Almost two decades later, preschool students who received supplemental instruction to build their social, emotional and language skills reported a higher quality of life than peers who did not receive the same skill instruction, according to an interdisciplinary team of Penn State researchers.

Some children struggle with speech development and a small minority never achieve intelligible speech. This review explores research on the use of augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) to support their development of communication and language.

The current study examined the longitudinal relations between toddler temperament, self-regulation, and maternal internalizing symptoms assessed at 18 months, and toddler internalizing and externalizing problems at 24 months.

Pregnant women with a history of child abuse or neglect experienced increased inflammation when exposed to mild stress compared to women without the same experiences, according to a new study led by Penn State researchers.

Heightened error-related negativity (ERN), a neural marker of error sensitivity and trait defensive reactivity, and maladaptive appraisals of interpersonal events have each been linked to adolescent internalizing symptoms.

Parental stress can have lasting consequences on children’s stress sensitivity and self-regulation capacities. However, it remains unclear the extent to which these effects reflect birth parent influences (genetic and/or prenatal), environmental rearing experiences, and/or interactions between them.

Research on adolescents’ risky behaviors clearly demonstrates that siblings uniquely (above and beyond the contributions of shared genes and parenting) contribute to each other’s developing risk-taking behaviors and cognitions.

Social learning relies on cognitive processes such as attention to others' gaze and emotional expression, which then scaffold one's ability to imitate. Bilingually exposed infants often demonstrate superior memory generalization in imitation tasks, although the mechanisms underlying this difference remain unclear.

The University’s Child Study Center (CSC) has developed We Are Connected, an evidence-based curriculum that gives the program's undergraduate students the opportunity to come together in a shared, safe space where they can forge deeper connections and resiliency practices while gaining valuable leadership and communication skills.

Studies in this Special Issue will have implications for research, practice and policy.

Findings suggest that moment-to-moment fluctuations in parenting can immediately influence child behavior, thereby providing support for parenting programs aiming to increase warmth as well as reduce harshness.

Nearly 20 years after middle school students participated in a drug-abuse prevention program, they reported better communication with romantic partners and better adjusted children.

Mechanism-based prevention has transformed developmental psychopathology by shifting the focus from whether interventions work to understanding how they work through the modification of neurobehavioral processes underlying risk.

The Inventory of Family Feelings (IFF) serves as a measure for gauging emotional proximity, not solely to specific family members, but also to family members across various levels of intimacy.

The current study is among the first to investigate the neural mechanisms underlying emotional reactivity and scaffolded cognitive reappraisal in young children using fMRI.

Internalizing problems rise during adolescence, yet the stable underlying dimensions remain unclear.

This study sought to test whether adolescents with severe obesity exhibit altered hypothalamic functional connectivity, relative to healthy-weight peers, across fasting and fed states.

Risks for internalizing behaviors may be moderated by attentional mechanisms such as inhibitory control and attention shifting. However, research is mixed on whether these dimensions are always favorable.

The Child Study Center offers a CSC Small Research Grants Program to provide research support for CSC faculty affiliates across the university.

The present study examined whether family- and neighborhood-level disadvantage moderated children’s response to FPPE relative to a psychoeducation comparison condition, with the goal of informing precision prevention efforts for high-risk families.

Multiple dimensions of parenting - including hostility, conflict, and warmth - are associated with an array of mental disorders in youth. We tested two possible explanations for these associations.

The National School Lunch Program serves more than 30 million children annually, providing ∼33% of a child’s daily energy needs. Thus, it plays a major role in the dietary health of American youth and is an important target for meeting dietary shortfalls.

Behavioral inhibition (BI) is one of the most reliable predictors of social anxiety, and both peers and family members play a key role in shaping this association.

Findings highlight unique direct and indirect effects of prenatal tobacco exposure on child autonomic nervous system functioning at early school-age, controlling for exposure to other substances, and co-occurring risks.

In this study, we sought insights into ways to support teachers to competently engage with racial and immigration issues with youth aged 3-17, with the understanding that some might be universal and others would vary across this developmental range.

Despite well-established evidence linking racial discrimination and internalizing problems, little is known about the culturally specific mechanisms that underlie this association, particularly in adolescence or within a longitudinal framework.

Three longtime Penn State champions and benefactors were recognized by the Penn State Alumni Association with the 2026 Honorary Alumni Award at a celebratory event on Friday, June 12, at the Hintz Family Alumni Center.

"The present study contributes to the literature examining early reward and social processes important for parent–infant relationships in the early postpartum period by examining the roles of both general and social domains of reward responses in relation to parent perceptions of their infant."