Graduate Program

The Human Development and Family Studies Graduate Program is designed to educate students about research, theory, and methodology related to the study of individuals and families across diverse populations and diverse settings. There is a strong interest in the ways in which social institutions and settings such as day care facilities, schools, neighborhoods, and social policy institutions facilitate (or inhibit) opportunities for development and change for individuals and families.

Understanding the characteristics and conditions that place individuals or families at risk for developing problems, designing effective prevention programs to address those risks, and mounting rigorous evaluations of such programs is a growing emphasis in the program.

All students, regardless of substantive area, are encouraged to develop strong skills in research methods, a hallmark of our graduate training.Through course work and apprenticeship experiences, students develop an understanding of the program's multi-disciplinary, life span/life course, and applied orientation; the program also aims to build students' competence in developmental research methods.As students progress through the program, they are expected to develop specialized expertise in two or more of the department's areas of concentration: individual development, family studies, intervention research and research methods.

Further specialization is possible in adult development and aging, biological bases of behavior, child and adolescent development, cognitive development and functioning, family relationships, integrative theories of human development, interpersonal relationships, and social-emotional development and change.

The Human Development and Family Studies Graduate Program at Penn State was established in 1969. Since that time, more than 400 graduate students have completed their post-baccalaureate studies in the department. In the 2006 edition of U.S. News and World Reports: America's Best Graduate Schools, our HDFS program was rated 6th among all developmental psychology graduate programs.

Examples of Graduate Student Work

Graduate Plans of Study in HDFS

The Department is organized into program areas:

There is purposeful overlap in research and course work across these areas. For example, faculty focus on individual development in the context of family relationships, developing new methods to understand individual and family development over time, and evaluating programs designed to strengthen individual competencies and family functioning. Most faculty fit into more than one area, and graduate students are expected to develop special expertise in two or more areas. Graduate training in HDFS offers students a tantalizing smorgasbord of opportunities. Each student makes different choices, and in doing so, defines his or her evolving professional identity.