"We analyzed a population-representative cohort (N = 13,611; Mage at kindergarten, first, and second grade = 67.5, 79.5, and 91.5 months, respectively) to identify kindergarten to second grade factors predictive of being bullies or victims during third to fifth grade."

Childhood obesity rates continue to rise in the United States, putting kids at risk for asthma, sleep apnea, type 2 diabetes, and other health conditions.

Research on maltreatment exposure often demonstrates mixed findings and a potential explanation for this may be the measurement of maltreatment.

Racial and ethnic disparities in advanced mathematics and science achievement occur as early as kindergarten, much earlier than previously thought, according to a new study led by a Penn State College of Education researcher.

“Our hope is that by examining the connection between intergenerational trauma and substance use, we can expand upon and target interventions to groups of people who are already understudied and underserved. And it is critical to underscore that this is a first step, but much more work is needed,” said Jones.

"Based on a strong scientific foundation, this paper outlines a strategy for the implementation of public health policies and prevention services that address opioid use and, in effect, the use and abuse of all psychoactive substances that negatively impact individuals, their families, and communities."

"As clinical science training models emphasize the importance of integrated clinical research and practice, I believe developmental psychology frameworks should be incorporated."

Robin Kephart and Nancy English celebrated major milestones of consecutive years at Penn State during the Liberal Arts Staff Awards program.

This special section includes a series of papers that envision the next generation of research on school-based mindfulness programming (SBMP) for students ages 4–18 years.

The Tracking Traits podcast is a production of the Center for Human Evolution and Diversity, and features Penn State undergrads interviewing researchers about their work and personal passions.

Penn State recently received a $1.3 million, two-year grant from the Substance Use and Mental Health Services Administration to work with leadership teams in five states to prevent opioid misuse in rural communities.

Penn State's Office of the Vice Provost for Faculty Affairs has named seven distinguished professors for 2023.

"Dr. Feinberg asserts that the most accurate predictor of happiness and wellness in your life is the type of relationship that you have with your sibling simply because it is the longest relationship you will ever have."

The mentored faculty fellows program supports the career development of early career Penn State faculty in social and behavioral sciences to engage in new areas of research and/or the development of new interdisciplinary collaborations aimed at building sustainable research and securing external funding.

Dr. Witherspoon is a McCourtney Family Early Career Professor of Psychology and Associate Professor at Penn State University. She also serves as Director of Parents And Children Together (PACT), a Penn State University Park research initiative.

"Food reinforcement or one's motivation to eat may be established early in life; it might not be the food reinforcement per se that drives weight gain, but rather the imbalance between food and nonfood reinforcement."

To foster new research and policies that support successful co-parenting, Penn State Research Professor Mark Feinberg recently established the International Center for Coparenting Policy and Research (ICOPAR).

A new, national institute that develops artificial intelligence (AI) systems that identify and assist young children with speech and/or language processing challenges has been established at the University at Buffalo thanks to a five-year, $20 million grant from the National Science Foundation. The institute includes researchers from nine universities, including Penn State.

Pennsylvania State University--World Campus, a public institution, has been offering online bachelor's degree programs since 2000-2001.

We are pleased to welcome Robin Kephart as a new staff member here at the Child Study Center!

The Society for Research in Child Development announces 2023 Biennial Awards.

Cannabis use by college students is on the rise, causing concern among substance-use experts.

The purpose of the study was "to examine whether emotional support moderates the association between college generation status and concurrent and prospective levels of systemic inflammation during the college transition among a sample of older U.S. adolescents."

"The obesogenic food environment includes easy access to highly-palatable, energy-dense, 'ultra-processed' foods that are heavily marketed to consumers; therefore, it is critical to understand the neurocognitive processes the underlie overeating in response to environmental food-cues."

“The time when couples are expecting is a golden opportunity for them to decide how they will establish healthy habits as a family,” said Mark Feinberg, research professor of health and human development at Penn State's Edna Bennett Pierce Prevention Research Center.

Results suggest sleep may contribute to racial and socioeconomic status disparities in psychosocial adjustment.

"The present study examined the associations between specific facets of negative affect, college stressors, and craving among young adult college students in substance use disorder recovery."

Penn State reached a record $1.034 billion in research expenditures during fiscal year 2021-22, an overall 4.1% increase from the previous year.

Children exposed to adversity are at increased risk for underachievement in reading; however, how early that risk appears and the mechanisms underlying that risk are unclear.

"The implications for educational policy and practice are significant because the findings suggest that even when a child might be at genetic risk for reduced reading achievement, rearing environments can have a positive effect on indicators of reading."

Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ+) parents raise well-adjusted children. How do they accomplish this feat despite stigma and discrimination?

Results from this study may help our understanding of the development of affect-biased attention.

The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted countless facets of everyday life during the past three years — including the invaluable work being done by faculty and staff members affiliated with Penn State’s Parents And Children Together (PACT) initiative.

"In reality, preschool programs that systematically integrate formal SEL and pre-academic instruction offer the best foundation for children’s later well-being and school success."

“There’s no evidence of inherent, biologically based sex differences in cleanliness or messiness,” says Susan McHale, a professor of human development and family studies at Penn State.

Each year, millions of children in the United States experience significant trauma and adversities that can impact their health and well-being, including child abuse, racism, family violence, family separation or extreme poverty.

On average, students experience an estimated total of 102 alcohol-related consequences, such as blacking out, being hung over, or missing work or school, due to drinking across their four years in college, according to a new study led by Penn State.

“Talking through an upcoming change and any worries associated with it, as well as how to deal with those concerns, is putting tools in the child’s toolbox,” states Dr. Pérez-Edgar.

CASEL, the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning, has announced their 2022 SELLY Awards.

Children in the United States may be exposed to a high rate of adverse experiences that result in post-traumatic stress symptoms (PTSS), which can appear as feelings of stress, fear and helplessness that result from re-experiencing trauma or actively avoiding reminders of the trauma.

"The purpose of this workshop was to discuss ways to improve the engagement and representation of researchers from around the world in U.S. psychological science journals."

Christian Connell has been appointed director of the Child Maltreatment Solutions Network, part of the Social Science Research Institute at Penn State.

Over the last decade, Penn State and the College of Health and Human Development have become national leaders in child abuse research, hiring multiple research faculty, conducting groundbreaking research studies, educating lawmakers, and training thousands of Pennsylvanians to prevent abuse.

A new study led by Paul Morgan, Harry and Marion Eberly Faculty Fellow and professor of education (educational theory and policy) and demography, and published in the Journal of Learning Disabilities, examines which sociodemographic groups of children are more likely to be overdiagnosed and overtreated for ADHD.

"This study examined whether caregiver emotion coaching, caregiver-adolescent closeness, and friendship quality were associated with adolescents’ emotion levels, emotion variability, and emotion network density. Further, we examined whether caregiver-adolescent closeness moderated the associations between coaching and emotion dynamics."

"Executive function assessments that lack parenting relevance or emotional salience, or that fail to consider parenting beliefs and goals, may mask information about the role of EFs in parenting."

“The SRCD U.S. Policy Fellowship Programs include placement opportunities in federal congressional offices as well as federal and state executive branch agencies. The purpose of the fellowship programs is to provide researchers with immersive opportunities to learn about policy development, implementation, and evaluation, and to use their research skills in child development to inform public policy at the federal or state level.”

"The aim of the present study was to examine how interactions between resting sympathetic (SNS) and parasympathetic (PNS) activity at age 5 may moderate associations between temperamental risk at age 3 and externalizing behavior at age 6 (n = 87)."

iLookOut provides an interactive, online professional development course for mandated reporters of child abuse.

"Findings elucidate how parents adapt to competing external (attending to child) and internal (restoring parents' equilibrium) demands during parenting challenges."

“Our research showed that parenting can change a lot during the teenage years: parents often express less warmth and affection, spend less time with their teens, and become more harsh in their discipline. Parents that were able to maintain positive parenting and involvement laid the foundation for a close relationship when their teens became adults,” said Fosco, who was co-principal investigator on the study.

Researchers at Penn State’s Child Maltreatment Solutions Network analyzed the costs related to implementing a child sexual abuse prevention program in schools in a new study.

"Childhood sexual abuse can lead to depression, anxiety, cardiovascular disease, and other health problems later in life. Not all abused children experience these problems, however, and researchers are working to understand whose health is affected and why."

This recording from the House Committee on Education and Labor was recorded on March 26, 2019.

Many transgender parents with children between one-and-a-half and six years of age hesitate to label their child’s gender identity, according to new research from a team at Penn State and Guilford College.

The practice guide distills contemporary early childhood and preschool education research into seven easily comprehensible and practical recommendations.

Susan McHale, a longtime faculty member in the Department of Human Development and Family Studies, is retiring after more than 40 years with Penn State.

This study tested whether newborn attention and arousal provide a foundation for the dynamics of respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) in mother–infant dyads.

Jones works to find solutions to complex, real-world problems, including substance use disorders, social and economic marginalization, and inequity in the criminal justice system.

"Findings presented herein may be used to inform future universal child sexual abuse prevention efforts by providing detailed information about the costs of large-scale implementation of an evidence-based program among elementary-aged children."

Penn State ranks in the top 50 in 16 subject area rankings and in the top 100 in the world in an additional 14 subjects, according to the Academic Ranking of World Universities.

This study examined longitudinal linkages between child sleep duration and children’s socioemotional, learning engagement, executive functioning, and academic outcomes across the full kindergarten (K) year.

"The current study used mobile eye-tracking to examine relations between social attention, expressed affect, and behavioral inhibition during naturalistic play in young children."

This study used a randomized clinical trial design to evaluate the success with which The Building a Strong Identity and Coping Skills intervention (BaSICS) engaged the proximal mechanisms of poverty-related stress’s impact on the psychosocial functioning and mental health of young adolescents living in high poverty contexts.

"Pubertal synchrony is defined as the degree of coherence to which puberty-related body changes (e.g., breast development, growth spurt, voice change, underarm hair growth) are coordinated. During the pubertal transition, youth’s body parts grow asynchronously, making each youth’s physical appearance unique."

"In this study, we utilize a subsample of PROSPER participants and their partners who had participated in a home-based assessment for a study of the intergenerational impact of PROSPER in the two years prior to the pandemic onset."

When children suffer abuse or neglect, the effects can follow them through adolescence and well into adulthood. But do different types of child maltreatment, such as physical abuse, sexual abuse or neglect, result in symptoms that show up at different ages?

Adolescent depression and behavior problems are on the rise and paternal depression may be contributing to this increase, regardless of whether the fathers and children are genetically related, according to new research from Penn State and Michigan State.

"The more consistently children got 10+ hours of sleep during the night, the better the children's peer relationships, relationships with their teachers, overall academic performance, and sight recognition of words and letters," said lead study author Douglas Teti.

"The prefrontal cortex (PFC) is a key brain area in considering adaptive regulatory behaviors."

"New insights into mechanisms linking obesity to poor health outcomes suggest a role for cellular aging pathways, casting obesity as a disease of accelerated biological aging. Although obesity has been linked to accelerated epigenetic aging in middle-aged adults, the impact during childhood remains unclear."

"Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) overdiagnosis and overtreatment unnecessarily exposes children to potential harm and contributes to provider and community skepticism toward those with moderate or severe symptoms and significant impairments, resulting in less supportive care. Yet which sociodemographic groups of children are overdiagnosed and overtreated for ADHD is poorly understood."

The Big Ten Academic Alliance (BTAA) Department Executive Officers (DEO) program has gained five additional fellows from the Penn State ranks.