Children’s Social Development Project (CSDP) is a ten-year longitudinal study following participants across three time points. During Phase 1 of the project, 32-month-old children and their mothers were invited to our laboratory to complete a series of low- and high-challenge tasks. Later, at 36-months of age, the initial development of children’s peer relationships were assessed through three separate one-hour play sessions. The play sessions were designed by randomly selecting same-sex pairs of study participants.

When children were between four and five years of age, they were invited to participated in Phase 2. Child-friend dyads were observed during two play sessions approximately 6 months apart. Child interviews were conducted with both study children and their friends to assess understanding of others’ minds and emotions.

During Phase 3, families were invited to participate in a two-part visit when their children were approximately 13 years of age. During the first visit, adolescents and their parents completed a series of interactive tasks, and adolescents were interviewed about family relationships. During the second visit, adolescents’ brain structure and function was measured via an MRI scan at the Biomedical Imaging Center on the Illinois campus. The findings from this study will allow us to assess links between parent-child and peer relationship process during early childhood and brain-related processes during early adolescence.

Phase 3 Collaborators:
Drs. Eva Telzer (UNC Chapel Hill)
Tae-Ho Lee (Virginia Tech)

Graduate Students:
Ethan McCormick
Michael Perino
Niyantri Ravindran
Xi Chen
Helen Emery
Ashley Holland
Maria Wong
Jennifer Engle
Elissa Thomann-Mitchell
Kimi Crossman

Funded by:
USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture
UIUC Research Board (Phase 1)
National Science Foundation (Phases 2 & 3)