Projects
School Transitions and Early Adolescent Development (STEAD) Project
This project is a four year study that examines students’ social and academic adjustment during early adolescence. Key aims include understanding how students’ relationships with teachers and students changes and affects their academic adjustment. Our sample includes students in k-8 schools and students in k-6/ middle schools so we can consider if the type of school structure affects patterns of development.
Classroom and Peer Ecologies Project (CAPE)
This project is a three year study that focuses on how social dynamics within math and science classrooms affects students’ motivation, engagement and achievement. In this project we use classroom observations, teacher reports and student reports to understand how teacher practices are related to social dynamics and student learning in elementary and middle school classrooms.
Funding provided by the Spencer Foundation.
Select Publications
North, E.A & Ryan, A.M. (2017). Peer academic reputation in early adolescence: Associations with changes in academic adjustment in math and science. Journal of Early Adolescence.
Shin, H. & Ryan, A. M. (2017). Friend Influence on disruptive behavior: Teacher emotional support matters. Developmental Psychology.
Ryan, A. M. , Kuusinen, C., & Bedoya-Skoog, A. (2015). Managing peer relations: A dimension of teacher self-efficacy that varies between elementary and middle school teachers and is associated with observed classroom quality. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 41, 147-156.
Shin, H. & Ryan, A. M. (2014). Early adolescent friendships and academic adjustment: Examining selection and influence processes with longitudinal social network analysis. Developmental Psychology, 50, 2462-2472.
Wilson, T., Rodkin, P. & Ryan, A.M. (2014). The company they keep and avoid: Social goal orientation as a predictor of children’s ethnic segregation. Developmental Psychology, 50 (4), 1116-1124.
Ryan, A. M., Shim, S. S., Makara, K. (2013). Changes in academic adjustment and relational self-worth across the transition to middle school. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 42, 1372-1384.
Ryan, A.M. & Shim, S. S. (2012). Changes in help seeking from peers during early adolescence: Associations with changes in achievement and perceptions of teachers. Journal of Educational Psychology, 104, 1122- 1134.
