Prospective Grad Students

Dr. Schultz is a core member of the faculty for the Ph.D. in Applied Developmental Psychology (ADP) program. He has also previously served as a core member of the faculty for the Ph.D. in Human Services Psychology (HSP) program.

GRADUATE STUDENTS’ ACTIVITIES

Dr. Schultz’ graduate students actively contribute to planning and conducting Social Development Lab research. His graduate students typically have had the opportunity to work as graduate research assistants on the home visiting training center team. This involves development and implementation of the evaluation of training center trainings, reviewing literature relevant to training center activities, and developing training content and activities.

APPLIED OPPORTUNITIES

Dr. Schultz’ graduate students have opportunities to participate in practicum experiences in the Maryland/D.C. area. Opportunities include social skills training with students, teacher consultation, developmental assessments, curriculum development, and policy analysis and development. Dr. Schultz’ students have previously completed practicum at AppleTree Early Learning Institute, Baltimore City Head Start, Mt. Washington Pediatric Hospital, Child Trends, University of Maryland School-Based of Mental Health, BioAssessments LLC, University of Maryland Medical Center NICU Follow-up Clinic, and Children’s National Medical Center.

CURRENT PROJECTS

Dr. Schultz and his graduate students, along with other Psychology faculty and staff, are involved with UMBC’s Home Visiting Training Center. In collaboration with the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, Maryland Home Visiting Programs and other partners, UMBC has developed: 1) a three-month certificate training program for home visitors and their supervisors throughout the State of Maryland, 2) a training focused on newborns exposed to substances for home visitors, child welfare staff, and early intervention staff in the State of Maryland, and 3) a training and coaching program for supervisors of home visitors in the State of Maryland. Training topics in the three-month certificate program include child development, parent training, substance abuse, healthy relationships, cultural competence, and communication. For more information, please visit: http://homevisitingtraining.umbc.edu

FUTURE PROJECTS

Projects in the next several years will focus on supporting families of infants and toddlers in lower-income neighborhoods. This involves developing effective training and support for “home visitors” and their supervisors across the state of Maryland.

PAST PROJECTS

In the 2015-2016 academic year, under Dr. Schultz’s direction, his graduate student Lisa Shanty completed her Master’s thesis, conducting experimental tests of the effects of dialogic reading of social-emotional storybooks on Head Start preschoolers’ emotion knowledge. While the results did not show a significant improvement in children’s emotion knowledge after the four-week intervention compared to an active control group, the study did raise future research questions on how factors like group size and children’s attention and comprehension during story time might influence the effectiveness of storybook-based interventions.

In the 2011-2012 school year we conducted a randomized trial of the GOALS program. These data include GOALS outcomes but also lots of information on how children’s social cognitions and verbal ability relate to their academic and social behaviors. Additionally, Dr. Schultz’ graduate student Mary Shuttlesworth and he developed a website for the GOALS Program. This website is intended for parents of preschool children in the GOALS Program. Pilot testing and evaluations suggested parents found website information helpful.

In the 2010-2011 and then again in the current 2012-2013 academic years, under Dr. Schultz’ direction his graduate student Sean Logie conducted experimental tests of the effects of happiness and anger on how preschool children process social information (e.g., recognizing emotion expressions).

In the 2010-2011 academic year, under Dr. Schultz’ direction his graduate student Chris Min conducted an experimental test of the effects of nap provision in Head Start centers on preschool children’s behaviors. We evaluated children’s behaviors for two weeks while naps were a part of children’s classroom routine and then again for a third week when teachers did not provide naptime. Results suggested that inattention increased, but noncompliance did not.

In both the 2009-2010 and then again in the 2011-2012 academic years, the Social Development Lab conducted randomized trials of the GOALS Program, which Dr. Schultz co-developed. Both of these projects involved randomly assigning Baltimore City Head Start classrooms either to implement the GOALS Program or not. Graduate students helped implement the program, either by lesson co- delivery or teacher consultation, and coordinated the evaluation teams. Results suggested the GOALS Program helps promote children’s social competence, self-regulatory behaviors, and socially adaptive ways of thinking.

 

MENTORING PHILOSOPHY

Dr. Schultz expects his graduate students to be focused on infant and early childhood development and prevention programs to promote development, particularly home visiting. He expects graduate students to participate in his and the Home Visiting Training Center’s research and evaluation activities. However, as can be seen in the PREVIOUS PROJECTS section, Dr. Schultz also supports students if/when they want to pursue research questions not within the purview of his current projects.

Please feel free to contact Dr. Schultz at 410-455-2414 (office) or dschultz@umbc.edu if you have any questions about applying to UMBC or working with Dr. Schultz.