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  Deborah Lowe Vandell
Chair/Professor
Department of Education


Biography

Deborah Lowe Vandell is the Chair of the Department of Education at the University of California, Irvine. She holds a joint appointment in the Department of Psychology and Social Behavior. Prior to these appointments, Professor Vandell was the Sears Bascom Professor of Education at the University of Wisconsin, Madison where she held appointments in Educational Psychology, Human Development and Family Studies, and Psychology.


The author of more than 130 articles, Professor Vandell’s research has focused on the effects of developmental contexts (early child care, schools, after-school programs, families, neighborhoods) on children’s social, behavioral, and academic functioning. As one of the principal investigators with the NICHD Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development, she has conducted an intensive study of the development of 1300 children from birth through age 15 years. This work is viewed by many social scientists as one of the most comprehensive studies of the short-term and long-term effects of early child care and the family to date. For the last 20 years, Professor Vandell also has studied the effects of after-school programs, extracurricular activities and self-care with a particular focus on low-income children of color. This body of work is widely cited as evidence of the benefits after-school programs and activities.


Professor Vandell has served on advisory boards and panels for the National Academy of Science, the National Institutes of Health, the U.S. Department of Education, the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation, W. T Grant Foundation, and the National Institute for Early Education Research. Her testimony before the U.S. Congress and other federal, state, and local governmental bodies has been used to inform policy decisions in early childhood, after-school programming, and K-12 education. Her professional service has included terms as an Associate Editor of the journal Child Development and on the Editorial Boards of the Journal of Educational Psychology, Developmental Psychology, Journal of Family Issues, and Contemporary Psychology.


Professor Vandell received the faculty distinguished achievement award in the School of Education at the University of Wisconsin and a distinguished teaching award at the University of Texas at Dallas. She is a fellow of the American Psychological Association and the American Psychological Society.



Research Statement

“I have longstanding interests in three areas: (1) early care and education – its effects on children’s social, cognitive, and behavioral development and strategies for improving the quality of early care and education, (2) after school programs and activities - their impact on children and youth and strategies for improving the quality of after-school programs, and (3) children’s relationships with peers, parents, siblings, teachers, and mentors as developmental and educational contexts. My work typically involves mixed methods, including observations, interviews, and surveys and spans infancy through adolescence.”



Recent Publications
Children’s Social Relationships
  • Vandell, D. L., Nenide, L., & Van Winkle, S. J. (2006). Peer relationships in early childhood. In K. McCartney & D. Phillips (Eds.), The Blackwell handbook of early childhood development (pp. 455-470). Oxford, UK: Blackwell Publishing.
  • Vandell, D. L., McCartney, K., Owen, M. T., Booth, C., & Clarke-Stewart, A. (2003). Variations in child care by grandparents during the first three years. Journal of Marriage and Family, 65(2), 375-381.
  • *NICHD Early Child Care Research Network. (2001). Child care and children’s peer interaction at 24 and 36 months: The NICHD Study of Early Child Care. Child Development, 72(5), 1478-1500.
  • Vandell, D. L. (2000). Parents, peer groups, and other socializing influences. Developmental Psychology, 36(6), 699-710.

Early Child Care
  • *Belsky, J., Vandell, D. L., Burchinal, M., Clarke-Stewart, A., McCartney, K., Owen, M. & NICHD Early Child Care Research Network. (in press). Are There Long-Term Efforts of Early Child Care? Child Development.
  • *NICHD Early Child Care Research Network. (Eds.). (2005). Child care and child development: Results from the NICHD Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development. New York: Guilford.
  • *NICHD Early Child Care Research Network. (2005). Early child care and children’s development in the primary grades: Follow-up results from the NICHD Study of Early Child Care. American Educational Research Journal, 42(3), 537-570.
  • Vandell, D. L. (2004). Early child care: The known and the unknown. Merrill- Palmer Quarterly, 50(3), 387-414.

After-School Programs/ Out of School Time
  • Vandell, D. L., Pierce, K. M., & Dadisman, K. (2005). Out-of-school settings as a developmental context for children and youth. In R. V. Kail (Ed.), Advances in child development and behavior (Vol. 33, pp. 43-77). New York: Academic.
  • Vandell, D. L., Shernoff, D. J., Pierce, K. M., Bolt, D. M., Dadisman, K., & Brown, B. B. (2005). Activities, engagement, and emotion in after-school programs (and elsewhere). In H. B. Weiss, P. M. D. Little, & S. M. Bouffard (Eds.), New directions for youth development: No. 105. Participation in youth programs: Enrollment, attendance, and engagement (pp. 121-129). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
  • Vandell, D. L., Shumow, L., & Posner, J. (2005). After-school programs for low- income children: Differences in program quality. In J. L. Mahoney, R. W. Larson, & J. S. Eccles (Eds.), Organized activities as contexts of development: Extracurricular activities, after school and community programs (pp. 437-456). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
  • *NICHD Early Child Care Research Network. (2004). Are child developmental outcomes related to before- and after-school care arrangements? Results from the NICHD Study of Early Child Care. Child Development, 75(1), 280-295.

*Deborah Vandell is a member of the NICHD Early Child Care Research Network and a contributing author to the designated papers. The Network is presenting all research pertaining to its core hypotheses under the corporate banner, rather than individually named authors, in recognition of the collaborative nature of the study.






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