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Child Study and Human Development

Master's
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Application Deadlines
Fall: May 1
Spring: n/a
Summer: n/a
School/Department

Child Study and Human Development

Program Director
Sara Johnson
Location
Medford/Somerville
Format
On-campus
Commitment Options
Full-time
Part-time (Daytime)
Average Duration
2 years
Credits
32
Contact

gradadmissions@tufts.edu


Overview

The Tufts MA in Child Study and Human Development will provide you with a strong theoretical foundation in child development; coursework in an area of specialization; mentorship; research skills; and applied opportunities and fieldwork. Graduates of the program go on to become scholars and practitioners who are making a difference in the lives of children and adolescents.

Program Outcomes

Graduates of the Child Study and Human Development MA Program understand how to use theory and research to positively impact the lives of children and families. Many graduates do direct service work in the field of education, while others enter doctoral or other degree or licensure programs, and some work for a few years before going on to pursue further advanced study. Recent graduates of the MA program have secured positions such as:

  • Developmental specialist in an early intervention program
  • Child development specialist in a community-based nonprofit
  • Child advocate in juvenile and family courts
  • Family therapist in a therapeutic school
  • Mental health specialist in a psychiatric hospital
  • Research coordinator in a pediatric unit of a hospital
  • Curriculum specialist in a public school
  • Technology consultant in an after-school program
  • Assistant to the director of a children's television program
  • Director of summer camp programs
  • Bilingual intensive care coordinator in a community-based nonprofit
  • Assistant program coordinator in a hospital-based nonprofit working with individuals with autism
  • Transition specialist in an autism program

Application Requirements

  • Application fee
  • Resume/CV
  • Personal statement
  • Official TOEFL, IELTS, or Duolingo English Test scores, if applicable
  • Transcripts
  • Three letters of recommendation
  • A supplemental essay answering the prompt: How does the mission of the Eliot-Pearson Department of Child Study and Human Development resonate with your interest in the program and your career? (The mission of the Eliot-Pearson Department of Child Study and Human Development is to: (1) Enhance the lives of children and families in diverse communities and contexts of the 21st century; (2) Use collaborative, multidisciplinary approaches; (3) Conduct research that informs practice and utilize practice that informs theory and research; and (4) promote civic engagement.) In 500 words or less, write about the first theme and at least one other. Your essay should seek to answer: How do your prior experiences (or lack thereof) lead you to connect with each of these themes? How do you envision learning to carry out these themes during your time in the MA program? What challenges do you see in your ability to implement each of these themes?
  • On your application, please indicate which faculty members you might like to work with if you are admitted to the program. These faculty must have one of the following titles: Assistant Professor, Associate Professor, Professor, Lecturer, Senior Lecturer, or Distinguished Senior Lecturer. Please do not list Research Assistant Professors, Research Associate Professors, Part-Time and Adjunct Faculty, or Affiliated Faculty Members, as they cannot be advisors for master’s students.

Tuition and Financial Aid

See Tuition and Financial Aid information for GSAS Programs.

Faculty

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Sara Johnson

Evans Family Assistant Professor
Adolescence and young adulthood; identity development; civic development and engagement; youth contribution; critical consciousness; quantitative methods (including mixture models such as latent class and latent profile analyses); positive youth development
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Eileen Crehan

Assistant Professor
Neurodevelopmental disorders; autism spectrum disorder; sexuality education; social perception; eye tracking; dimensional measurement of psychological symptoms
Academic Leave
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Julie Dobrow

Senior Lecturer
Children and media; ethnicity/gender and media; adolescents and media use. I am currently working on a three-tiered interdisciplinary research project along with Chip Gidney, Mary Casey, and Cynthia Smith at Eliot-Pearson, as well as faculty in several other departments at Tufts. The first piece of this project is a long-running content analysis of children's animated programming. We are updating prior work we've done that investigates images of race, ethnicity and gender in children's animated programming using both content and sociolinguistic analysis. The second part of this research is an exploration of why stereotyping persists in children's media. We are examining this through intensive interviews with content creators, writers, directors, vocal casting directors, and actors. The third part of the project is empirical research we're conducting with children, to see how children make sense of gender, race, and ethnicity in the animated programs they see. My applied work includes doing many media literacy workshops for parents and for children and for children in a variety of settings, and consulting work with colleagues at WGBH, one of the leading creators of children's educational media. I have written about children and media issues in a variety of academic and popular venues. My other research is historical in nature. I've written one biography of the relatively unknown mother/daughter team who made Emily Dickinson into one of the most-known women anywhere in the world, and am starting work on a couple of other biographical projects.
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M. Ann Easterbrooks

Professor
Developmental risk and resilience; child maltreatment; parent-child emotional availability and attachment relationships; maternal depression; adolescent parenting; relational and contextual supports for thriving
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Calvin Gidney

Associate Professor
Linguistics; literacy, sociolinguistic development; dyslexia in African-American children; language of children's cartoons; children's name-calling
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Theo Klimstra

Senior Lecturer
Adolescence and young adulthood; identity development; personality development; narrative identity; quantitative methods (including structural equation models)
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Richard Lerner

Professor and Bergstrom Chair in Applied Developmental Science
The application of developmental science across the life span; developmental systems theory; personality and social development in adolescence; developmental methodology; programs and policies for children, youth, and families; university-community collaboration and outreach scholarship. Developmental Science
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Tama Leventhal

Professor and Department Chair of Child Study & Human Development
Neighborhood and community context; housing context; family context; poverty and socioeconomic status; social policy; adolescence; immigrant young children
Academic Leave
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Christine McWayne

Professor
Early childhood education, school success of young children at risk due to poverty, parenting and family-school partnerships in diverse ethnocultural communities, cuturally inclusive STEM curiculum, community-based research collaborations.
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Jayanthi Mistry

Professor
Theoretical perspectives on the integration of culture and human development; Narratives of identity and place in communities; Navigating multiple cultural worlds, with a focus on ethnic minority, immigrant, and under-represented communities; Interpretive and Narrative Analysis methods in the study of children and families.
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Kerri Modry-Mandell

Senior Lecturer
Pediatric psychology; Developmental Psychopathology; Family Functioning and Adaptation to Pediatric Chronic Illness; Children's Sibling Relationships; Psychological Consultation and Collaboration and Therapeutic Space Design; Grief Support; Pediatric Health Promotion and Disease Prevention Developmental Initiatives
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Ellen Pinderhughes

Professor
Families and children in challenging circumstances; parenting and family functioning among diverse families; ethnic-racial socialization processes; cultural and contextual influences; child and youth outcomes; adoption and foster care
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Martha Pott

Distinguished Senior Lecturer
Personal and social development; biological & evolutionary roots of human development Biological and evolutionary substrates of human development; the role of eye-contact in social development.
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Fernando Salinas-Quiroz

Assistant Professor
I specialize in working with 2SPLGBTQIA+ individuals and "non-traditional families". Through my research, I have been able to offer robust empirical evidence that informs both academic and policy debates about discrimination and sexual stigma; the population's attitudes towards "modern families"; and the quality of interactions between gay fathers/lesbian mothers and their children, focusing on the study of attachment relationships. I am passionate about studying the development of children who are raised outside the context of a traditional family, as well as outside of the binary (binary is for computers, not gender!). While research has focused on challenges faced by 2SPLGBTQIA+ folks, my work brings attention to how they remain stable and well-adjusted in face of social prejudice, i.e., a resilience-based perspective with a focus on family strengths. I am interested in Community-based participatory research with sexual and gender minorities, folks with immigrant parents, black/brown/indigenous "non-traditional" families, and the development of 2SPLGBTQIA+ individuals in non-western contexts.
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W. George Scarlett

Senior Lecturer
As editor of the Tomorrow's Earth Stewards online resource for environmental educators and others) (see (https://sites.tufts.edu/earthstewards/), I work directly with my staff and students to bring the best research and practices to the attention of our readers -- as well as the best frameworks for understanding complex subjects having to do with environmental breakdown, eco-restoration, and developmentally appropriate practices that are cultural situated. My research interests also include work studying graduates of the New England Aquarium's teen internship program -- as a way to develop a practical model for evaluating the development of earth stewards. In the past, my research has included research on early symbol formation in a variety of play media (blocks, dolls, etc.), assessing the development of sensorimotor play in children with classic autism ('Kanner's" syndrome), the development of prayer in adolescence, and socially isolated preschoolers. The overarching theme has always been that of promoting more powerful models of development. Connected to my research projects have been writing projects aimed at offering a developmental perspective on a variety of major topics, These writing projects include textbooks, encyclopedias, and handbook chapters on children's play, classroom management, and religious and spiritual development.

Tracks

After their first semester, students determine whether they want to pursue the applied track or the thesis track of the master's program. In the applied track , students work in field placements, such as after school programs, juvenile justice facilities, and hospitals, while receiving support and guidance from Tufts faculty. In the thesis track, students participate in faculty research labs and projects. They attend meetings, conduct literature reviews, locate subjects, collect data, analyze data, and draft research reports, articles, and books for publication.

In addition, students are able to concentrate in one of two specific areas or follow an individualized program of study:

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