Family and Development Lab

Welcome to the Family & Development Lab at Providence College! At the Family & Development Lab—affectionately known as FamDev—we explore the dynamic interactions between marital conflict, parent-child attachment, and parenting on child development. To do this, we use interviews, questionnaires, videotaped observations, and games to help us better understand how family members interact with each other and how this influences growing children and adolescents.

We recently completed Time 1 of our study with families with two parents (married or living together with biological, step, or adopted children) with a child between 5 and 9 years old. If your family participated in Time 1, keep an eye on your email for your future invitation to participate in Time 2 (one year after your first visit).

We are currently planning our next research project, so please check back for details. You can also register your family and we’ll send you details about opportunities your family qualifies for as they become available.

What Do We Do?

Our research wouldn’t be possible without families like yours! At the Family & Development Lab, our goal is to better understand how families work and how everyday interactions between family members impact child development. To help us do so, we rely on families in our community to participate in our research. With help from families like yours, we can learn so much about child development and everyday family interactions through activities like games, engaging in conversations about everyday topics, and simply telling us about what things are like in your family.
Sound like fun?  Register your family.