Faculty News
Human Development and Family Studies
Sherry Willis, professor of human development, recently published the results of her ACTIVE project, a national, randomized clinical trial of cognitive interventions funded by the National Institute on Aging (NIA) and the National Institute of Nursing Research. Willis’s work was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association in December. Willis and her co-authors at the study’s six sites showed that people who were trained to do mental exercises had less of a decline in certain thinking skills than those who were not.
The Family Life Project, a large study following a cohort of children and parents living in Central Pennsylvania, is being refunded for an additional five years. Dr. Mark Greenberg, Edna Peterson Bennett Endowed Chair in Prevention Research and director of the Prevention Research Center, is principal investigator of the project, which examines the influence of biological and social factors on development.
Dr. Rukmalie Jayakody, associate professor of human development and family studies, has been conducting research in Vietnam, where she is looking at the effects of the introduction of television into remote areas of the country.
Dr. Richard Fiene, associate professor of human development and family studies, director of the Capital Area Health and Human Development Institute, and senior research associate in the Prevention Research Center, was co-principal investigator on a major Pennsylvania study assessing the effectiveness of the Keystone Stars Quality Rating System, which is used to improve the overall quality of early care and education programs throughout the state. The year-long evaluation was conducted by Fiene and researchers from the University of Pittsburgh’s Office of Child Development and the Office of Child Development in the Department of Public Welfare. According to Fiene, the results of the study “clearly demonstrated the effectiveness of the Keystone Stars Quality Rating System in improving the overall quality of early care and education programs.” For more information about the Capital Area Early Childhood Training Institute, visit www.hhdev.psu.edu/cahhdi/.
