Research

 

 

My current research focuses on three areas:

 

(a) adolescent-parent relationships and adolescent development in different cultural contexts. We are currently conducting several studies of disclosure and nondisclosure in adolescent-parent relationships. We are focusing on adolescents' strategies for managing information about their everyday activities and parents' strategies for remaining informed about what their adolescents are doing;

(b) the development of young children's moral and social knowledge, including the development of and conceptual distinctions between children's understanding of moral and social- conventional rules and transgressions, relationships among social knowledge, affect, and behavior, and contextual influences on social and moral judgments; and

(c) parents' parenting beliefs and their relationships to parenting practices and child outcomes.

 

For more detail, please visit the Social Development and Family Processes Research Group website.

 

For more information, please visit Dr. Smetana's faculty page in the Developmental Program area.

 

Recent and Forthcoming Publications

 

In press

 

• Smetana, J.G., Jambon, M., Conry-Murray, C., & Sturge-Apple, M. (in press). Reciprocal associations between young children's developing moral judgments and theory of mind. Developmental Psychology.
• Rote, W., & Smetana, J.G. (in press). Associations between observed parent-child interactions and adolescents' information management. Journal of Research on Adolescence.
• Smetana, J.G., Rote, W.M., Jambon, M., Tasopoulos-Chan, M., Villalobos, M., & Comer, J. (in press). Developmental changes and individual differences in young children's moral judgments. Child Development.
• Jambon, M.M., & Smetana, J.G. (in press). College students' moral evaluations of illegal music downloading. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology.

 

  2011

 

• Smetana, J.G. (2011).  Adolescents, families, and social development:  How adolescents construct their worlds.   West Sussex, England:  Wiley-Blackwell, Inc.
• Amsel, E., & Smetana, J.G. (Eds.,) (2011). Adolescent vulnerabilities and opportunities:  Constructivist and developmental perspectives.  New York:  Cambridge University Press.
• Assadi, S., Smetana, J.G., Shahmansouri, N., & Mohammadi, M.R. (2011). Beliefs about parental authority, parenting styles, and adolescent-parent conflict among Iranian mothers of middle adolescents. International Journal of Behavioral Development, 35, 424-431.
• Smetana, J.G. (2011). Parenting beliefs, parenting, and parent-adolescent communication in African American families. In N.E. Hill, T. Mann, & H. Fitzgerald (Eds.), African American children’s mental health: Development and context., Vol 1 (pp. 173-197). New York: Praeger Press.
• Rote, W., & Smetana, J.G. (2011). Social cognition. In B.B. Brown & M. Prinstein (Eds.), Encyclopedia of Adolescence. Oxford, England: Elsevier.
• Smetana, J.G. (2011). Adolescents’ social reasoning and relationships with parents: Conflicts and coordinations within and across domains. In E. Amsel & J. Smetana (Eds.), Adolescent vulnerabilities and opportunities: Constructivist and developmental perspectives., (pp. 139-158). New York: Cambridge University Press.

 

  2010

 

• Campione-Barr, N., & Smetana, J.G. (2010).  "Who said you could wear my sweater?" Adolescent-sibling conflict and associations with relationship quality.  Child Development, 81, 463-471.
• Smetana, J.G., Villalobos, M., Rogge, R.D., & Tasopoulos-Chan, M. (2010).  Keeping secrets from parents:  Daily variations among poor, urban adolescents.  Journal of Adolescence, 33, 321-331.
• Metzger, A., & Smetana, J.G. (2010).  Social cognitive approaches to civic engagement.  In L. Sherrod, J. Torney-Purta, & C. Flanagan (Eds.), Handbook of Research on Civic Engagement in Youth.  Wiley-Blackwell.
• Smetana, J.G. (2010).  The role of trust in adolescent-parent relationships:  To trust you is to tell you.  In K. Rotenberg (Ed.), Trust and trustworthiness during childhood and adolescence (pp. 223-246).  Cambridge, England:  Cambridge University Press.

  2009

 

• Metzger, A., & Smetana, J.G. (2009).  Civic and political engagement in late adolescence:  Domain-specific judgments and behaviors.  Child Development, 80, 433-441.
• Smetana, J.G., Tasopoulos-Chan, M., Villalobos, M., Gettman, D.C., & Campione-Barr, N. (2009).  Adolescents' and parents' evaluations of helping vs. fulfilling personal desires.  Child Development , 80, 280-294.
• Yau, J., Smetana, J.G., & Metzger, A. (2009).  Young Chinese children's authority concepts.  Social Development, 18, 210-229.
• Yau, J.Y., Tasopoulos-Chan, M., & Smetana, J.G. (2009).  Disclosure to parents about everyday activities among American adolescents from Mexican, Chinese, and European backgrounds.  Child Development, 80, 1481-1498.
• Tasopoulos-Chan, M., Smetana, J.G., & Yau, J.Y. (2009).  How much do I tell thee?  Strategic management of information with parents among American adolescents from Mexican, Chinese, and European backgrounds.  Journal of Family Psychology, 23, 364-374.
• Smetana, J.G., Villalobos, M., Tasopoulos-Chan, M., Gettman, D.C., & Campione-Barr, N. (2009).  Early and middle adolescents' disclosure to parents about their activities in different domains.  Journal of Adolescence, 32, 693-713.
• Smetana, J.G., & Villalobos, M. (2009).  Social-cognitive development during adolescence. In R. L. Lerner & L. Steinberg (Eds.), Handbook of Adolescent Psychology, 3rd Ed., Vol. 1 (pp. 187-208) .  New York:  Wiley.

 

 

Current and Recent Graduate Students

 

• Courtney Ball, Ph.D. Student
• Jessamy Comer, Ph.D. Student

     2nd Year Project: Discrepancies in Parents and adolescents' perceptions of family decision-making and their

    association with adolescents' disclosure to parents.

• Marc Jambon, Ph.D. Student

    2nd Year Project: For the greater good:  Children's moral and psychological understanding of necessary harm.

• Marina Tasopoulos
  2nd Year Project: Happy, sad & mad:  The link between family discussions about emotions and child social competence.

    Ph.D. Dissertation:  Adolescents' information management with parents and adjustment:  A study of

    American adolescents from European, Mexican, and Chinese backgrounds.

• Myriam Villalobos
  2nd Year Project:  Latino values and adolescent-parent relationships: The influence of familism and respeto on adolescent disclosure, lying, and conflict with parents.
• Wendy Rote, Ph.D. Student

    2nd Year Project:  Associations between observed parent-child interactions and adolescents' information

    management.

• Aaron Metzger, Ph.D. (2007) - Assistant Professor, West Virginia University
  Ph.D. Dissertation:  Domain-specific judgments of civic and political engagement in late adolescence:  Associations with adolescent activity involvement
  

• Nicole Campione-Barr, Ph.D. (2006) - Assistant Professor, University of Missouri-Columbia
  Ph.D. Dissertation: The Impact of Sibling Relationships on Parent-Adolescent Relationships and Adolescent Autonomy Development

 

Recent Courses Taught

 

• CSP 278 - Adolescent Development
• CSP 383 - Moral Development
• CSP 563 - Adolescent Development
• CSP 569 - Developmental Theory and Research
• CSP 583 - Moral Development

 

Grants

 

Compassionate Love in Adolescent-Parent Relations.  Grant funded by the Fetzer Institute; Judith Smetana, Principal Investigator, August 2009 - July 2011.

 

Recent Honors and Distinctions

 

University of Rochester Susan B. Anthony Leadership Center Career Award, 2008

 

Secretary, Society for Research in Child Development, 2003-2009

 

Associate Editor, Child Development, 1998-2004

 

Current and Previous Editorial Boards:

• Child Development
• Developmental Psychology
• Human Development
• Parenting:  Science & Practice
• Social Development