Gregory M. Fosco

1. Intergenerational cascade models linking adolescent family experiences with young adult functioning, and subsequent parenting and offspring adjustment.
2. Family systems processes that shape adolescent positive well-being (e.g., happiness, meaning in life)
3. Family-centered preventive interventions that reduce adolescent risk for behavior problems/substance use, OR promote positive well-being
4. Family systems influences on adolescent social-emotional development, with an emphasis on interparental, family-level, and parent-adolescent relationships.

• 2023-present: Edna P Bennett Faculty Fellow in Prevention Research
• 2021-2022: Interim Director, Edna Bennett Pierce Prevention Research Center, Pennsylvania State University
• 2017-2022: Associate Professor, Department of Human Development and Family Studies, Pennsylvania State University
• 2016-present: Courtesy Appointment, Department of Psychology, The Pennsylvania State University
• 2013-2017: Karl R. and Diane Wendle Fink Early Career Professor for the Study of Families
• 2011-2017: Assistant Professor, Department of Human Development and Family Studies, The Pennsylvania State University
• 2010-2011: Research Associate, Child and Family Center, University of Oregon; Family Intervention Scientist, Positive Family Support Project
• 2008-2010: Postdoctoral Fellow, Child and Family Center, University of Oregon; Mentors Thomas Dishion, Ph.D. and Rob Horner, Ph.D.

In the Family PrOcess and Well-being Enrichment Research (POWER) Lab, I have been working with colleagues and students to investigate the family as a context of adolescent development with the ultimate goal of informing interventions to better serve families and youth. My research, and that of the Family POWER Lab, follows two inter-related lines of inquiry. The first line if research includes basic science focusing on understanding the family system and its influence on adolescent development. I have conducted research on adolescent social/emotional outcomes (e.g., romantic relationship competence, self-regulation), psychopathology and substance use risk, and positive well-being (e.g., subjective well-being, purpose in life). I have conducted work examining interparental conflict and relationships, family-level cohesion and conflict, and parent-child relationship quality as key facets of the family system. The second line of research has focused on family-based prevention programs, such as the Family Check-Up, on adolescent substance use, problem behaviors, and emotional distress. I am particularly interested in examining the change processes during interventions (e.g., skill acquisition, mechanisms of change) so that we can better understand how interventions work and direct future work toward optimization of programs to be more effective and efficient.

All of my work is grounded in a family systems framework, which calls for a more complex understanding of how family relationships impact adolescent development by considering a broader range of family functioning (i.e., multiple family relationships), the interconnectedness of these family processes, and the reciprocal influence processes that unfold within families over time. For more information about the Family POWER Lab, family systems theory, current research projects, or lab activities, please visit my lab website: www.gregfosco.weebly.com

Current Projects

NEW Study in Progress: The FLOURISH Project

The Family POWER Lab is partnering with the ASU CARE Lab to conduct a randomized-controlled trial of positive psychology interventions for adolescents and their parents. This trial will imbed brief interventions within a 28-day daily diary protocol. This project will start in Fall, 2025 and we plan to recruit 250 families into this study.

Intergenerational Cascade Models: PROPSER Second Generation (P2G)

P2G is designed to evaluate intergenerational pathways of the PROSPER-delivered evidence-based programs during middle school for young adult outcomes, and impact on their children's development. The PROSPER trial originally included 10,845 youth in middle school, who were randomized at the community-level to receive evidence-based programming through PROSPER during 6th and 7th grade. These youth were followed through high school, and a randomly-selected subsample of nearly 2,000 were followed into the young adult years.

The PROSPER Second Generation project recruited 398 PROSPER participants who had children by their late 20’s for an intergenerational study. We have collected 3 waves of data capturing the quality of the childrearing environment and children’s adjustment to understand a) the developmental pathways of intergenerational transmission, and b) whether the PROSPER interventions had intergenerational impact.

Family Process Studies using Daily Diary Data: The Family Life Optimizing Well-Being (F.L.O.W.) Study & Everyday Relationships in Adolescence (E.R.A.) Study

In both daily diary studies, we used a 21-day daily diary design to capture family dynamics as they unfold in the daily lives of adolescents and their caregivers. In these studies, the family is conceptualized as a multi-faceted system in which relationships are interconnected; and includes consideration of family-level, interparental, coparenting, and parent-adolescent relationships that all exist in a dynamic system, which serves as a central context for adolescent development. We are learning more about these family relationships as they impact adolescents’ daily mood (depression, anger, anxiety, happiness), emotion regulation, impulsivity, and well-being (satisfaction with life, meaning and purpose in life). Perhaps more interesting is the unique ability of this study to examine how change in family relationships from day to day, or relationship dynamics, also can inform us about adolescent health and well-being.

Long-Term Analysis of Family Influences on Adolescent Development

My work, and that of my graduate students, also focuses on long-term developmental questions related to family influences on adolescent psychological adjustment, subjective well-being, and social development (peer relationships, romantic relationships) from early adolescence into early adulthood. My graduate students and I have been using data from the PROSPER project (PROmoting School-community-university Partnerships to Enhance Resilience), a large-scale effectiveness trial of preventive interventions aimed at reducing substance use initiation among rural adolescents (Spoth, Greenberg, Bierman, & Redmond, 2004). We have been using this rich dataset to understand basic family and developmental questions, related to the impact of family climate, interparental conflict, and parent-adolescent relationship quality on developmental trajectories of substance use, problem behavior, emotional distress, and romantic relationship quality.