Three adolescent girls stand next to a bank of blue lockers, talking and laughing

Child and Adolescent Development

Understanding curiosity and motivation, reimagining middle school, discovering new insights into autism and neuroscience, and more – at UVA EHD, we are working to understand every facet of how young people become healthy, thriving adults.

25%
of students say a teacher or school counselor has had an indelible impact on their success

Positive Youth Development

With a strengths-based focus, our research and services engage directly with youth and explore the possibilities of a future that is built around youth and their developmental needs.

Two middle school girls sit in a classroom, looking at a laptop together and smiling
Youth-Nex

At Youth-Nex: the UVA Center to Promote Effective Youth Development, we're applying the science of positive youth development to address fundamental challenges facing societies around the world. 

A school bus sits in front of an empty playground on a cloudy day
Youth Violence Project

With leading experts in youth violence prevention and school safety, we offer research, training and consultation.

A teacher with dark hair in an orange sweatshirt stands in a classroom talking and laughing with two middle school age boys
Remaking Middle School

What would it look like if we completely reimagined middle school – this time, around the developmental science of what adolescents actually need?

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Supporting Transformative Autism Research

The STAR initiative, led by UVA EHD in partnership with colleagues across the University, aims to improve the lives of individuals with autism through groundbreaking research and innovative models for intervention and training.

Visit STAR

Related News: Child & Adolescent Development

Research: Child & Adolescent Development

Explore the latest EHD research and resources related to Child and Adolescent Development.

YN YPAR Youth: Decision Tree

This charting your course resource for youth provides a decision tree with links to resources as teens decision their next steps.

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YN YPAR Youth: Problem Identification

This charting-your-course resource for youth describes steps to identify the problems that matter most to youth.

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YN YPAR Youth: Problem Clarification

This charting-your-course resource for youth describes strategies to gain a more comprehensive understanding of the problem youth identify.

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YN YPAR Youth: Problem Statement

This charting-your-course resource for youth describes how to create a focused statement that describes a challenge or issue you intend to address.

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YN YPAR Youth: Data Review

This charting-your-course resource for youth describes how to review existing information and data.

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YN YPAR Youth: Action Plan

This charting-your-course resource for youth describes how to outline the steps necessary to address the problem.

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Portrait Resource for Parents

This resources provides tips and takeaways for caregivers using the Portrait of a Thriving Youth framework of developmental domains.

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Research Labs: Child & Adolescent Development

  • MOTIVATE
  • Research Lab

Motivate Lab

The Motivate Lab is driven to improve people’s lives through rigorous motivation research and to understand the mindsets that promote learning, growth, and well-being.

  • PIT CREW
  • Research Lab

Preventive Interventions Team: Collaborative Research on Engagement and Wellbeing

We are a multidisciplinary and transdisciplinary research lab with a focus on prevention interventions that optimize implementation of evidence-based practices to improve behavior, classroom, and school experiences for youth and school personnel, and/or reduce risk for behavioral and mental health problems. 

  • READY
  • Research Lab

Relationships, Ecologies and Activities for Developing Youth Lab

We are interested in how settings and interactions can be optimized to best meet adolescents’ developmental needs. In particular, we are focused on the role that relationships (with peers, mentors, non-familial adults) and activities play in adolescent development.

  • RMS
  • Research Lab

Remaking Middle School

Remaking Middle School is a multi-phase initiative, elevating the innovation that is present in middle schools across the country and soliciting national input on how we ensure all students thrive in, and grow from, their experience in the middle grades. 
 

  • REAL
  • Research Lab

Research in Education and Learning Lab

The Research in Education and Learning Lab at UVA, directed by Jamie Jirout, focuses on questions related to STEM learning and motivation from a cognitive developmental perspective. 

Visit the Full REAL Lab website.

  • Research Lab

UVA Social Development Lab

The UVA Social Development Lab, directed by Sara Rimm-Kaufman, addresses pressing questions in education science from an interdisciplinary perspective. Learn more at our full website.

UVA Social Development Lab

  • YVP
  • Research Lab

Youth Violence Project

The Virginia Youth Violence Project is a research group composed of faculty and graduate students in the UVA School of Education and Human Development. We conduct research on youth violence prevention and school safety and provide training and consultation on topics such as threat assessment, bullying prevention, and forensic psychology. Through our work, we have developed strong evidence in support of school threat assessment as a school violence prevention strategy and alternative to zero tolerance discipline.

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