Home

                                                                           OUR WORK

The Developmental Transitions Laboratory at UCR seeks to answer four fundamental questions surrounding the relationship between child development and psychopathology: 

    1. Why does psychopathology increase during the transition from childhood to adolescence?
    2. When does adolescent-onset psychopathology start and how does it develop over time?
    3. Why do some children experience such difficulties while others do not?
    4. What can we do to help children navigate the transition more smoothly?

Current research in our lab focuses on:

  • The role of puberty
  • Familial influences (e.g., parental psychopathology, parent-child relationships)
  • The impact of alternative family planning (e.g., infertility, adoption)
  • Child characteristics that function as both psychological risks and strengths in development
By conducting developmental studies with children and families using various research designs, we hope to gain a better understanding of the emergence, change, stability, and desistance of psychological (mal)adjustment during childhood and adolescence. We believe that finding the answers to our questions is a pivotal step in the ultimate goal of informing parents and applied communities on how to promote healthy development in children and their families. 

Lab News

August 2022: A huge congratulations to Dr. Jing Wang for successfully defending her dissertation and graduating with a PhD in Developmental Psychology. She has been an extraordinary member of the Developmental Transitions Lab, and we can’t wait to see what she accomplishes next!

 

June 2022: Congratulations to DTL lead Dr. Misaki Natsuaki for being announced as a 2022 mentor for the Towards 2044: Horowitz Early Career Scholar Program through the Society for Research in Child Development! This program provides educational and professional development for scholars from underrepresented groups, giving them a launching point for a career in the field of child development with the guidance and mentorship from more advanced scholars. We are so proud of Dr. Natsuaki!

 

 

You can take a look at past lab updates in our Archived News!