Childhood: Environment, Emotions, and Social Engagement (ChEESE)

How can we understand what makes children do well in the social world?

 

Integrating multiple levels and facets of data to comprehensively understand early middle-childhood (6-9 years old) children's adjustment in the social world. We seek to understand how the environmental socialization processes contribute to the development of social cognitive and socio-emotional skills during this period, and how those skills are associated with children's psychological, social, and school adjustment. We use a variety of research methods (in-lab behavioral experiments and observations, questionnaires, and computer-assisted assessments and coding) to understand children’s social behaviors and the impact from their early environments.

 

Students will work on one of the following teams: 1) computer programming, and 2) behavioral data collection and coding. The computer programming team will develop computer- and/or tablet-based apps which are used to collect children’s data on behavioral tasks, as well as explore ways to efficiently collect and process facial expression and other visualized data during the tablet tasks. The behavioral data collection and coding team will conduct observations of parent and child behaviors in the lab and code the data into analyzable form. To meet the needs of the population in the Lehigh Valley, Spanish-speaking students are especially encouraged to apply.The findings will elucidate the mechanisms of how context and cognitive/emotional processes impact children’s adaptation in the social world, provide insights into interventions, during which we also create low cost, innovative, technology-supported assessment of risk and competence.