Parenting and Youth Development in Diverse Cultural Contexts

Speaker

• Jennifer Lansford, Duke University (Durham, North Carolina, USA)

Scientific Coordinator: Gianluca Esposito

Abstract

This workshop will highlight a range of findings from the longitudinal Parenting Across Cultures project. We recruited a sample of 8-year-old children and their mothers and fathers in 13 cultural groups in nine countries (China, Colombia, Italy, Jordan, Kenya, the Philippines, Sweden, Thailand, and the United States) in 2008 and have assessed them at least annually since then, including four times per year since the beginning of the COVID pandemic. Implications of the findings for parenting interventions and for policy, particularly related to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, will be highlighted.

Short Bio

Dr. Jennifer E. Lansford is a Research Professor at the Sanford School of Public Policy and Director of the Center for Child and Family Policy at Duke University in the United States. She has authored more than 300 publications that focus on parenting and the development of aggression and other behavior problems during childhood and adolescence. Dr. Lansford leads the Parenting Across Cultures Project, a longitudinal study of children, mothers, and fathers from nine countries (China, Colombia, Italy, Jordan, Kenya, Philippines, Sweden, Thailand, and the United States). She has consulted for UNICEF on the evaluation of parenting programs in several countries and on the development of a set of international standards for parenting programs. She is Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of Behavioral Development and has served in a number of national and international leadership roles, including chairing the U.S. National Committee for Psychological Science of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. She is President-Elect of the Society for Research in Child Development and a Fellow of the American Psychological Association, the Association for Psychological Science, and the International Society for the Study of Behavioral Development.