Child studies

The Child Studies specialization focuses on the development of the child in three critical contexts: (a) the family, (b) educational settings, and (c) community and culture. The child is embedded in all of these contexts, which are proximal (i.e., family, school) or more distal (i.e., culture) influences on the child’s development.

The familial context includes the study of parent-child and sibling relationships; the educational context includes issues related to child care, reading development, language and literacy, cognitive processes (e.g., math, science), social processes (e.g., friendship), and educational service delivery (e.g., children with special needs); and the community and culture context involves issues related to the influence of community programs (e.g., special populations, health and well-being), media (e.g., technology), and culture (e.g., values and beliefs).