Behavioral Science Research Division (BSRD)

The goals of the Behavioral Science Research Division (BSRD) are to conduct basic research on children’s behavioral, cognitive, and emotional development using multiple levels of analyses and longitudinal methodologies. As such, we are interested in the genetic, psychobiological, familial, community, and school influences on the integrated development of the child’s self, including the emergence of self-regulation, executive functioning, academic achievement, and prosocial and conduct problem behaviors. Recent research of the BSRD has been funded by the National Science Foundation through the Child Research Initiative in 2001 and then the Integrative Research Activities for Developmental Science in 2006. These basic research grants have provided past and ongoing funding for the Durham Child Health and Development Study with the use of a multidisciplinary approach to the longitudinal study of children’s emotional, behavioral, and cognitive development. In addition, the BSRD is supported by other research grants from NSF and NIH led by Drs. Martha J. Cox (Director of the BSRD), Peter A. Ornstein, Roger Mills-Koonce (Associate Director of the BSRD), Cathi B. Propper, Michael J. Shanahan, and Vangie A. Foshee, in addition to other collaborating investigators. This research division has supported early career researchers in developing successful applications to begin their own related lines of research. Specific issues addressed by the research of the BSRD include the following:

• The genetic and environmental influence on biobehavioral regulation during the early years of life

• Transgenerational effects of poverty on parents’ and children’s psychobiological responses to stress

• The experiential effects on age-related changes in children’s memory

• The effects of genetic, psychophysiological, and environmental influences on regulatory and executive functioning abilities during the transition to school

• The effects of parenting, parent-child relationships, and family functioning on the development of self-regulation and the transition to school for children living in poor, rural communities

• Measuring attachment representation in middle childhood and understanding the role of attachment representation as a mediator of the effects of early parenting experiences on later child behavior and self-development

• The effects of parenting and attachment quality on the emergence of early onset conduct problems with and without callous and unemotional traits