Broadly speaking, my research focuses on the ways in which children’s and adolescents’ peer relationship experiences are associated with their adjustment. For many years, I have also examined how particular social-cognitive processes, including attributions, social goals, strategy knowledge, and self-efficacy perceptions, are related to behavior, peer status, and psychosocial adjustment.

My lab is involved in a variety of studies investigating these issues. For example, we are examining how peer acceptance and friendship (quality and quantity) predict to loneliness, depression, and social anxiety, and whether these associations vary by gender and developmental level. Other work is investigating relations among children’s attributions and goals in response to overt versus relational conflicts with friends, behavior style, friendship quality, social anxiety, and depression. We are also studying the role of certain peer processes (e.g., negative feedback seeking, susceptibility to peer pressure) in predicting depression in young adolescents. In other work with adolescents, we are examining the strategies youth might use when a peer who has been victimized comes to them for support and how effective these strategies might be in promoting more positive adjustment. Finally, our lab is beginning to examine the ways in which electronic forms of communication might impact social functioning and individual adjustment.