Research Spotlight: Elizabeth Farley-Ripple
November 20, 2025
School leaders—like assistant principals, principals and superintendents—often determine how educational research is used in planning, decision-making and implementing initiatives that improve students’ academic or developmental outcomes. Yet, not all education doctorate (Ed.D.) programs—which lead to the highest attainable degree for school leaders—focus on understanding and using research to examine practical …
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Making an impact in the lives of LGBTQ+ students
October 29, 2025
As a queer person who once struggled with their mental health, University of Delaware graduate student Lauren Dombrowski keenly understands how important it is to support LGBTQ+ youth in schools. As a high schooler, Dombrowski created a website with mental health resources for their LGBTQ+ peers, placing QR codes on …
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Creating Safe Spaces for LGBTQ+ Youth
October 10, 2025
During adolescence—a period defined by rapid physical, emotional and social development—LGBTQ+ youth often grapple with the decision to “come out” to their family or friends and disclose their gender and/or sexual identities. As University of Delaware research has shown, many LGBTQ+ young people avoid coming out, fearing rejection, social isolation …
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Research Spotlight: Eric Layland
October 10, 2025
National Coming Out Day continues to be a reminder that LGBTQ+ individuals make a brave decision to disclose their identities to family, friends and community members. Many LGBTQ+ people experience mental health symptoms due to ongoing discrimination, and Delaware adolescents are especially at risk. In one of the first studies …
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CEHD Welcomes New Faculty Members in Social Work
September 3, 2025
This fall, the University of Delaware College of Education and Human Development (CEHD) welcomes two new faculty members specializing in social work. These faculty members bolster CEHD’s masters of social work (MSW) program, deepening the college’s existing expertise in supporting vulnerable communities and children, youth and families. Abram J. Lyons …
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Research Spotlight: Eric Layland
June 26, 2025
For many communities across the nation, Pride Month is a time to celebrate the challenges that LGBTQ+ people have faced and overcome. But the month of June also reminds parents, educators and human service professionals that LGBTQ+ individuals continue to grapple with the mental health effects of social stigma, especially …
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New CEHD Faculty Scholar
October 9, 2024
Roderick L. Carey, associate professor in the College of Education and Human Development’s (CEHD) Department of Human Development and Family Sciences (HDFS), has been appointed as the CEHD Faculty Scholar. This endowed position seeks to recruit and retain outstanding young scholars in the field of human development and family sciences. …
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Research Spotlight: Roderick L. Carey
February 29, 2024
What comes next after high school graduation? While this question can be vexing for many students, adolescents from low-income Black and Latinx communities face many barriers in imagining and actualizing life after high school. Many educators help these students persevere by adopting a “college-for-all” school culture, but few studies have …
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Research Spotlight: Eric K. Layland
September 5, 2023
In a new, first-of-its-kind study published in the Journal of Youth and Adolescence, University of Delaware Assistant Professor Eric K. Layland and co-authors Richard Bränström of the Karolinska Institutet and Gabriel Murchison and John Pachankis of Yale University investigated the timing of developmental milestones for more than 100,000 lesbian, gay …
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Research Spotlight: Christina Areizaga Barbieri
May 22, 2023
Christina Areizaga Barbieri, University of Delaware assistant professor, Dana Miller-Cotto of Kent State University and UD doctoral students Sarah N. Clerjuste and Kamal Chawla conducted a meta-analysis of 55 experimental studies and found that studying worked examples—or worked-out solutions to math problems—were moderately effective at improving learners’ mathematics performance when …
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Research Spotlight: Rosalie Rolón-Dow
March 27, 2023
In a new study supported by the Spencer Foundation, University of Delaware associate professor Rosalie Rolón-Dow uses an innovative framework that weaves critical race theory and narrative analysis to show how racial microaggressions—everyday interactions that stereotype, insult or invalidate racially minoritized people—are ultimately expressions of white supremacy. Published in Harvard …
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Research Spotlight: Erica Litke and Laura M. Desimone
February 28, 2023
Culturally responsive (CR) teaching, a teaching approach that leverages students’ cultural identities to support their academic success, requires a particular disposition toward students and teaching. This disposition includes believing in the importance of CR teaching, cultural diversity and race-consciousness, as well as teachers’ own self-efficacy or capacity for CR teaching. …
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