Department of psychology

Graduate Program
Child and Adolescent Psychology

Child and Adolescent Psychology at Kent State University

The field of child development is devoted to understanding basic processes of change, in particular, how biological and experiential factors cause children’s social, emotional, and cognitive functioning to change as they grow older. The field grew out of an interest in understanding how childhood experiences can shape subsequent development. The area of child and adolescent psychology is rapidly growing. The demand for developmental and child clinical psychologists to fill clinical, teaching, and research positions is growing, as is the amount of research funding. This is an opportune time to gain expertise in this field.

The child and adolescent psychology area has three central research and training foci:

• Cognitive development
• Developmental psychopathology
• Development in the context of close relationships

PhD Training

• Graduate students can obtain a PhD in Child Clinical Psychology (clinical Ph.D. program) or Developmental Psychology (experimental Ph.D. program) . Regardless of training area, the student is expected to gain a thorough understanding in both normative and atypical development.
  
  
• Training in the Child and Adolescent Psychology program is interdisciplinary. Developmental students can work with child clinical faculty and vice versa.
  
  
• Research Training. Research training in child and adolescent psychology is designed to develop the student into a highly skilled developmental or child clinical scientist
  
  
  • During the first two years the student takes graduate courses that cover developmental (cognitive development, social development) and/or child clinical research (child psychopathology, pediatric psychology). In addition, the student gains expertise in ethnic minority and cultural issues in development and adaptation as well as in both statistics and research methods. Those who want to further develop their quantitative skills have the opportunity to participate in the quantitative psychology minor.
    
    
  • During regularly scheduled meetings of the “child brownbag,” graduate students and faculty present research findings or discuss state of the art research in developmental psychology. Many students and faculty also participate in other departmental brownbags such as the cognitive or quantitative brownbag.
    
    
  • There are several ongoing research collaborations among faculty in the Child and Adolescent psychology program. Many faculty and students also have active research collaborations with other faculty at the local (e.g. Akron Children’s Hospital, Akron Public Schools, Upward Bound, Community Youth Organizations, Institute for the Study and Prevention of Violence, MetroHealth Medical Center) and national (e.g. University of Minnesota, Georgia Tech University) level. These collaborations provide opportunities for students to get involved in research and develop a network of professional relationships.
    
    
  • Graduate students are actively involved in faculty research and generally involved in publications and conference presentations. Students are actively encouraged to develop their own research program, and attend the research conferences that are sponsored by these organizations (e.g. American Psychological Association, American Psychological Society, Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapy, Midwestern Psychological Association, National Council on Family Relations, Psychonomics, National Latino Psychological Association, National Multicultural Conference and Summit, Society for Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics, Society for Pediatric Psychology, Society for Research in Child Development, Society for Research on Adolescence).
    
    
• Clinical Training: Students complete the course requirements for the clinical training program, including courses that focus specifically on child clinical psychology (child psychopathology, child assessment, child psychotherapy, family therapy). Students have the opportunity to gain experience in evidence-based treatment (e.g. Triple P) and participate in a number of clinical practica:
  
  
  • 2nd year: General (adult) practicum in the Psychological Clinic.
  • 3rd year: Child/family practicum. This practicum includes assessment and intervention with children, adolescents, and their families.
  • 4th year: Clinical placement in a setting specialized in the assessment and treatment of children and families (e.g. mental healthcenter, medical/pediatric setting).
  • 5th year: Clinical internship.
    
    
• Teaching. Students are encouraged to become involved in undergraduate teaching. During the beginning of the 3rd year, the student has the opportunity to take a teaching seminar and, with the supervision of a faculty member, teach one or several undergraduate courses (e.g. child psychology, social and personality development, cognitive development, adolescent psychology)

Resources

• Faculty and students have access to recently renovated lab space in the department.
• The research labs at KSU include state of the art equipment (e.g., observational, Podcasting), software (e.g., Direct RT, Mplus), and technology for delivering interventions.
• Several faculty members also have access to lab space and resources at local facilities including several regional general (e.g. SUMMA Health system, MetroHealth Medical Center) and pediatric hospitals (e.g. Akron Children’s Hospital).
• Several faculty work with large-scale existing data sets including the NICHD Child Care Study and the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health.

Faculty with Related Interests

• Dr. John Akamatsu (Assessment): Individual and conjoint family therapy.
• Dr. Yossi Ben-Porath (Assessment): MMPI-2 and MMPI-A applications in a variety of settings (clinical, correctional, forensic, and pre-employment screening) and computerized adaptive testing with the MMPI instruments
• Dr. Janis Crowther (Adult Psychopathology): Sociocultural and familial factors that increase risk for body image disturbance and maladaptive eating attitudes and behaviors.
• Dr. Douglas Delahanty (Biopsychology): Psychobiological predictors and correlates of PTSD in child trauma victims.
• Dr. John Dunlosky (Cognitive): Memory, metamemory, self-regulated learning, comprehension, and cognitive aging.
• Dr. Stevan Hobfoll (Clinical Health): Extreme stress (PTSD) and behavioral disease prevention among women (HIV/AIDS), focusing on history of interpersonal violence/sexual abuse and their impact on physical and psychological health
• Dr. Katherine Rawson (Cognitive): Promoting elementary and middle-school students’ memory and comprehension of classroom materials and their ability to assess their own memory and comprehension for those materials.
• Dr. Maria Zaragoza (Cognitive): Factors that affect young children's eyewitness memory

Interested in Child and Adolescent Psychology at Kent State University?

If you are considering applying to our graduate program in developmental or child clinical psychology and would like to learn more about these programs, feel free to contact Dr. Beth Wildman (child clinical) or Dr. Manfred van Dulmen (developmental).