The Ohio State University

Graduate Student Training

If you are considering doctoral study in Developmental Psychology, and are interested in young children’s social-emotional development in the context of coparenting, fathering, the transition to parenthood, or parental gatekeeping, I hope you will consider applying to work with me in the Children and Parents Lab. I am most interested in training students who are intellectually curious and will thrive in a lab with a collaborative, rather than competitive, culture. I take a “hands-on” approach to mentoring graduate students, which includes weekly individual meetings as well as a weekly lab meeting.

Students who work with me are afforded opportunities to publish first- and co-authored papers in major peer-reviewed journals such as Developmental Psychology, Development and Psychopathology, the Journal of Family Psychology, and the Journal of Marriage and Family, as well as to co-author book chapters and research briefs.  I encourage my students to participate in the entire research process from study design to data collection, analysis, and manuscript writing. Graduate students also gain experience in writing fellowship and grant applications, and in communicating research to non-academic audiences (e.g., press releases and media interviews).

Regarding conferences, I regularly attend the Society for Research in Child Development biennial meeting and the National Council on Family Relations annual conference. I also often attend international conferences such as the World Association for Infant Mental Health congress, the International Society for the Study of Behavioral Development, and the International Congress of Infant Studies. I encourage my students to attend conferences and present their work, and support these efforts financially whenever possible. The Ohio State Psychology Department currently provides $500 per year in conference travel funds to graduate students who are presenting their research.

I also value the development of strong teaching and mentoring skills in my graduate students. For example, my students have the opportunity to develop their mentoring skills by co-advising undergraduate students on research projects.

Students who work with me are highly successful. Here is a selection of awards/grants they have received:

  • OSU Graduate Associate Teaching Award (Sarah N. Lang)
  • SRCD Dissertation Grant (Rongfang Jia)
  • K. Patricia Cross Future Leaders Award (Sarah N. Lang)
  • NCFR Men in Families Best Article Award (Rongfang Jia & Letitia E. Kotila)
  • OSU Presidential Fellowship (Lauren E. Altenburger)
  • Hayes Research Forum Awards (Elizabeth Cannon, Theresa Settle, Julia Yan)
  • Great CAPES Best Brazilian Dissertation in Social Sciences (Beatriz Schmidt)
  • National Council on Family Relations Student Award (Anna Olsavsky)

In turn, I have been recognized for the high quality of my advising and teaching. Awards I have received at OSU include:

  • Siddens Award for Distinguished Faculty Advising of Graduate Students
  • Distinguished Undergraduate Research Mentor Award
  • Alumni Award for Distinguished Teaching

Some of my former students have gone on to careers in academia, and others have taken different career paths. Although my primary goal is to train future scholars, I am open to and supportive of all of my students’ future endeavors. Some of my former graduate students with academic positions include:

In addition, lab alumna Anna Olsavsky is a postdoctoral researcher at Nationwide Children’s Hospital, and lab alumna Jin-kyung Lee is a postdoctoral researcher at Pennsylvania State University.