Research
We currently have two exciting projects going on in the lab. We’re exploring how youth, particularly international students, transition to college, and also how adolescents and adults discuss life decisions with their high school friends. These studies will further inform how we understand the connections between relationships and development.
Transition to College Study
The International Students Project, also known as the Transition to College Study, was created to study how youth, and particularly international students, transition into college. Specifically, we are interested in parent-child relationships, the effect of childhood and adolescent experience in predicting college adjustment, and how the transition into college impacts later adjustment.
In addition to the main projects, we have many research questions about adolescent development and social support that can also be answered with large longitudinal data sets, such as the Adolescent Health and National Educational Longitudinal Study.
High School Friends and Decision Making
This study aims to see how people make decisions throughout the developmental spectrum. We are investigating how adolescents and adults discuss life decisions with high school friends. Analysis includes how individuals feel about these decisions, social influences that drive the outcome and the cognitive processes involved. We are studying a range of demographic groups in a computer simulation that evaluates memory, attention and emotion.
