Early Childhood Risk & Resilience Lab

The Early Childhood Risk and Resilience Lab is interested in how individual characteristics and contexts interact to influence both normative and atypical development.

We work primarily in the areas of social and emotional development, exploring how constitutional characteristics, like temperament and self-regulation, in conjunction with specific environments, like poverty, predict developmental outcomes. For example, how do behavior problems develop in children living in differing socioeconomic and cultural contexts, and what can be done to even the playing field for children at risk? We use data collected at local Head Start Centers and nursery schools, as well as previously collected large longitudinal data sets to investigate these issues.

Rose DiBiase

To learn more about Dr. Rose DiBiase and her work, please visit her faculty page.

Current Graduate Students

  • Molly DuBuc

Current Research Projects

  • The development of behavior problems in early childhood, using a biopsychosocial lens that includes both intrapersonal (e.g., temperament, self-regulation) and socializing (e.g., attachment, stress, peer relations, culture and SES) factors
  • Examining risk and resilience in early childhood as it relates to the COVID-19 pandemic.
  • Risk and resilience in the development of positive outcomes across childhood
  • Evaluating whether parenting training improves child outcomes in children of differing socioeconomic and cultural backgrounds

Interested in Joining the Lab?

Graduate Students: Dr. DiBiase is currently accepting applied developmental psychology students.

Undergraduate Students: any juniors and seniors who are interested in joining the lab and have taken Research Methods, Statistics, and Child Development, should email Dr. DiBiase. Past students have worked on poster presentations, presented at the meetings of Eastern Psychological Association & STEM reception, and assisted with doctoral student research.