The ISSBD 2×2 Grant for Early Career Scholars (ECS) reflects the Society’s commitment to supporting emerging developmental researchers worldwide. The “2×2” model brings together two ECS from different countries or regions—ideally spanning continents and focusing on majority-world or underrepresented contexts. These scholars collaborate by leveraging their complementary research and methodological skills, fostering a synergistic approach to advancing developmental knowledge.
The 2025 awardees exemplify this vision, engaging in innovative research that contributes to the field of developmental science while strengthening global academic partnerships.
Meet this year’s awardees below.
Afor Betek Mary Orok and Galia Meoded Karabanov
Project: Parenting, parents’ well-being and young children’s stress: The situation of displaced families amid war zones in Cameroon and Israel.
Orok Afor Betek Mary Epouse Nkongho is an Educational Psychologist with research interests in Personality and Mental Health Care. Specifically, she focuses on the thoughts, feelings, behavior patterns, social attitudes, stress and disorders that influence how we view ourselves and others and how we learn. She is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Educational Psychology, Faculty of Education at the University of Buea, Cameroon. She earned her PhD, M.Ed., and Bachelor’s Degree all in Educational Psychology. In Psychology, she has published several articles in different peer review journals and co-authored a book. Orok was one of the grantees of a travel grant from the International Society for the Study of Behavioral Development (ISSBD) in March 2024 to attend and present a paper at the pre-conference workshop on June 16th and the ISSBD Biennial Meeting in Lisbon, Portugal, from June 16th to 20th, 2024. She is also passionate about humanitarian and outreach activities and a founding member of a civil society organization known as the Association for Social Integration and Nation Building (ASOINAB), which aims to enhance social integration for all and provide psychosocial support to vulnerable persons.
Galia Meoded Karabanov is a Ph.D. student and a researcher at the Early Childhood Research Laboratory at Tel Aviv University. Her research focuses on parenting, parental behaviors, and parent-child activities, with a particular interest in children’s home learning environments. She explores the associations between parenting behaviors and parent- child interactions with young children across cultures, especially during times of crisis. In addition to her research, Galia works as an educational counselor at Tel Aviv University’s daycare center. This dual role enables her to integrate academic insights with practical experience, deepening her understanding of parenting dynamics and early childhood development.
Narcisa Prodan and Meng Dai
Project: Parenting by lying and children’s evaluation of lies: The importance of parental-related factors and culture.
Narcisa Prodan is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Psychology, Babeș-Bolyai University, Romania. She obtained her Ph.D. in Psychology (Suma Cum Laude) from this university with a thesis on deceptive strategies used by children in competitive contexts. Her research targets children’s socio-cognitive development, with a particular focus on deception and moral reasoning as shaped by parental and contextual factors. She was a board member of the European Association of Psychology and Law (EAPL) from 2021, being actively involved in facilitating networking and funding opportunities for early career scholars. Through her research, she aims to advance the understanding of children’s cognitive and moral development, with applications to legal psychology, education, and child welfare. The ISSBD 2×2 grant under the mentorship of Prof. Laura Visu-Petra will extend her doctoral studies and enable her to further explore the cross-cultural dimensions of parental lying and its impact on children’s development across Romania and Singapore, further pursuing her interests, which intersect developmental and legal psychology.
Meng Dai is a PhD candidate in Developmental Psychology at the National University of Singapore, under the supervision of Dr. Xiaopan Ding. She earned her master’s degree in Developmental Psychology from Hangzhou Normal University, China. Her research focuses on children’s lying behaviour, exploring its cognitive and neural mechanisms, as well as its development from a microdevelopmental perspective. She has rich experience collaborating across cultures, having worked with researchers from the University of Toronto, the University of California, San Diego, and Hangzhou Normal University on multiple research projects. With the support of the ISSBD 2 x 2 Grant for Early Career Scholars, she will work with Dr. Narcisa Prodan to explore the relationship between parenting by lying and parental factors, including lying socialization, general parenting practices, and socialization goals. Additionally, facilitated by this grant, their study will include a cross-cultural comparison between Romania and Singapore, fostering a deeper understanding of how cultural contexts shape parenting practices.
Emmy Reilly and Rose Opiyo
Project: Pathways to educational attainment and mental health in teen parents.
Emmy Reilly (she/her/hers) is a Research Scientist with Dr. Ken Dodge at the Center for Child and Family Policy at Duke University in the United States. Dr. Reilly earned her Ph.D. in Developmental Psychology at the University of Minnesota’s Institute of Child Development, where she worked with Dr. Megan Gunnar. Prior to graduate school, she worked as a Research Coordinator at Boston Children’s Hospital with Dr. Charles Nelson. She received her B.S. in Psychology from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, where she completed her honors thesis with Drs. Jennifer McDermott and Maureen Perry-Jenkins. Dr. Reilly is a developmental psychobiologist whose program of research aims to determine the key parent capacities for responsive parenting in parents of the youngest children and the consequences for child development. Her recent work examines compassion (i.e., compassion for others, from others, self-compassion) and the regulation of stress physiology as two potential key factors for responsive parenting. The ISSBD 2×2 grant will support her program of research on parent wellbeing, expanding her expertise to teen parents and providing the opportunity to co-lead an international collaboration with Dr. Opiyo, under the mentorship of Dr. Ken Dodge.
Rose Opiyo is a behavioral scientist and Senior Lecturer in Educational Psychology at Masinde Muliro University, Kenya, where she also coordinates the Office of Strategic and Institutional Planning. She holds a Master of Education in Developmental Psychology from the University of Nairobi and Kenyatta University. Her research focuses on evidence-based parental and play-based learning interventions. Her work examines how parents, particularly in vulnerable communities, can be supported to promote nurturing care for young children and the developmental outcomes of these interventions across multiple African countries. Her programs primarily target children, adolescent girls, and women in rural Kenyan communities. She has received research funding from organizations such as the International Development Research Council, British Council, British Institute, European Union, Institute of International Education, Carnegie Corporation of New York (CCNY), and Africa Early Childhood Network. She has also been awarded fellowships from ISSBD/Jacobs Foundation, the German Academic Exchange Service, the Carnegie Africa Diaspora Fellowship Program, and the Leaders of Africa Institute Research Impact Fellowship.