Opportunities for Students

Students in Penn State’s Human Development and Family Studies (HDFS) program have a truly unique opportunity to work with world-renowned researchers and faculty members in an active research environment.

As an HDFS student, you’ll contribute greatly to our research mission while gaining firsthand experience in conducting groundbreaking research, working with participants, collecting data, conducting data analyses, publishing papers, and presenting your findings at academic conferences.

As an undergraduate student, you’ll have multiple opportunities to work in faculty labs to gain research experience — often earning academic credit in preparation for graduate or professional school.

As a graduate student, you are required to get involved with faculty research working with a mentor in a way that fits your interests — for example, you may choose to work with multiple mentors or work in the context of a research assistantship or a University Fellowship.

In keeping with our innovative and interdisciplinary mission in Human Development and Family Studies, the research possibilities open to you are extensive and diverse.

Lifespan Approach

Leveraging a lifespan approach to research subject areas, graduate students may focus on two or more core research areas:

• Individual development: Childhood, Adolescence, Adulthood and Aging

• Developmental research methodology

• Prevention and intervention research

• Family development

Cross-Cutting Themes of Research

Across these core areas, graduate students may specialize in one or more cross-cutting themes:

• Adolescence and Young Adulthood

• Child Maltreatment

• Cognitive Health

• Computational Methods for Developmental Systems Models

• Determinants and Promotion of Well-Being

• Development and Family Processes in International Contexts

• Developmental Neuroscience

• Family Systems and Processes

• Gender and Development

• Health and Family Processes

• Healthy Aging

• Influences of Stress on Development and Aging

• Longitudinal Methodologies/Designs for Studying Change and Variability

• Parenting, Parent-Child Relations, and Child Outcomes

• Socio-Cultural and Economic Diversity

• Substance Use

• Work and Family

Learn More About HDFS Graduate Student Productivity

View Current Active Projects