ISSBD Elections 2023

She is the 2022 Chen Yidan Global Fellow of the Graduate School of Education, Harvard University. She was President of the European Association of Personality Psychology (EAPP, 2008-2010), President of the European Association of Developmental Psychology (EADP, 2013-2015), President of the International Consortium of Developmental Societies of Psychology (International Consortium of Developmental Science Societies, ICDSS, 2020-2022) and member of the Governing Council of the American Society for Developmental Psychology (Society for Research in Child Development, SRCD, 2015-2021).
She is now a member of the Governing Council of ISSBD. In 2017, she organized on behalf of ISSBD, together with Katariina Salmela-Aro, University of Helsinki, Finland, and Ingrid Schoon, University College London, UK, a Regional Workshop on the topic of Positive Youth Development in Times of Social Change. In 2020, she organized the 26th Biennial Meeting of the International Society for the Study of Behavioral Development (ISSBD), which was canceled due to the COVID pandemic. In 2022, she was entrusted by ISSBD again to organize its 26th Biennial Meeting, which took place on the Island of Rhodes, Greece.
Professor Motti-Stefanidi studies the adaptation and resilience of adolescent immigrants and refugees through a risk and resilience developmental lens. She has presented the social policy implications of her work at different Working Groups of the European Parliament and at conferences organized by NGOs interested in the adaptation of migrant and refugee youth.
If elected, FrossoMotti-Stefanidi will work in partnership with ISSBD committees and regional representatives, to continue the great work of the current ISSBD President, Tina Malti, and past Presidents in promoting the Society’s vision to unite developmentalists around the world in a science that cares, as well as in promoting an inclusive developmental science with a strong impact on the real world.

My research is focused on the study of risk and resilience, in particular during the transition to adulthood, asking 1) to what extent and how do social conditions, in particular socio-economic adversity, affect individual thinking, feeling and behaviour; 2) to what extent and in what circumstances can individuals succeed against the odds and steer their own life course?; and 3) what can be done to improve the life chances of the most vulnerable? I have published widely, including a monograph on ‘Risk and Resilience’, 5 co-edited books and over 160 journal articles.

My works are translated into German and French. Given the policy relevance of my findings, I have acted as consultant for UK government departments and for international bodies, including the OECD, UNESCO and the European Commission.

My studies are guided by a socio-ecological developmental systems approach, mapping human development over time and in context using longitudinal data.I am a Fellow of the UK Academy of Social Sciences (since 2015), have served as President of the International Society for Longitudinal and Lifecourse Studies (SLLS: 2018-2020) and am currently the President of the European Association for Research on Adolescence (EARA; 2022-2024).

In 2011, I received the Bowlby Ainsworth Award from the Center for Mental Health Promotion and The New York Attachment Consortium for my contribution to investigation and teaching within the field of Attachment Theory.

I have strong links with ISSBD, and I attended ISSBD conferences since 1996. I am currently a member of the Executive Committee and the organizer of the 27th Biennial Meeting of the International Society for the Study of Behavioural Development to be held in Lisbon in 2024.

I have many years of administrative experience, having served in diverse roles including: the Director of a Research Institute at York University, Chair of the Psychology Department, and Director of our Undergraduate Psychology Program. I am actively involved in the Canadian Psychological Association, with the status of Fellow. I serve as an Accreditation Site Visitor and an Executive Member of the Canadian Council of Departments of Psychology.

I have been a member of ISSBD for over 30 years and have been a frequent and active contributor to the biennial meetings. ISSBD is a unique professional organization with its global and diverse membership and sustained commitment to building bridges across countries and continents. It would be an honour to serve on the Executive Committee of ISSBD.

Since 2018, she has been a Member of the Board of Lecturers of the Doctorate in Personal and Educational Sciences (UCSC), a member of the Ethics Committee for Psychological Research (CERPS), and serves as secretary. Since 2020, she has been a member of the Selection Committee for the PhD program Science of Person and Education. Since 2022, she has been co-head of the Research Unit of Psychology and Robotics in the Life Cycle (UCSC). Currently, she is also a Member of the Board of Lecturers of the National Doctoral Program in Artificial Intelligence, University of Pisa

Since 2016, she has been a Member of the ISSBD, and in 2020, she was appointed as the Early Career Scholars Representative and then a member of the Executive Board. Also,  in 2021, she was appointed as a member of the Communication Committee, the Membership Committee, and part of the Scientific Committee for ISSBD Biennial Meeting 2022. Since 2017, she has been a Fellow of the Italian Association of Psychology (AIP), Developmental and Educational Psychology Section.

I have served as Associate Editor for the International Journal of Intercultural Relations since 2017, as a Regional Representative for the International Association for Cross-Cultural Psychology from 2021 and was the Treasurer of the Australasian Human Development Association from 2019 – 2021.

I have strong links with ISSBD, publishing one of my first outputs in the Bulletin in 2010 and being awarded early career travel funds to attend ISSBD for the first time in 2014, with my most recent conference being the Gold Coast hosted event in 2018. I am very keen to take up an active role in the society where I can bring a global lens on youth, strong research expertise, and clear connections to international development organizations and policy stakeholders.

Laura currently serves on the Governing Council of the Society for Research on Child Development (SRCD), and previously served as the Society for Research on Adolescence (SRA) International Committee Chair (2018-2020) and SRA representative to the International Consortium of Developmental Science Societies (ICDSS) (2020-2022). Laura also was an elected member of the Governing Council of the International Society for Political Psychology (ISPP) (2019-2022), Social Psychology Committee of the British Psychological Society (BPS) (2017-2022), and serves on the steering committee of the International Network for Peace Psychology (INPP) (2017-present).

Laura co-chaired the programme committee of the European Association for Research on Adolescence (EARA) conference in 2022. Laura is the Editor of the APA journal Peace and Conflict: Journal of Peace Psychology, Associate Editor for the Journal of Research on Adolescence, and Consulting Editor for Child Development.

I have had strong links with ISSBD since 2004. In that year, the conference was held in Ghent, Belgium. At that conference, I met Christina Salmivalli for the first time, which led to a long-term collaboration (14 papers together) and a visiting professorship at the University of Turku, Finland (2007-2012). I published three first-authored articles in our society’s journal, the International Journal of Behavioral Development (IJBD). In 2022, I edited a special issue on social norms for the journal.

In 2020, I received the ISSBD Fellowship status for my sustained outstanding contributions to the field of international lifespan human development. In 2022, I gave an ISSBD preconference workshop on The Prominent Role of Peers across Diverse Behaviors. In 2024, I will give a keynote at the ISSBD meeting in Lisbon, Portugal.

I am a co-director of the ISSBD/Jacobs Foundation African professional development fellowship that brings together 10 fellows from different African countries for professional development opportunities. I have attended many ISSBD events since I joined the society. Currently, I am a reviewer for the United Kingdom Research and Innovation (UKRI), UK.

My interest is how human beings acquire and change behavior across the lifespan, and I believe environmental factors heavily shape developmental outcomes. Interventions aimed at improving the human condition needs to target individual environments and experiences. One of my current research foci is creating child-friendly preschool environments and experiences in rural areas of Africa. I have been awarded a Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF) grant to complete one of these projects in rural Kenya and Zambia.

My Ph.D. and postdoctoral experience allowed me to collaborate internationally with early career scholars (graduate students) in the USA. My mentors, Prof. Shagufa and Prof. Wolfgang, are active members and coordinator of the following academic societies. Under their mentorship, I have learned to network, take up roles (membership, peer reviews for abstracts, symposium participation) in international conferences and connect with early career scholars from Africa, and USA.

My research has instilled in me a strong background in studying development in varied contexts and teaches respect for diversity. Hence, I will advocate increasing diversity within the regional chapters of ISSBD. My experience of working in cross-cultural teams as part of my Ph.D. and postdoc group has given me the confidence to engage and communicate with early career scholars from diverse cultural backgrounds. I am excited to explore opportunities that will contribute to the early career scholar board of ISSBD from less-represented geographical regions.

If elected to serve in the position of early career representative, I would like to focus on the much-needed multicultural competencies and work towards bringing early career scholars from Low- and Middle-Income Countries to share their academic experiences and challenges. I aim to facilitate organizing events for early career scholars by contacting young scholars to solicit their needs and ideas.

Keen to take up challenges, interested in changing people’s mindset, (to be proactive) and building team spirit. An ambitious, mature and focused person ready to be a dependable team player. A professional who will be capable of handling steadily increasing levels of responsibility under maximum or minimum supervision.

To further support this nomination, I am pleased to state that Marvin will support educational and scholarship activities, and communicate up-to-date information about ISSBD activities to ISSBD early career scholars as he has the ability to establish connections with professors, graduate students, and professional growth networks with ease. He regularly engages in ISSBD regional and biennial meetings and activities, which helps him understand the underlying requirements of the academic and professional communities and to come up with ideas to support collaborative efforts.

I have been an active member of ISSBD since 2017 when I was a master student, participating in multiple biennial meetings and regional workshops (ISSBD 2018 and 2022 biennial meetings, ISSBD 2019 regional workshop at HongKong), as well as receiving an ISSBD travel grant for attending the 2022 conference. One particular experience drove me to be more engaged in the society. I found a roommate from Kenya to share a hotel room at ISSBD 2022 Rhodes meeting, and found out that many African researchers, including my roommate, were denied Visa. I voiced for them during the ISSBD business meeting and came to realize that researchers from underrepresented regions face difficulties in voicing their needs in all aspects of academic processes, from getting education, scientific publication, to even just attending conferences. Should I be given the opportunity, I am committed to giving back and representing the voices and needs of early developmental scholars, particularly those from underrepresented areas of the world.

In the coming years, I will graduate and hopefully transition into a junior scholar role in academia. I am eager to serve as an ECS Representative for ISSBD from 2024-2028. Due to my international background, ISSBD has always been a conference that feels more at home with researchers I could easily connect with, compared with U.S.-based organizations. With my experience attending conferences and publishing in academic journals, I am well-equipped to understand the perspectives, needs, and concerns of graduate students and early scholars. I would be honored to contribute my strengths and assets to the ISSBD community and help advance the society’s mission of promoting global research on human development.

I am self-nominating for an ECS Representative role with ISSBD for the opportunity that it provides to support and represent the interests of early career scholars, and to further develop my career and skills. The ECS Representative position would provide invaluable experience for me to learn about planning ECS events and to be involved in ISSBD meetings (in-person and online), to develop professional relationships with and to receive mentoring from members of the Executive Committee, and to further enhance my communication skills for connecting with other early career scholars and ISSBD members.

In my research, I have consistently sought out opportunities to collaborate with international and interdisciplinary researchers, to connect and develop partnerships with external stakeholders, to present my work at local and international conferences, and to publish in and peer-review for high-impact journals. I value being part of the broader research community, as evidenced by my four-year position as the Communications Director on the Executive Committee of AHDA. In this role (due to end in late 2023), I have actively worked towards creating connections between developmental scientists across a range of disciplines and with community members in Australasia. My work includes the development and distribution of a quarterly newsletter for AHDA members, the management of mailing lists, membership subscriptions, and emails and social media for the organization, and has involved planning events to support scholars of all career stages (particularly students and ECRs) as part of the Conference Organising Committees for the 2019, 2020 and 2021 Online Conferences run by the association.

My professional experience to date, proactive approach to work, and personal and professional values, make me a suitable candidate for this position. I am a warm, driven, and creative academic, and I pride myself on developing positive, respectful, and supportive relationships with scholars of all career stages.