About Us
Positive Social Development (PSD) Lab focuses on understanding positive social development during childhood and adolescence. We are particularly interested in prosocial behavior and moral development with individual, parental, cultural, and contextual correlates in culturally diverse children and adolescents.
Areas of Interest:
- Positive social development during childhood and adolescence
- Prosocial behavior
- Moral development
- Parenting
- Parent-child relationship
- Culture
People
Lab Members
Director:
Graduate Students:
Undergraduate Research Assistants:
- Brianna Leon
- Jaya Powell
- Xi Zeng
Former Undergraduate Research Assistants
Basem Huneidi - Spring 2024
Current Research Projects
This study focuses on understanding early adolescents’ prosocial behaviors and moral development.
We are recruiting parents/guardians with 6th-grade youth.
Parents/guardians and their 6th-grade youth will separately fill out an online questionnaire that takes approximately 60 minutes to complete (30 minutes for parents/guardians and 30 minutes for youth) three times over two years. Participants will receive a total of $135 upon successful completion of all study surveys.
Please use this link to fill out our form if you and your child are interested in participating. Feel free to contact our team (psdlab@vt.edu) for more information or with any questions.
The study is approved by VT IRB # 24-390
College Students' Stress, Wellbeing, and Prosociality
The purpose of this study is to understand the relations among college students’ stress, well-being, relationships, and prosocial behavior. (IRB# 23-1302)
Latine Youth's Cultural Assets and Positive Social Development
The purpose of this study is to examine the effects of Latine youth and parents’ culture-related experiences and stress on youth’s social-emotional development, moral development, and psychological well-being. (IRB #24-342)
Other Collaborative Projects
•Prosociality in Times of COVID-19: A Cross-National Investigation of Prosocial Attitudes and Behaviors During the COVID-19 Crisis
•Longitudinal Study of Children’s Cognitive, Emotional &Prosocial Development in Türkiye
•Adolescents’ Prosocial and Moral Development in Nicaragua
•College Students’ Prosocial Behaviors and Moral Development
Select Publications and Presentations
- Cruz, A. M., Carlo, G., Gülseven, Z., & Vandell, D.L. (2024). A Longitudinal study of prosocial behaviors predicting later academic performance in U.S. Latine youth. Journal of Adolescence. http://doi.org/10.1002/jad.12401
- Gülseven, Z., Simpkins, S.D., Jiang, S., & Vandell, D.L. (2024). Patterns of afterschool settings: Are they related to changes in academic and social functioning in children and adolescents?. Applied Developmental Science, Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1080/10888691.2024.2385425
- Xiao, S. X., Gülseven, Z., Clancy, E. T., Liew, J., Carlo, G., Kim, S., & Jiang, S. (2024). Measuring early adolescents’ prosocial behavior toward diverse others: Considering multiple social identities. Journal of Adolescence, 96(4), 841-854. http://doi.org/10.1002/jad.12305
- Gülseven, Z., Pierotti, S.L., Killoren, S.E., Alfaro, E.C., & Carlo, G. (2024). The role of maternal warmth in understanding the relations between cultural orientations and prosocial behaviors in U.S. Mexican college students. Journal of Latinx Psychology, 12(3), 261-276. https://doi.org/10.1037/lat0000253
- Gülseven, Z., Puente, K., Tulagan, N., Zarrett, N., Simpkins, S. D., & Vandell, D. L. (2023). Children’s self-control as an antecedent of adolescent prosociality and adult civic engagement. Applied Developmental Science, 28(2), 178–192. https://doi.org/10.1080/10888691.2022.2158827
- Vandell, D.L. & Gülseven, Z. (2023). The Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development (SECCYD): Studying development from infancy to adulthood. Annual Review of Developmental Psychology, 5(1), 331-354. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-devpsych-120621-035345
- Gülseven, Z., Yu, M., Zarrett, N., Vandell, D. L., & Simpkins, S.D. (2023). Self-control and cooperation in childhood as antecedents of less moral disengagement in adolescence. Development and Psychopathology, 35(1), 290-300. doi:10.1017/S0954579421000584
- Maiya, S., Gülseven, Z., Killoren, S. E., Carlo, G., & Streit, C. (2023). The intervening role of anxiety symptoms in associations between self-regulation and prosocial behaviors in U.S. Latino/a college students. Journal of American College Health, 71(2), 584-592. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/07448481.2021.1899187
- Carrizales, A., Gülseven, Z., & Lannegrand, L. (2023). The mediating role of empathy in the links between relationships with three socialization agents and adolescents’ prosocial behaviors. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 40(9), 2855-2877. https://doi.org/10.1177/02654075221099652
- Gülseven, Z., Maiya, S., & Carlo, G. (2022). The intervening roles of shame and guilt in relations between parenting and prosocial behavior in college students. Journal of Genetic Psychology. https://doi.org/10.1080/00221325.2022.2098004
- Padilla-Walker, L., Van der Graaff, J., Workman, K., Carlo, G., Branje, S., Carrizales, A., Gerbino, M., Gülseven, Z., Hawk, S., Luengo Kanacri, P., Mesurado, B., Samper, P., Shen, Y., Taylor, L., Trach, J., Van Zalk, M., Zukauskiene, R. (2022). Emerging adults’ cultural values, prosocial behaviors, and mental health in fourteen countries during the COVID-19 pandemic. International Journal of Behavioral Development, 46(4), 286-296. https://doi.org/10.1177/01650254221084098
- Gülseven, Z., Carlo, G., Kumru, A., Sayıl, M., & Selçuk, B. (2022). The protective role of early prosocial behaviors against young Turkish children’s later internalizing and externalizing problems. European Journal of Developmental Psychology, 19(3), 400-418. https://doi.org/10.1080/17405629.2021.1920917
- Gülseven, Z. & Carlo, G. (2021). Parenting and prosocial behaviors in Nicaraguan adolescents: The roles of moral reasoning and familism. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 38(9), 2545-2565. https://doi.org/10.1177/02654075211009298
- Gülseven, Z., Liu, Y., Ma, T., Yu, M., Simpkins, S.D., Vandell, D. L., & Zarrett, N. (2021). The development of cooperation and self-control in middle childhood: Associations with earlier maternal and paternal parenting. Developmental Psychology, 57(3), 397-409. https://doi.org/10.1037/dev0001151
Links and Resources
Professional Organizations
- American Psychological Association (APA)
- American Psychological Association (APA) - Developmental Psychology (Division 7)
- Association for Psychological Science
- Society for Research in Child Development (SRCD)
- Society for Research on Adolescence (SRA)
- International Society for the Study of Behavioural Development
- European Association for Developmental Psychology