Center for Families

Sooyeon Jeong – “…He says people don’t want to spend a lot of money on a robot car that appears to lack confidence. But if you wanted to build, say, a robot comedian, some neuroticism might help. And neurotic personalities might put some people more at ease.”

Ellen Ernst Kossek – BUSINESS INSIDER (subscription required) – Economic Researchers say flexible work helps starts compete with big firms for young talent.

AJ Schwichtenberg; Annabelle Atkin – Roughly 20% of adults identify as neurodivergent – an umbrella term used to describe cognitively atypical individuals. Neurodivergent identities manifest in several forms including autism, attention dysregulation hyperactivity disorder/attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, dyslexia, and other cognitively atypical trajectories.

Heather Servaty-Seib – Telephone booths inspired by Japan’s “Kaze no Denwa” or “Wind Phone” in Otsuchi, Iwate Prefecture — a disconnected phone set up for people to speak to loved ones lost in the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake — are now appearing in various parts of the world.

Kristine Marceau – Adolescents are particularly susceptible to peer influence and at higher risk of engaging in problematic behaviors through peer interactions, but also vary in the extent to which they are influenced by their peers. Resistance to peer influence, the tendency to refuse undesired peer pressure, is one key factor for this variation.

Kristine Marceau – Previous studies robustly link childhood peer victimization experience to the timing of substance use initiation. However, no study has investigated the contributions of genetic and environmental factors to this link.

David Purpura – Early language environments are considered to support children’s language development; however, it is unclear to what extent early language environments relate to skills other than language abilities. We examined (1) whether the preschool language environment is associated with children’s school readiness skills, and (2) whether children’s vocabulary skills explain these associations.

Kameron Moding; German Posada – Prenatal care provides an opportunity for the promotion of healthy parent and neonatal outcomes, but there are gaps in understanding the consequences and antecedents of prenatal care experiences during pregnancy. The objective of the current study was to provide insight into the mediational processes of sociodemographic and pregnancy characteristics on neonatal health and postpartum maternal wellbeing outcomes through prenatal care experiences.

Zoe Taylor – Given the increasing number of Latino/a youth in the United States who reside in rural locations and who might be prone to race- and immigrant status-related threats, more research attention is needed that focuses on cultural strengths and positive development. Ecocultural developmental theorists and prior research have postulated and found that family ethnic socialization practices, ethnic identity, and familism values are linked to a variety of positive developmental outcomes in U.S. Latino/a youth.

Kimberly Updegraff – The 2007–2009 economic recession was among the largest in U.S. history, which had reverberating impacts on families within the United States and globally. Latine families were among those most adversely affected economically, yet did not show increased negative outcomes in their psychosocial and physical health