STUDENTS--Graduate Study in Adult Development and Aging at Penn State University

Opportunities for Graduate Studies in Adult Development and Aging at Penn State University

The Department of Human Development and Family Studies (HDFS) at Penn State University has a long and distinguished record of doctoral training in adult development and aging.  Students can develop specializations in one or more areas, including cognitive development, daily stress and health, family and social relationships in adulthood, work-family linkages, interventions, and methodologies for studying development and change. For more information about aging research, please visit the Center for Healthy Aging web page (healthyaging.psu.edu), as well as the HDFS web page (http://www.hhdev.psu.edu/hdfs/grad/index.html). Adult development and aging program faculty include:

David Almeida - Stress processes, adult development, family factors in mental health, work and family linkages, fatherhood

Melissa Hardy - Work and retirement, public policy, political attitudes, women's issues and aging, older workers

Steven Zarit - Mental health and aging, especially the stress of caregivers, functioning of the oldest old, innovative models of service delivery

Kelly Davis-work and family linkages, workplace policies and practices, parent-child and couple relationships

Alan Booth - Divorce and remarriage, blended families, marital quality, hormones and family process, adult child-parent relations

David Eggebeen –Intergenerational support over the life course; fatherhood

Lynn Martire – Family relationships and management of chronic illness in adulthood; couple-oriented interventions; chronic pain; late-life depression

Peter Molenaar – Single subject time series analysis, optimal guidance of developmental processes, optimal control of disease processes, analysis of brain imaging data

Nilam Ram – changes in the psychological processes of emotion, cognition, and personality, and how they develop over the life span

Michael Rovine – Structural equation modeling with longitudinal data, time series models applied to single subjects and small sample designs

Martin Sliwinski -- Stress, health and cognitive aging; linking daily experiences to long-term development; analysis of intraindividual variability and change

A variety of sources of financial assistance are available for doctoral students.  These include research assistantships, teaching assistantships, and fellowships.  We have been very successful in funding students throughout their entire time in the Program.

Applications are due January 10, 2012

For more information about admissions procedures, students should contact Mary Jo Spicer, Dept. of Human Development and Family Studies, Henderson S-211, Penn State University, University Park, PA 16802.  Phone 814-863-8001.  E-mail mjs6@psu.edu, or consult the Department's web page at http://www.hhdev.psu.edu/hdfs/grad/index.html

Steven H. Zarit
Professor and Head,
Department of Human Development and Family Studies
Henderson S-211
Penn State University
University Park, PA 16802

Phone: 814.865-5260