Positive Social Development Lab at Virginia Tech

12/20/2025

Happy Holidays! We wish you a joyful season and great year ahead! 🎄☃️🎉

09/22/2025

The VT Developmental Science Network maintains a network of families interested in developmental science projects. If you sign up, researchers in Psychology and Human Development and Family Science at Virginia Tech will contact you with details about opportunities for your family. If you are interested, please fill out the form at vtdevsci.cs.vt.edu (or, use the QR code in the flier attached). If you have any questions, please contact us at VT.DevSci.Network@vt.edu. Thank you for your interest and support in advancing science.

09/15/2025

Meet the newest members of the PSD Lab! 🎉 Charlotte, Chloe and Neelam joined our team this Fall 2025. We're thrilled to have them on board!

06/22/2025

Our lab is out at Lavender Fest at Beliveau Farm Winery today! We’re soaking in the beautiful scenery, meeting wonderful people, and recruiting participants for our research.

If you're here at the festival, stop by and say hello! We’d love to chat, answer questions, and share how you can get involved.

05/20/2025

Our lab is now on Instagram! We’ll be sharing updates on our research, projects, and lab activities. Follow us to stay connected!

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05/11/2025

We had a wonderful time at the SRCD 2025 Biennial Meeting in Minneapolis! 🎉
Our PI, Dr. Zehra Gulseven, co-organized the moral development pre-conference and presented one of her research papers during a symposium. Our graduate students also shared their research during the poster sessions.
We're grateful for the opportunity to present our work, connect with colleagues, and be part of such a vibrant research community. Looking forward to next time!

04/25/2025

Our undergraduate research assistants Jaya Powell, Brianna Leon, and Xi Zeng presented their posters at the Dennis Dean Undergraduate Research and Creative Scholarship Conference today. Congratulations to them! 🎉🎉

11/02/2024

🎉 Last week, we had a great time at the Research Mixer, where we introduced our lab and shared our ongoing projects with students from across disciplines! 🌟

If you're interested in learning more about what we do or want to get involved, check out our website!

https://support.psyc.vt.edu/labs/psd

10/07/2024

Dr. Caroline Hornburg and her colleagues published a book series called Our Mathematical World (OMW). This is a series of five illustrated books that are designed to support elementary school students in their mathematical problem-solving skills, executive functions, math vocabulary, and math identity. HDFS doctoral student Isabel Valdivia, doctoral alumna Jisun Kim, and undergraduate alumna Ninie Asad were part of the team that developed these books. The books are available on Amazon in both English and Spanish, with net proceeds going toward the creation of new educational books for children. We are so proud of these incredible HDFS scholars!

09/27/2024

Meet our new undergraduate research assistant, Anna! Welcome to the team!

09/04/2024

🎉 Exciting Publication Alert! 🎉

We are thrilled to share that our PI, Dr. Zehra Gulseven, along with co-authors Dr. Sandra D. Simpkins, Dr. Su Jiang, and Dr. Deborah Lowe Vandell, have just published a new article.

The study, titled "Patterns of Afterschool Settings: Are They Related to Changes in Academic and Social Functioning in Children and Adolescents?", explores how different afterschool settings impact children's and adolescents' academic and social outcomes over time.

Read the full article here:

https://doi.org/10.1080/10888691.2024.2385425

08/21/2024

🚨 New Publication Alert! 🚨

Congratulations to our PI, Dr. Zehra Gulseven, for co-authoring a new article in the Journal of Adolescence!

Title: Measuring Early Adolescents’ Prosocial Behavior Toward Diverse Others: Considering Multiple Social Identities

📄 Read it here:

Introduction In a diverse society, individuals often need to make prosocial decisions toward others who vary on a range of intertwined social identities. Adolescence is a prime time to promote inter...