Identity Formation in Adolescence and Emerging Adulthood

This project examines emerging adults’ ideas of social class and the processes through which they come to perceive social class as an aspect of their own identity. The focus is on identifying the experiences that trigger emerging adults’ awareness of their social class status and whether and how they explore and come to a resolution about the meaning that their class status has for their own sense of self.

Faculty Supervisor: Dr. Kimberley Radmacher

Children’s Conflict Resolution with Friends and Parents

The way children resolve conflicts with their peers is closely related to their adjustment in the peer group.  This project examines the conflict between schoolage children and their friends and children and their parents.  The primary purpose is to investigate how children resolve conflicts with their friends and whether this related to how the children’s parents’ resolve conflicts with them.  In short, what are the connections, if any, between how conflict is resolved between children and their parents and children and their friends?

Faculty Supervisor: Dr. Anupama Joshi

Child Custody and Family Adjustment

This project connects psychological and legal dimensions to investigate individual and family adjustment processes during and after child custody litigation.  Currently, the research is focused on understanding the impact of procedural justice and distributive justice on families in child-custody litigation. This means whether and how fair court procedures matter to families in terms of their psychological adjustment, their health, their compliance with court orders, and their re-litigation rates. Because justice has been found to be important to people's motivation when dealing with others, the social psychology of procedural justice - the fairness of rules and processes – is used as a conceptual framework. The ultimate objective of this work is to contribute to an improvement of the policies and practices that govern the design and delivery of court services to families.

Faculty Supervisor: Dr. Cornelia Brentano

Children’s Self and their Conflict Resolution Strategies

This project investigates the link between children’s self-concept, social self-efficacy, emotion expression and conflict resolution strategies.  In other words, do children’s ideas conceptions of themselves, whether children think they can successfully interact with their peers, and whether children can express their emotions are all related to how they react to conflict situations.

Faculty Supervisor: Dr. Anupama Joshi

Firearms and Anxiety

Developmentally, adolescents are considered to be at a risk for heightened anxiety.  Considering the current developments in the world that involve violence, and increased sales of firearms, this study focuses on the links between adolescent anxiety, parental anxiety and the presence of firearms in the home.

Faculty Supervisor: Dr. Anupama Joshi

Narrative Study of Women’s Childhood Relationships

This study examines the autobiographies written by young adult women describing childhood relationships, neighborhoods, school experiences, peer relationships, dating and aspirations for the future.  A strength of this qualitative approach to studying childhood relationships is that it provides us with the individual’s interpretation and meaning-making of her own experience.  These perceptions are an important contributor to overall adjustment.

Faculty Supervisor: Dr. Anupama Joshi