Welcome to the Healthy Social-Emotional Development Lab. We are located in the School of Behavioral and Brain Sciences at The University of Texas at Dallas. Our lab conducts experimental and observational studies to advance knowledge about developmental changes in children’s and adolescents’ social-emotional processes (e.g., neural correlates in processing social information, friendships, health behaviors) that are relevant to mental health across the life course. While some patterns of development are normative, we recognize that every child is unique and has different experiences. We seek to learn how individual differences, such as temperament and social experiences, shape youths’ developmental processes and health.

Our work uses multiple methods (e.g., EEG, ERPs, lab observations) and multivariate statistics in cross-sectional, longitudinal, and epidemiological studies. See our research page for more information.