Research

Children growing up in poverty are often portrayed in terms of risk and deficit. My research asks a different question: How do children develop in ways that help them adapt to the demands of their environments? I study how early experiences shape self-regulation and cognitive development, revealing both struggles and strength in context. By shifting the lens from what children are presumed to lack to how they adapt, my work offers a more balanced foundation for both science and policy (see DeJoseph, Ellwood-Lowe et al., 2024 Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience).

Understanding what experiences matter and for whom

Childhood poverty is not experienced the same way for every child. My work shows that families facing economic hardship vary widely in what they experience and how those experiences are reported and interpreted. I’ve demonstrated that commonly used measures of adversity often mask strengths and misrepresent the lived realities of racially and socioeconomically diverse families. By uncovering biases in these tools, and by centering families’ own voices through open-ended, video-based qualitative methods, this research informs more equitable and accurate ways to capture children’s environments—and ultimately, to support them better.

Developmental timing and environmental unpredictability

Children’s experiences shift over time. I’ve developed and applied innovative methods to capture these patterns, examining not just how much hardship children experience and when, but how that hardship unfolds across development. My work shows that unpredictability in economic hardship—especially frequent or abrupt fluctuations—can shape children’s regulatory skills in distinct ways. These findings point to the importance of reducing economic volatility in families’ lives.

Adaptive self-regulation in context

Children draw on different self-regulation strategies depending on the demands of their environments. I’ve shown that children from lower-income backgrounds often prioritize speed over inhibition, a potentially adaptive trade-off in unpredictable settings. My work also identifies distinct self-regulation profiles that reflect strategic configurations of emotional and cognitive skills, shaped by children’s specific experiences. By examining behavior, cognition, and physiology, this research shows how children adapt their regulatory strategies in ways that reflect both challenge and strength.