive models of early childhood education and their impact on child development
- School-based family counseling
- Sleep patterns of young children
- Social development in the later years
- Substance abuse among elders
- Theoretical and methodological issues in the study of relationships
- Youth violence and suicide
For a detailed directory, visit the Faculty and Staff webpage.