Faculty

J. Lawrence Aber

Professor of Applied Psychology and Public Policy

J. Lawrence Aber

Phone: 212-998-5410
Email:

Lawrence Aber is a Professor of Applied Psychology and Public Policy at the Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development, New York University, where he also serves as Board Chair of its Institute for Human Development and Social Change.  Dr. Aber earned his Ph.D. from Yale University and an A.B. from Harvard University.  He previously taught at Barnard College, Columbia University, and at the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University, where he also directed the National Center for Children in Poverty.  He is an internationally recognized expert in child development and social policy and has co-edited Neighborhood Poverty: Context and Consequences for Children (1997, Russell Sage Foundation), Assessing the Impact of September 11th 2001 on Children Youth and Parents: Lessons for Applied Developmental Science (2004, Erlbaum) and Child Development and Social Policy: Knowledge for Action (2007, APA Publications).  His basic research examines the influence of poverty and violence, at the family and community levels, on the social, emotional, behavioral, cognitive and academic development of children and youth.  Dr. Aber also designs and conducts rigorous evaluations of innovative programs and policies for children, youth and families, such as violence prevention, literacy development, antipoverty initiatives and comprehensive services initiatives.  He has been a recipient of a William T. Grant Faculty Scholar award as well as a Visiting Scholar award from the Russell Sage Foundation.  Dr. Aber testifies frequently before Congress, state legislatures and other deliberative policy forums.  The media, public officials, private foundations and leading non-profit organizations also frequently seek his opinion or advice about pressing matters concerning child and family well-being.  In 2006, Dr. Aber was appointed by the Mayor of New York City to the Commission for Economic Opportunity, an initiative to help reduce poverty and increase economic opportunity in New York City.  In 2007, Dr. Aber served as the Nannerl O. Keohane Distinguished Visiting Professor at Duke University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.  In 2008 and 2009, he served part-time as Visiting Research Professor in Evidence-based Social Intervention in the Department of Social Policy and Social Work, University of Oxford.  He is also Board Chair of the Children’s Institute, University of Cape Town, South Africa; Chair of the Board of Directors of the Forum for Youth Investment in Washington, D.C.; and Board Member of the William T. Grant Foundation.

 

 


Awards

  • Nicholas Hobbs Award for Devotion to Child Advocacy and Public Policy: Awarded by Division 37 of the American Psychological Association.
  • Visiting Scholar, Russell Sage Foundation

Video Profile

Courses

  • Theories of Change in Applied Psychology - E63.3009
  • Developmental and Prevention Science: Middle Childhood - E63.2094
  • Child Development and Social Policy in a Global Society - E63.2832
  • Proseminar in Education Science

Degrees Held

  • Ph.D. Yale University 1982
    Clinical-Community and Developmental Psychology
  • M.S. Yale University 1978
    Clinical-Community and Developmental Psychology
  • A.B. Harvard College 1973
    Social Relations

Publications

  • Aber, J.L., and Gershoff, E. , Ware, A., & Kotler, J. (2004). Estimating the effects of September 11th, 2001, and other forms of violence on the mental health and social development of New York City's youth: A matter of context. "Applied Developmental Science", 8(3), 111-129.
  • Aber, J.L., Jones, S.M., & Cohen, J. (2000). The impact of poverty on the mental health and development of very young children. In C.H. Zeanah, Jr. (Ed.), "Handbook of infant mental health, second edition", (pp. 113-128). New York, NY: Guilford Press.
  • Brooks-Gunn, J. Duncan, G. & Aber, J.L. (Eds.) (1997). Neighborhood Poverty I: Context and consequences for children. New York: Russell Sage.
  • Brooks-Gunn, J., Duncan, G. & Aber, J.L. (Eds.) (1997). Neighborhood Poverty II: Policy implications for studying neighborhoods. New York: Russell Sage
  • Gershoff, E.T. , Aber, J.L., & Raver, C.C. (2003). Child poverty in the U.S.: An evidence-based conceptual framework for programs and paolicies. In R. M. Lerner, F. Jacobs, & D. Wertlieb (Eds.), "Promoting positive child, adolescent, and family development: A handbook of program and policy innovations", (pp. 81-136). Thousand Oaks, California: Sage Publications
  • Aber, J.L., Brown, J.L. & Jones, S. M. (2003). Developmental trajectories toward violence in middle childhood: Course, demographic differences, and response to school-based intervention. "Developmental Psychology." 39 (2), 324-348
  • Aber, J.L., & Ellwood, D.T. (2001). Thinking about children in time. In B. Bradbury, S. Jenkins, & J. Micklewright (Eds.), "The dynamics of child poverty in industrialized countries", (pp. 281-299). New York, NY: Cambridge University Press
  • Aber, J.L., Gershoff, E.T., & Brooks-Gunn, J. (2002). Social exclusion of children in the United States: Identifying potential indicators. In A.J. Kahn, & S.B. Kamerman (Eds.) "Beyond child poverty: The social exclusion of children", (pp.245-286). New York: Columbia
  • Ben-Arieh, A., Kaufman, H.N., Andrews, B.A., George, R., Lee, B.J., & Aber, J.L. (2000). Measuring and Monitoring Children's Well-Being. Netherlands: Kluwer Academic Press.
  • Brown, J.L., Roderick, T., Lantieri, L., & Aber, J.L. (2004). The Resolving Conflict Creatively Program: A School-Based Social and Emotional Learning Program. In J. E. Zins, R.P. Weissberg, M.C. Wang, & H.J. Walberg (Eds,), "Building academic success on social and emotional learning: What does the research say? (pp.151-169). New York, NY: Teachers College Press
  • Aber, J.L., Jones, S.M., & Raver, C.C. (2007). Poverty and child development: New perspectives on a defining issue. In Aber, J.L., Phillips, D., Jones, S.M. and McLearn, K. (Eds.) Child development and social policy: Knowledge for action (pp. 149-166). Washington, DC: APA Publications.
  • Gershoff, E. T., Aber, J. L., Raver, C. C., & Lennon, M. C. (2007). Income is not enough: Incorporating material hardship into models of income associations with parenting and child development. Child Development, 78(1), 70-95.
  • Raver, C. C., Gershoff, E. T., & Aber, J. L. (2007). Testing equivalence of mediating models of income, parenting, and school readiness for White, Black, and Hispanic children in a national sample. Child Development, 78(1), 96-115.
  • Wagmiller, R.L., Lennon, M.C., Kuang, L., Alberti, P.M., & Aber, J.L. (2006). The Dynamics of economic disadvantage and children’s life chances. American Sociological Review, 71(5), 847-866.
  • Aber, J.L. (2007). Changing the climate on early Childhood. The American Prospect, Special Report, December 2007, A4-A6.
  • Clements, M., Aber, J.L., & Seidman, E. (2008). The Dynamics of Life Stressors and Depressive Symptoms in Early Adolescence: A Test of Six Theoretical Models. Child Development 79(4), 1168-1182.
  • Aber, J.L. (2008). A Big, New Investment in America’s Poorest (and Youngest?) Children: Conditional Cash Transfers. In BIG IDEAS For Children: Investing in our Nation’s Future (pp. 191-202). Washington, DC: First Focus.
  • Jones, S.M., Brown, J.L., & Aber J.L. (2008). Classroom Settings as Targets of Intervention and Research. In M. Shinn & H. Yoshikawa (Eds.) Toward Positive Youth Development: Transforming Schools and Community Programs (pp 58-77). UK: Oxford University Press, Inc.
  • Aber, J.L., Bishop-Josef, S.J., Jones, S.M., McLearn, K.T. & Phillips, D.A, (Eds.) (2007). Child Development and Social Policy: Knowledge for Action. Washington, D.C.: American Psychological Association.
  • Aber, J.L. (2007). Across the Sectors: Commentary. Border Crossings: On the Relations Between the Major Age-Graded Education Systems in the United States. In S.H. Fuhrman, D.K. Cohen & F. Mosher (Eds.). The State of Education Policy Research (pp. 225-229). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Research Interests

Dr. Aber has focused his research on the social, emotional, motivational and behavioral development of high-risk children and youth, including abused/neglected and poor/disadvantaged preschool and school-aged children, and children and adolescents in areas of concentrated poverty and armed conflict; parent development; program and policy implications of developmental research with high-risk children and youth; the influence of neighborhood and family socio-economic disadvantage on parent and child development; developmental approaches to the design and evaluation of preventive interventions; policy research on child and family services.

Current Research Grants include:

  • Principal Investigator,  "Reading, Writing, Respect and Resolution: Evaluation of a School-based Social-Emotional and Literacy Development Program".  The major goals of this study are to estimate the effect of the 4R's program on the development of teachers and children in New York City elementary schools.  Funded by the Institute for Education Sciences (U.S. Department of Education), the Centers for Disease Control and Injury Prevention (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services) and the William T. Grant Foundation (2003-2009).
  • Co-Investigator, "Health Risk Behavior in Late Childhood: Impact of a Longitudinal Randomized Trial".  This study proposes to rigorously test the effects of a long-term (3-year), school-randomized universal preventive intervention called 4Rs (Reading, Writing, Respect and Resolution) on children's health risk behaviors as they make the transition from elementary to middle school.  Funded by National Institutes of Mental Health (2008-2011).
  • Co-Principal Investigator, "Dynamic Socio-Economic Disadvantage: Children in Family and School Contexts".  The primary goal of this project is to strengthen the field's understanding of the mechanisms through which families' trajectories of income and hardship affect children's trajectories of success versus difficulty in academic and socio-emotional domains, and of the important contribution of school socio-economic disadvantage to children's development.  Funded by the National Institutes of Health (2008-2010).
  • Co-Principal Investigator, "Examining the Effectiveness of Scaling Up the 'First Things First' High School Reform".  The primary goal of this school-randomized experiment is to test the effects of a comprehensive high school reform model on the educational motivation, engagement and outcomes of youth in schools that serve a high percentage of low-income, ethnic-minority students.  Funded by USDE/IES; Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (2007-2012).
  • Co-Investigator, "Resilience in Young People Orphaned by AIDS and Other Causes: Predictors and Mechanisms".  This study follows a strategically selected sample of youth (n = 378) living in informal settlements in Cape Town, South Africa; and is designed to (1) identify person-, family- and community-level factors promoting or hindering resilience; and (2) to test which factors have specific relevance to AIDS orphans and which apply to young people in informal settlements more generally.  Funded by the Nuffield Foundation, United Kingdom (2008-2010).
  • Principal Investigator, “Well-being of South African children: Household, community and policy influences”.  This project is a short-term, longitudinal, multi-level study of 1,800 7- to 10-year-olds and their parents/parent surrogates in 24 urban and rural South African communities in KwaZulu-Natal to determine the impact of changes in families’ income and material disadvantage on children’s cognitive and social-emotional development and to examine the influence of grants and services on households and children. Funded by National Institute of Child Health & Human Development (2008-2013).

  • Principal Investigator, “The New York University (NYU) Predoctoral Training Program in Education Sciences”.  This project will train 28 doctoral students from diverse backgrounds to become outstanding researchers in the educational sciences. This interdisciplinary fellowship program is designed to train the next generation of quantitative educational researchers in methodological techniques developed to more accurately identify educational effects through the utilization of randomized experimental designs, quasi-experimental methods and other statistical approaches appropriate for causal inference and the analysis of multi-level data on students, teachers, schools and developmental contexts.   Funded by the US Department of Education/ Institute on Education Sciences (2008-2013).