HDE Research

Research Units

Students must complete a research contract in order to obtain HDE 099/199 and 190C units. Contracts can be found here. Please be aware that only HDE 199 will apply towards Restricted Elective units (Max of 5 units). 

All completed contracts (signed by Faculty Sponsor/Principal Investigator: PI) must be returned to Jana Krezo  via email.

Students need to receive the research CRN, and must register by the 10th day of instruction/the last day to add. Please note the deadlines to allow time to process the contract before the last day to register.
Department deadline for Fall, Winter, Spring: 2 business days before the 10th day of instruction
Deadline for Summer Sessions I & II: 2 business days before the last day to add

Required Hours: during fall, winter, spring (10-week term)
30 hours (3 hrs/wk) = 1 unit
60 hours (6 hrs/wk) = 2 units
90 hours (9 hrs/wk) = 3 units
120 hours (12 hrs/wk) = 4 units

Required Hours: during regular summer sessions (6-week term)
30 hours (5 hrs/wk) = 1 unit
60 hours (10 hrs/wk) = 2 units
90 hours (15 hrs/wk) = 3 units
120 hours (20 hrs/wk) = 4 units

HDE Faculty Research

Chambers, Brittany - Assistant Professor. BA, University of California, Berkeley; MPH, Fresno State University; PhD, University of North Carolina, Greensboro.
Teaching: Contextual determinants of health
Research: Focuses on understanding and measuring structural racism; examining the relationship between racism and adverse birth outcomes experienced by Black, Indigenous, Other People of Color; developing policy and interventions to dismantle racism.

Choe, Daniel - Assistant Professor. BA, San Diego State University; MS & PhD, University of Michigan.
Research: Development of self-regulation during childhood, its complex associations with parents' mental health and caregiving, and their contributions to the onset of psychopathology; the role of gene–environment interactions and transactional family processes in the development of antisocial behavior.

Falbe, Jennifer - Assistant Professor. BA, Public Health & MPH, Public Health Nutrition, University of California/Berkeley; ScD, Nutrition & ScD, Epidemiology (dual degree), Harvard University.
Research: focuses on studying programmatic, policy, and environmental interventions to prevent chronic disease and reduce health disparities. Current research interests include Culture/Neighborhood/Society, Healthy Retail, Intervention Research, Media, Nutrition, Obesity, Food Policy, Prevention Research, School, Sleep.

Guyer, Amanda - Professor. M.Phil., MA, & PhD, Yale University.
Teaching: Middle childhood and adolescence, Developmental neuroscience and adolescent Psychopathology.
Research: Behavioral and neural function in typical and atypical development, developmental psychopathology, mood and anxiety disorders, behavioral inhibition, social-emotional cue processing, interplay between fear and reward response systems.

Hernandez, Maciel  M.  - Assistant Professor. BA, Claremont McKenna College; PhD, University of California, Davis.
Teaching: Human Development and Family Studies
Research: Child and adolescent academic functioning and socioemotional well-being; sociocultural assets; family socialization; peer and teacher relationship quality in school contexts; school-based preventions and interventions; self-regulation and emotions exhibited in school; longitudinal data analysis.

Hibel, Leah - Associate Professor. BS, John Hopkins University; PhD, Penn State University.
Teaching: Early Childhood Development.
Research: mother-child relationships and physiological regulation; family stress/parenting stress and stress physiology; the transaction among family stress, family relationships, and stress physiology; lactation physiology.

Huo, Meng - Assistant Professor. BS, Beijing Normal University; PhD, The University of Texas, Austin.
Teaching: Adult Development and Aging; Social Aspects of Aging; Research Methods.
Research: Empathy and altruism in later life; effects of helping behaviors (e.g., informal helping, volunteering) on older adults’ social relationships and well-being; mutual support in caregiving dyads.

Liu, Siwei - Associate Professor. BS, Fudan University; MS, MAS, The Pennsylvania State University; PhD, The Pennsylvania State University.
Research: Longitudinal data analysis; family research methods; multilevel models; structural equation modeling; time series analysis; dynamic models.

Miller, Lisa S. - Professor, Director of Adult Development Lab, Vice Chair. BA, Clark University; PhD, University of New Hampshire.
Teaching: Adult Development and Aging; Cognitive Aspects of Aging; Midlife Development.
Research: Effects of age and knowledge on cognitive processes; changes in language processing in late life; effects of motivation on cognition; age-related changes in control beliefs.

Nishina, Adrienne - Associate Professor. BA, PhD, University of California, Los Angeles.
Teaching: Psychological Assessment, Research Methods.
Research: Adolescent mental health; peer relations and peer victimization; ethnicity/contextual moderators; school-based preventions and interventions; psychosocial adjustment and academic functioning; methodological issues.

Ontai, Lenna - Specialist in Cooperative Extension. PhD, University of Nebraska.
Research: Early socialization processes between parents and young children; factors that affect parents' socialization efforts, i.e., income and cultural background, parenting, early social development and child care.

Swartz, Johnna - Assistant Professor. PhD, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.
Research: identifying genetic and brain markers that predict psychological functioning, including the development of mood and anxiety symptoms, in adolescents and young adults; environmental factors, such as stress, that moderate these associations to determine the environmental contexts that increase or mitigate risk.

Trzesniewski, Kali - Specialist in Cooperative Extension; Associate Director of Research for the Statewide 4-H Youth Development Program, Psychologist. Ph.D., University of California, Davis.
Research: personality and social factors and their affect on a person’s developmental course from conception to death, how to raise children to grow up to be healthy, productive members of society; including, finding supportive relationships and having a family, supporting themselves and their family, and not bringing harm to others; developmental origins, developmental course, and interrelations among self-esteem, achievement, and antisocial behavior.