People

Research interests

My research spans several topics relating to social, cognitive and language development in early childhood (0-4 years). Current research projects examine how and what children learn from their social world with a particular focus on the development of socio-cultural competence in early childhood. To become socio-culturally competent children need to learn how to act and communicate with others in a way that is appropriate within the context in which they are living. In human societies, this typically involves learning how to coordinate ones actions with others in non-linguistic and linguistic collaborative activities. One goal of my research programme is to identify the factors that will promote the development of children’s socio-cultural competence thereby enhancing children’s chances of having the best start to life in their social world.

Roles and Responsibilities of AHDA President

Paul Jose received his B.A. in psychology from the University of Missouri, Columbia in 1974, and his Ph.D. in developmental psychology from Yale University in 1980. His field of study has historically been social developmental psychology, but he has conducted studies and published articles in educational psychology, clinical psychology, social psychology, cross-cultural psychology, and statistics. Currently, his main areas of interest are adolescent development, positive youth development, and statistical mediation and moderation.

Dr Dittman is Lecturer in Psychology in the School of Health, Medical and Applied Sciences at Central Queensland University and an Honorary Research Fellow at the Parenting and Family Support Centre at The University of Queensland. She is a developmental psychologist interested in the impact of parenting and parent-child relationships on child and adolescent development and wellbeing. She has particular expertise in the field of evidence-based parenting programs and their capacity to promote important developmental skills and outcomes, including positive development, self-regulation and behavioural and emotional adjustment. Her recent research includes positive parenting in junior sport, the influence of parent-adolescent relationships in the positive development and mental health of adolescents and emerging adults, and the development of adolescent-specific measures of adolescent functioning, parenting, and the parent-adolescent relationship.

Roles and Responsibilities of AHDA Secretary

Dr Stuart is a Lecturer in the School of Applied Psychology at Griffith University. She is a developmental and cultural psychologist who specalises in adolescent wellbeing and is specifically interested in identity development at the intersection of social and technological change. She has particular expertise in the promotion of positive outcomes for diverse and vulnerable youth and the examination of socio-cultural contexts as influences on development. Her recent research projects have examined issues such as bullying, immigration, religiosity, discrimination, disability, sexuality, peer interactions and family relationships. Dr Stuart also maintains strong interests in methodology and employs both advanced quantitative and qualitative analytics. She is currently an Adjunct Fellow at both the Roy McKenzie Centre for the Study of Families and the Centre for Applied Cross-Cultural Research at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand.

Roles and Responsibilities of AHDA Treasurer

Biography

Riley Scott is a PhD Candidate in the Griffith University School of Applied Psychology. Her research interests focus on adolescent and young adults’ intrapersonal characteristics and use of the Internet and social media. For her PhD research, Riley is currently using quantitative and qualitative data to investigate how young adults develop and maintain their friendships both on and offline, and how context-specific affordances and experiences unique to the digital or online environment affect how people think, feel and act. Riley is particularly interested in determining whether there are benefits of interacting online for socially anxious and shy young adults, in both their ability to develop and maintain friendships and for their broader social well-being.

Roles and Responsibilities of AHDA Newsletter Editor

I am a PhD Candidate supervised by Dr Annette Henderson in the Early Learning Lab at The University of Auckland. I completed my Bachelor of Arts in Psychology, with a minor in Biology at Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma, Washington, USA. My research focuses on how parents influence children’s social development. Specifically, my work examines how parental personality factors influence child cooperative development.

Roles and Responsibilities of Junior Members at Large