Third-year clinical science graduate student, Delshad Shroff, was selected to receive the Society for Research in Child Development Patrice Engle Dissertation Grant Award, which supports students interested in a career in global early child development who are from or doing research in low- or middle-income countries. Shroff’s work for her dissertation, Examination of Emotion Socialization Practices During Early Childhood Among Parents in India, made her a great candidate for this award.
When asked about the award, Shroff said, “This award means a lot to me. I was born and brought up in India and having studied in the Indian education system myself, I have first-hand experience with the difficulties associated with the lack of social and emotional learning in the home and classroom environments in India. Specifically, I realized the significant influence that deficits in social-emotional functioning had on my performance in college, navigating difficult social situations, and even on my academic success.”
When speaking about how this work could impact the future generations, Shroff said, “I anticipate that, in the long term, this project will support the development of a culturally relevant parenting intervention for Indian populations, which could potentially be adapted for other Eastern cultural populations.”
Shroff’s research mentor, Dr. Rosanna Breaux, stated that “Delshad has undertaken an incredibly ambitious dissertation project that involves collection of data in both India and the US. Additionally, she is supervising a team of undergraduate research assistants in conducting thematic coding from parent interviews and conducting behavioral coding of parent-child interactions. This is impressive and critically important work. Receiving this award to support her dissertation endeavors underscores the importance of Delshad’s program of research in the area of parent emotion socialization and early childhood development, and speaks to her bright future!”