The Child Study Center offers a CSC Small Research Grants Program to provide research support for CSC faculty affiliates across the university. The CSC Small Research Grants program supports faculty research activities that will advance innovative and programmatic research of high scientific merit and contribute to faculty competitiveness for external funding in areas of the CSC mission and goals. Awards are competitive and fund research activities such as pilot studies, preparation of research materials, travel costs for research purposes, participant payments, consultant honoraria, wages for research assistants, or resources, equipment, or software needed for research. Travel to professional meetings and publication costs are not allowable. A call for applications goes out each spring. You can view the most recent application here. For information on submitting a proposal or questions, please contact Laureen Teti at Lot1@psu.edu.
See below for a list of previous recipients.
2026-2027 Awardees
Alaina Pearce, Ph.D., Assistant Research Professor, Health and Human Development. “Evaluating Open Human Subjects Data to Advance Child and Behavioral Research” Due to the ‘reproducibility crisis’, there has been growing support for open and transparent scientific practices. The adoption of these practices has been hastened by the Office of Science and Technology Policy, which issued a memorandum in 2022 requiring federal agencies to develop policies ensuring research data are made freely available to the public at time of publication. While ethically shared, high quality data can reduce barriers and save researchers time and resources, poorly documented or curated data can pose significant ethical risks. We are conducting two studies to better understand the landscape of open human subject data: 1) systematic evaluation of researcher-published data and 2) a case study for publishing child and adult behavioral data. Together, these studies will support an application to the Institute of Museum and Libraries Services, which will focus on developing tools to support child and behavioral researchers publish ethical, high quality research data.
Janette Watkins, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Kinesiology. “Lion Tracks: A Pilot Study of Real-Time Behavioral and Emotional Dynamics Within Mother–Child Dyads” Anxiety in childhood is increasingly influenced by daily health behaviors including physical activity, sleep, and digital-media exposure, yet current research rarely captures how these factors dynamically interact within family systems across daily life. Mothers play a central role in shaping children’s daily routines, emotional regulation, and health behaviors through modeling, shared environments, and dyadic behavioral synchrony, suggesting that maternal behaviors and emotional states may meaningfully influence children’s momentary anxiety and coping patterns. Lion Tracks is a prospective observational pilot study designed to examine real-time behavioral and emotional dynamics within mother–child dyads using wearable monitoring and ecological momentary assessment (EMA). The project has two primary aims: (1) evaluate the feasibility and acceptability of integrating continuous wearable monitoring and EMA within mother–child dyads, and (2) explore temporally ordered associations among health behaviors, physiological regulation, cognitive functioning, and momentary anxiety within and across dyads. Particular emphasis will be placed on understanding how maternal health behaviors, emotional functioning, and behavioral modeling correspond with children’s physical activity, sleep, digital-media use, and anxiety across daily life.
Weimiao Zhou, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Communication Arts and Sciences. “Revisiting Family Mediation in the Digital Age: A Family Systems Perspective on Digital Parenting and Sibling Influence on Youth Technology Use” This exploratory qualitative project seeks to theorize the concept of family mediation in the digital age, defined as the ways parents and siblings manage, guide, or influence adolescents’ engagement with media and technologies (for entertainment, communication, and educational use). Informed by the theory of planned behavior and family systems theory, we propose that youths’ digital media use is shaped not only by single parent’s regulation strategies but also by influences from the broader family system, the primary socialization institution, which can shape youths’ attitudes, perceived norms, and perceived behavioral control and intention in the digital use behavior context. This project will reconceptual family mediation to inform a digital use socialization scale development and quantitatively test its linkages to adolescents’ sleep health. Outcomes from this proposed project will be a steppingstone for external grant applications focusing on family socialization of youth digital engagement and physical health.
2025-2026 Awardees
James DiPerna, Ph.D., Professor of Education. “Unpacking the ‘Black Box’ of Routine SEL Implementation: What Works, How, and Why Across Classroom Contexts.” This project will advance current knowledge concerning the implementation of evidence-based universal social-emotional learning (SEL) programs in elementary schools. Through a federally funded effectiveness trial, we worked with 165 classrooms in 27 elementary schools across seven U.S. states as teachers implemented the SSIS – Social Emotional Learning Edition – Classwide Intervention Program (Elliott & Gresham, 2017), a universal program with prior evidence of positive efficacy. Importantly, this trial was conducted under routine conditions (i.e., training and support consistent with typical school practices and no researcher involvement) intended to reflect the everyday realities of U.S. elementary classrooms. Contrary to our initial hypotheses, results from the national trial did not provide evidence of program effectiveness; however, we had the unique opportunity to collect a variety of implementation measures from teachers randomly assigned to both the treatment and business-as-usual control conditions. We believe these data can help unpack the “black box” of SEL implementation under typical practices, providing important insights about what works, what doesn’t work, how, and why in U.S. elementary classrooms.
Lori A. Francis, Ph.D., Professor of Biobehavioral Health. “Examining the Impact of Access to Greenspace on Self-Regulation and Stress Response in Preschool Children.” The objectives of this feasibility study are threefold: (1) we aim to test the feasibility of recruiting families for laboratory-based assessments of preschool children’s executive function (EF), heart rate variability, and stress response in Harrisburg, PA; (2) strengthen an existing partnership with a childcare center in Harrisburg, PA to co-create a research project designed to examine whether preschool children’s exposure to greenspace and nature-based learning and play is associated with better self-regulation and stress response, and (3) examine perceived need for and acceptability of nature-based learning spaces at the childcare center. We specifically will pilot and refine protocols related to recruitment and consent, as well as setup, administration, implementation and timing of study protocols and assessments. Findings will be used as preliminary data for an R01 proposal to be submitted to the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
Murray-Perdue, Ph.D.
Samantha Murray-Perdue, Ph.D., Assistant Research Professor, Edna Bennett Pierce Prevention Research Center, & Mark E. Feinberg, Ph.D., Research Professor, Edna Bennett Pierce Prevention Research Center. “Family Foundations on Social Media (FF-SM).” The transition to parenthood poses risk to the interparental relationship in terms of couple conflict, as well as stress and depression for both parents. These challenges often lead to maladaptive child outcomes. Family Foundations (FF), an evidence-based coparenting intervention, has shown long-term benefits across multiple trials. However, accessibility remains a challenge. This pilot study adapts FF for delivery via social media (FF-SM), targeting first-time parents through an eight-week, Facebook-based format. We are assessing feasibility, engagement, and perceived support through surveys and activity tracking. Findings will inform a larger NIH R01 proposal. FF-SM aims to meet new parents where they are—online—providing scalable, evidence-based support to promote healthier parenting and child development outcomes.
Douglas M. Teti, Ph.D., Distinguished Professor of Human Development and Family Studies, Professor of Psychology and Pediatrics. “SIESTA-EASI pilot.” The first six months of life are foundational for establishing trajectories of self-regulation that bear directly on infant socioemotional and family health. Two such regulatory processes, sleep and eating regulation, develop very early in life and are ripe targets for preventive intervention in light of recent work suggesting that dysregulated sleep and eating during the first 6 months are predictive of behavioral dysregulation. This project will adapt and pilot a video feedback intervention, the Video-feedback Intervention to promote Positive Parenting (VIPP; Juffer et al., 2014), to promote sensitive and contingently responsive parenting in infant sleep and feeding interactional contexts. The VIPP is heavily informed by attachment (Ainsworth et al., 1978) and self-regulation (Kopp, 1982) theories and is designed to work with parents to attend to and accurately interpret infant cues, and to respond to them contingently and appropriately. It has, to date, not been specifically adapted to parenting in infant feeding and sleep contexts; that is the aim of this project.
2024-2025 Awardees
Chardée Galán, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Psychology. “Understanding the Pathways to Racism-Based Traumatic Stress in Ethnoracially Minoritized Youth.” This study will recruit a new sample of 75 Black and Latine 13-17-year-old youth and their primary caregivers to examine: (1) race-based rejection sensitivity and racism-related vigilance as potential mechanisms underlying the association between racial discrimination and racism-based traumatic stress; and (2) the potential role of caregivers’ racial-ethnic socialization practices in moderating the association between racial discrimination and racism-based traumatic stress. Findings from this project will provide pilot data to support a future R01 grant application and advance our understanding of culturally relevant factors in the pathway from racial discrimination to racism-based traumatic stress that can serve as malleable targets for risk-reduction interventions for ethnoracially minoritized youth.
Kathleen Keller, Ph.D., Professor, Department of Nutritional Sciences. “Sex Differences in the Development of Children’s Appetite Regulation.” The purpose of this proposal is to collect preliminary data on the biological mechanisms that drive differences in appetite regulation in male and female children. These data will contribute to an R01 submitted to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) on the role of sex/gender in the development of children’s appetite regulation. With the preliminary data collected, we will have ample data for an NIH submission on the biological, social, and psychological mechanisms of sex/gender differences in children’s appetite regulation. An improved understanding of how sex/gender influences early energy intake regulation should lead to more effective tailoring of interventions to prevent the development of childhood obesity.
Lucy Shin, Ph.D., Assistant Research Professor of Psychology, & Koraly Pérez-Edgar, Ph.D., McCourtney Professor of Child Studies and Professor of Psychology. “The Ecology of Infant Self-Regulation: Mother-Infant Synchrony and Family and Community Resources.” The proposed study aims to explore protective and risk factors for mother-infant synchrony and infant self-regulation at both family and community levels. To facilitate participant involvement in this research, and expand the communities able to participate, this proposal seeks funding to cover participant travel reimbursement. Understanding the broader contextual factors related to mother-infant synchrony and infant self-regulation will provide valuable insights into early developmental psychopathology and inform interventions to support families in communities.
2023-2024 Awardees
Jennifer P. Agans, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Recreation, Park, and Tourism Management. “A Qualitative Exploration of Experiences in Diverse Youth Sport Contexts.” This project will continue the development of a quantitative measure of the personal, social, and contextual features that differentiate youth sport contexts from each other. This measure has the potential to enable identification of specific characteristics of youth sport contexts that contribute to youth enjoyment and other positive outcomes, building on the idea that “goodness of fit” between person and context is a key factor in the ability of youth sport to contribute to positive youth development.
Sheri Berenbaum, Ph.D., Professor Emerit. “Archiving NIH-Funded Data on The Nature and Causes of Gender Development.” This project will begin the process of archiving data from NIH-funded studies of individuals with congenital adrenal hyperplasia that address key questions about psychological development. This includes reconsenting participants in two samples (total N=280) to enable data sharing and follow-up studies by other scientists. This work will form the basis of an application for NIH funding to complete the formal process of archiving and sharing the data.
James DiPerna, Ph.D., Professor of Education. “Stress, Support, and Social Emotional Learning: Voices and Implementation Choices of Education Stakeholders (VOICES).” Dr. DiPerna’s project will conduct follow-up qualitative interviews with teachers who previously participated in an IES-sponsored effectiveness trial of social-emotional learning (SEL) programs in schools. The goal is to better understand teachers’ experiences with stress, support, and universal SEL program implementation during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. Given the lack of research concerning teachers’ lived experiences and social-emotional learning program implementation choices that are responsive to local contexts and conditions, this study will provide justification for further external funding on this important and under-studied topic.
Douglas M. Teti, Ph.D., Distinguished Professor of Human Development and Family Studies, Professor of Psychology and Pediatrics. “Family-Based Sleep Intervention and Children’s Transition to Kindergarten: A Pilot Study.” Dr. Teti will use the funds to conduct a pilot study during summer, 2023, in response to the recent review of a R01 grant proposal submitted to the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. The goal of the larger NIH proposal is to evaluate a family-based sleep intervention focused on establishing and maintaining healthy child and parent sleep before and during the transition to kindergarten, to benefit children’s adjustment to kindergarten. The pilot will examine the prevalence of sleep problems in the prospective participants (both the children and their parents); the level of interest parents have in participating in the intervention; and pilot the intervention.
2022-2023 Awardees
Jennifer P. Agans, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Recreation, Park, and Tourism Management. “Identifying Characteristics of Youth Sports to Promote Person-Context Fit.” Dr. Agans’ funded research will develop a measure of activity characteristics and implementation features in youth sport and assess whether these contextual factors appeal differently to youth with different individual characteristics (e.g., age, gender, race/ethnicity, self-perceived athletic competence). Our “hypothesis” is that youth sport is not a one-size-fits-all context but an overarching category containing a diverse constellation of activities that can nevertheless be empirically described and aligned with the characteristics of youth to support goodness of fit.”
Charles Geier, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Human Development and Family Studies, and Co-Director, Center for Brain, Behavior, and Cognition (CBBC). “Examining the Neural Basis of Habit Formation in Adolescents and Young Adults.” Dr. Geier’s funded research provides additional support to increase the sample size and strengthen an on-going pilot study aimed at characterizing how habits are formed at the brain circuit level in healthy adolescents (13-17 years) and young adults (25-35 years). Results from this work will yield the first published studies characterizing habits in a developmental sample and provide foundational preliminary data necessary for external grant applications and future longitudinal assessments.”
Sarah Myruski, Ph.D., Associate Research Professor, Psychology. “Integrating Drawing and Mindfulness to Reduce Anxiety in Adolescents.” The proposed study will test the feasibility of a novel drawing-based anxiety intervention that integrates an approachable and tangible activity with mindfulness elements. We will extend the protocol of an ongoing pilot study of emerging adults (N = 54) by recruiting a pilot sample of adolescents (N = 40). We will examine whether the drawing intervention results in a significant change pre- to post-drawing in emotional state and parasympathetic nervous system (PSNS) engagement indexed via respiratory sinus arrythmia (RSA), and whether anxiety symptoms are reduced between baseline and one week later. We will also test whether individual differences in self-reported difficulties with emotion regulation will predict the magnitude of anxiety, affect, and RSA changes induced by the drawing activity.”
Emma Rose, Ph.D., Assistant Teaching Professor, Psychology. “Impacts of Ethnoracial Determinants of Health on Food Insecurity and Substance Use in Undergraduate Students.” In preparation for a recently submitted R61/R33 proposal, which aims to consider these associations and their related neurobiological impacts, the current proposal aims to prepare and pilot our key measures of ethnoracial determinants of health, food insecurity, and substance use. The study will further aim to characterize the associations between ethnoracial determinants of health, food insecurity, and substance use in racially and ethnically minoritized undergraduate students and, in doing so, will provide critical information regarding the feasibility of our procedures prior to commencing the primary project.”