Ph.D.
Program in Child and Adolescent Development
General
Information
The Ph.D. program in Child and Adolescent Development
(CAD) focuses primarily on theory and research
training for graduates interested in pursuing
academic and research careers. With sufficient
qualifications, students with a Master's
degree are admitted directly into the Ph.D.
program. Students with a bachelor’s
degree are admitted to the doctoral track
and complete an M.S. degree in route to the
Ph.D. The completion of the Master's thesis
prepares students for admission into the
Ph.D. program in Child and Adolescent Development.
Completing both the Master's and Ph.D. within
Child and Adolescent Development enables
streamlining the degree program. If desired,
admitted students are typically granted research
or teaching assistantships. These may include
research with the faculty, teaching apprenticeships
with a human development course, or clinical
practice in the department centers. Although
the department maintains a commitment to
fund current students as the first priority,
the department has been highly successful
in funding first year students.
Theory
and Research
Faculty members in the CAD area conduct innovative
and interdisciplinary research linking theory and
methodology. The research currently being conducted
draws from attachment theory, ecological systems
theory, cognitive development theory, sociocultural
theory, and family systems theory. Research topics
include (1) various spheres of human development
and functioning such as social emotional development,
cognitive development, parent-child relationships,
and abnormal development, (2) the influences of
ecological contexts (e.g., parents, peers, school,
and neighborhood) on developmental processes (3)
intertwined relationships between genes and ecological
contexts, and (4) risk for and resilience to child
and adolescent development. Direct observations
of young children, dyadic interviews with parents
and children, and secondary longitudinal data analyses
are some examples of methodology applied to the
research studies in the program.
Collaboration
and Publication
The theoretically captivating research questions
examined by the CAD faculty have employed rigorous
analytic techniques and resulted in publications
in top-tier academic journals including Child Development,
Journal of Marriage and the Family, Developmental
Psychology, Journal of Adolescent Psychology, and
Social Development. Faculty members encourage students
to actively participate in research and the publication
process, often as co-presenters and authors. Current
students in the program had a collaborative role
in data collection, coding human behaviors, data
analyses, and publishing manuscripts. Please visit
the faculty member’s individual pages to
see recent publications.
Development
Science Across the Lifespan
The initiative for Developmental Science Across
the Lifespan is a collaborative effort between
the departments of Human Development and
Psychology at Virginia Tech. The Developmental
Science Initiative provides additional resources,
including research assistantships, to foster
collaboration. The collaborative efforts
also provide for team-taught and cross-listed
courses across the two departments, and foster
collaborative research that reflects lifespan
development. To learn more about the Developmental
Science Initiative, visit the DSI website: http://www.psyc.vt.edu/devsci/.
Program
of Study
Students
in the CAD program take courses taught by CAD
faculty, other Human Development faculty, psychology
faculty, and other faculty with expertise in
teaching research methods, statistical analysis,
and qualitative methods. Students who complete
the Ph.D. through CAD acquire a breadth of
research training, equipping them to conduct
independent research using a range of methodological
and analytical expertise. Student programs
of study typically include courses in:
Theoretical
Foundations of Child Development
Parent-Child Interaction
Social Development
Cognitive Development
Adolescent Development
Sequence of statistics classes
Careers
of Program Graduates
Numerous rewarding career opportunities are available
for graduates of the CAD program. In academe,
career options for graduates include teaching,
research, and extension service. A wide range
of career options also exists outside academe.
Program development and evaluation, policy
analysis and advocacy work, and administration
and supervision in private and public human
services agencies are just a few examples
of careers outside academe.
Virginia
Tech
Virginia Tech is among
the top 50 research universities in the nation,
enrolling 23,000 undergraduate and 4,000 graduate
students. It is located in Blacksburg, 30 miles
west of Roanoke in the scenic Appalachian & Blue
Ridge Mountains. It is easily accessible by air
and car, and the University's excellence and the
natural beauty of the area have attracted scholars
from around the world. Blacksburg and nearby Roanoke
provide many metropolitan metropolitan diversions
including fine dining and internationally renowned
entertainment, while the surrounding mountains
offer a wide range of recreation and relaxation.
Program
Faculty
Dr. Mark
Benson
Ph.D., University of Minnesota
Associate Professor of Human Development
Dr. Benson's research focuses on parent-adolescent
relationships through several lenses for examination.
His work explores cognitive, affective, and behavioral
processes drawing from attachment, attribution,
family systems, and family coercive process theories.
Outcomes of interest include adolescent identity,
autonomy, intimacy, sexuality, and achievement.
Dr.
Isabel Bradburn
Ph.D., University of California, Berkeley
Director of Research, Child Development Center
for Learning and Research
Dr. Bradburn studies children’s social development
and the contexts of development (e.g., family,
preschool). Other research interests include family
and personality factors involved in late adolescent
complex thinking and attachment across the lifespan.
Dr.
Victoria Fu
Ph.D., University of North Carolina at Greensboro
Professor of Human Development
Director, Child Development Center for Learning
and Research
Dr. Fu’s research focuses on how children
and young adults learn and make meaning of what
they have learned from a constructivist, inquiry
based perspective. She also studies teaching as
transformation of self and children’s social,
emotional and cognitive development in play and
diverse settings.
Dr. Christine Kaestle
Ph.D., University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
M.S.P.H., University of California, Los Angeles
Assistant Professor of Human Development
Dr. Kaestle’s research addresses prevention
and health promotion among adolescents and young
adults from a life-course perspective. Her
research interests include adolescent risk behaviors,
human sexuality, sexual health, intimate partner
violence, sexual violence, and media effects.
Dr.
Kee Jeong Kim
Ph.D, Iowa State University
Assistant Professor of Human Development
Dr. Kim’s research interests are in developmental
trajectories of antisocial behavior and depression
from adolescence to early adulthood, family processes
of risk and resilience in adolescent development,
and the application of advanced statistical methods
to the analysis of longitudinal data.
Dr.
Cynthia Smith
Ph.D., University of North Carolina at Greensboro
Assistant Professor of Human Development
Dr. Smith’s research examines young children’s
social and emotional development. She is interested
in patterns of interaction between young children
and their parents and how these interactions are
associated with young children’s emotional
and behavioral regulation. Her work also explores
factors in the parents’ lives (including
social support, parenting stress, and parent personality)
that are associated with differences seen in their
parenting behaviors.
Applying
to the Ph.D. Program
Requirements include a combined Graduate Record
Examination scores of at least 1,000 for the
verbal and quantitative sections and a minimum
grade point average of 3.0 on a 4.0 scale (or
3.5 in the last 60 credits). For more information or for questions about applying to the Ph.D. program in Child and Adolescent
development, please contact Dr. Cindy Smith, smithcl@vt.edu.
You may also visit
the Graduate
School website to learn more about applying
to our program.
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