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Elizabeth T Gershoff
Director, Population Research Center, Professor
Department of Human Development and Family Sciences, Population Research Center
Amy Johnson McLaughlin Centennial Professorship in Home Economics (Holder)liz.gershoff@austin.utexas.edu
Phone: 512-471-4800
Office Location
SEA 2.448A
Postal Address
108 E DEAN KEETON ST
AUSTIN, TX 78712-
**I am not accepting graduate students for Fall 2025.**
Ph.D., University of Texas at Austin (1998)
M.A., University of Texas at Austin (1995)
B.A., University of Virginia (1992)
Research InterestsMy current research interests center on four topics: (1) how parental discipline affects child and youth development; (2) how contexts of poverty, neighborhoods, schools, and cultures affect children, youth, and families; (3) how exposure to various forms of violence (from parents, communities, and terrorism) affect child and youth development; and (4) how enriched early childhood educational environments can improve the lives of low income children and their families.
In my teaching, I make every effort to cover all key issues from multiple cultural perspectives. I am co-author on one of the leading textbooks about child development (How Children Develop) in which we infuse attention to both cultural differences and cultural similarities throughout. I enjoy mentoring graduate students from a range of backgrounds. I have participated in a number of university-level committees, including the Council for Racial Ethnic Equity and Diversity, the University Faculty Gender Equity Council, the Task Force on Difficult Dialogues and Trauma-Informed Pedagogy, and the Recruitment & Retention Committee. I approach my research on children and families from a social justice and human rights perspective, with a focus on the principle that all children deserve protection from violence (a right adults already enjoy). My work on disparities in school corporal punishment by race, sex, and disability status was cited by U.S. Secretary John King in his 2016 statement calling for an end to corporal punishment in schools (https://www2.ed.gov/policy/gen/guid/school-discipline/files/corporal-punishment-dcl-11-22-2016.pdf).
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RECENT GRANTS
Years
Title
Funder
PI(s)
CoI(s)
Total Award
2022-2024 Evaluation of Family Connects City of Austin and United Way for Greater Austin E. T. Gershoff C. Osborne $295,454 2020-2023 Population Research Center Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (5P2CHD04289) E. T. Gershoff $1,172,626 2018-2020
Training Program in Population Sciences
Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (2T32HD007081-41)
M. D. Hayward & E. T. Gershoff
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$1,598,290
2017-2022
Development Core (Population Research Center)
Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (2P2CHD042849-16-6513)
E. T. Gershoff, D. Umberson
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$873,145
2017-2019
Building the Foundation for Austin Connects
Episcopal Health Foundation
C. Osborne & E. T. Gershoff
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$110,000
2015-2020
Identifying the Optimal Levels and Timing of Family and School Influences on Children and Youth
National Science Foundation (1519686)
E. T. Gershoff & R. L. Crosnoe
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$999,956
2013-2018
Training Program in Population Sciences
Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (2T32HD007081-36)
R. K. Raley & E. T. Gershoff
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$1,368,781
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SELECT PUBLICATIONS
* indicates current or former student; ‡ indicates a current or former post-doctoral fellow
Koepp, A. E.*, Gershoff, E. T., & Marteleto, L. J. (2022, in press). Parental involvement and academic achievement: Evidence from a census of public school students in Brazil. Child Development.
Gershoff, E. T., & Holden, G. W. (2022, in press). Adverse childhood experiences. To appear in M. H. Bornstein & P. E. Shah (Eds.), APA Handbook of Pediatric Psychology, Developmental Behavioral Pediatrics, and Developmental Science. American Psychological Association.
Koepp, A. E.*, Gershoff, E. T., Castelli, D. M., & Bryan, A. E. (2022, in press). Measuring self-regulation in the preschool classroom: An objective, sensor-based approach. Developmental Science.
Koepp, A. E.*, Gershoff, E. T., Castelli, D. M., & Bryan, A. E. (2022, in press). Total play time needed for preschoolers to reach recommended amount of non-sedentary physical activity. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health.
Bichteler, A.*, Barton, J. M.*, Lumeng, J. C., & Gershoff, E. T. (2021). Patterns of childhood BMI change as predictors of adolescent BMI, waist circumferences, and pre-hypertension. Academic Pediatrics. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.acap.2021.11.015
Burt, S. A., Clark, D. A.‡, Gershoff, E. T., Klump, K. L., & Hyde, L. W. (2021). Twin differences in harsh parenting predict youth antisocial behavior. Psychological Science, 32, 395-409. doi:10.1177/0956797620968532
Davis-Kean, P. E., Domina, T., Ellis, A.*, Kuhfeld, M.‡, & Gershoff, E. T. (2021). It matters how you start: Early math mastery predicts high school math course-taking and college attendance. Infant and Child Development, e2281. doi:10.1002/icd.2281
Heilmann, A., Mehay, A., Watt, R. G., Kelly, Y., Durrant, J. E., van Turnhout, J., & Gershoff, E. T. (2021). Physical punishment and its outcomes for children: A narrative review of prospective studies. The Lancet, 398, 355-364. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(21)00582-1
Koepp, A. E.*, & Gershoff, E. T. (2021). Amount and type of physical activity as predictors of growth in executive functions and social self-control across four years of elementary school. Developmental Science, e13147. Advance online publication. doi:10.1111/desc.13147
Scott, J. K.*, & Gershoff, E. T. (2021). Trust in expert vs. lay comments in online articles about spanking and car seat safety. Journal of Family Psychology, 35, 399-409.doi:10.1037/fam0000784
Stritzel, H.*, Gershoff, E. T., & Maslowsky, J. (2021). Post-pregnancy factors predicting teen mothers’ educational attainment by age 30 in two national cohorts. Youth & Society. Advance online publication. doi:10.1177/0044118X211026941
Sypher, I.*, Gershoff, E. T., & Hyde, L.W. (2021). Intimate partner violence and parenting: Examining the roles of parenting stress, timing, and maternal abuse history. Journal of Family Violence. Advance online publication. doi:10.1007/s10896-021-00265-6
Vandell, D. L., Kuhfeld, M.‡, Gershoff, E. T., & Crosnoe, R. L. (2021). Predictors and consequences of school mobility in middle childhood. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 76, 101309. doi: 10.1016/j.appdev.2021.101309
Cuartas, J.*, McCoy, D., Grogan-Kaylor, A., & Gershoff, E T. (2020). Physical punishment as a predictor of early cognitive development: Evidence from econometric approaches. Developmental Psychology, 56, 2013-2026. doi: 10.1037/dev0001114
Cuartas, J.*, McCoy, D., Grogan-Kaylor, A., & Gershoff, E T. (2020, in press). Physical punishment as a predictor of early cognitive development: Evidence from econometric approaches. Developmental Psychology.
Font, S. A. ‡, & Gershoff, E. T. (2020). Foster care and best interests of the child: Integrating research, policy and practice. Advances in Child and Family Policy and Practice (pp. 1-130). eBook ISBN: 978-3-030-41146-6
Scott, J. K.*, & Gershoff, E. T. (2020, in press). Trust in expert vs. lay comments in online articles about spanking and car seat safety. Journal of Family Psychology.
Siegler, R. S., Saffran, J., Gershoff, E. T, & Eisenberg, N. (2020). How Children Develop (6th Edition). New York: Macmillan Education. ISBN-10: 1319184561; ISBN-13: 978-1319184568.
Gershoff, E. T., & Lee, S. J. (Eds.). (2019). Ending the Physical Punishment of Children: A Guide for Clinicians and Practitioners. American Psychological Association Press.
Gershoff, E. T., Goodman, G. S., Miller-Perrin, C., Holden, G. W., Jackson, Y., & Kazdin, A. E. (2019). There is still no evidence that physical punishment is effective or beneficial: Reply to Larzelere, Gunnoe, Ferguson & Roberts (2019) and Melendez-Rhodes & Rohner (2019). American Psychologist, 74, 503-505. doi:10.1037/amp0000474
Gershoff, E. T., Sattler, K. M. P.*, & Holden, G. W. (2019). School corporal punishment and its associations with achievement and adjustment. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 63, 1-8. doi:10.1016/j.appdev.2019.05.004
Ansari, A.*, Pivnick, L.*, Gershoff, E. T., Crosnoe, R. L., & Orozco-Lapray, D.* (2018). The experiences of low-income Latino/a immigrant families in a state-funded preschool program. Early Childhood Research Quarterly. Advance online publication. doi: 10.1016/j.ecresq.2018.08.007
Bichteler A.*, & Gershoff, E. T. (2018). Identification of children’s BMI trajectories and prediction from early weight gain. Obesity, 26, 1050-1056. doi:10.1002/oby.22177
Font, S. A. ‡, Sattler, K. M.*, & Gershoff, E T. (2018a). Measurement and correlates of foster care placement moves. Children and Youth Services Review, 91, 248-258. doi:10.1016/j.childyouth.2018.06.019
Font, S. A. ‡, Sattler, K. M.*, & Gershoff, E. T. (2018b). When home is still not safe: From reunification to reentry into foster care. Journal of Marriage and Family, 80, 1333-1343. doi:10.1111/jomf.12499
Gershoff, E. T., Font, S. A. ‡, Taylor, C. A., Garza, A. B., Olson-Dorff, D., & Foster, R. H. (2018). A short-term evaluation of a hospital No Hit Zone policy to increase bystander intervention in cases of parent-to-child violence. Children and Youth Services Review, 94, 155-162. doi: 10.1016/j.childyouth.2018.09.040
Gershoff, E. T., Goodman, G. S., Miller-Perrin, C., Holden, G. W., Jackson, Y., & Kazdin, A. (2018). The strength of the evidence against physical punishment of children and its implications for parents, psychologists, and policymakers. American Psychologist, 73, 626-638. doi: 10.1037/amp0000327
Gershoff, E. T., Sattler, K. M.*, & Ansari, A.* (2018). Strengthening causal estimates for links between spanking and children’s externalizing behavior problems. Psychological Science, 29, 110-120. doi: 10.1177/0956797617729816
Jenkins, J. M., Watts, T. W., Magnuson, K., Gershoff, E. T., Clements, D., Sarama, J., & Duncan, G. J. (2018). Do high quality kindergarten and first grade classrooms mitigate preschool fadeout? Journal of Research on Educational Effectiveness, 11, 339-374. doi: 10.1080/19345747.2018.1441347
Kuhfeld, M. ‡, Gershoff, E. T., & Paschall, K. W. ‡ (2018). The development of racial/ethnic and socioeconomic achievement gaps during the school years. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 57, 62-73. doi:10.1016/j.appdev.2018.07.001
Paschall, K. W. ‡, Gershoff, E. T., & Kuhfeld, M. ‡ (2018). A two-decade examination of historical racial/ethnic disparities in academic achievement by poverty status. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 47, 1164-1177. doi:10.1007/s10964-017-0800-7
Sattler, K. M.*, Font, S. A. ‡, & Gershoff, E. T. (2018). Age-specific risk factors associated with placement instability among foster children. Child Abuse & Neglect, 84, 157-169. doi:10.1016/j.chiabu.2018.07.024
Sattler, K. M.*, & Gershoff, E. T. (2018). Thresholds of resilience and within- and cross-domain academic achievement among children in poverty. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 46, 87-96. doi:10.1016/j.ecresq.2018.04.003
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2020 Elected Fellow, Division 37-Society for Child and Family Policy and Practice, American Psychological Association
2019 Elected Fellow, American Psychological Association (Division 7)
2019 Nicholas Hobbs Award, Society for Child and Family Policy and Practice (Division 37), American Psychological Association (awarded annually to a psychologist who exemplifies commitment to child advocacy and policy)
2019 2017 Article of the Year in Child Abuse & Neglect (Afifi, Ford, Gershoff, Merrick, Grogan- Kaylor et al., 2017: Spanking and adult mental health impairment: The case for the designation of spanking as an Adverse Childhood Experience.)
2015 Nominated by the University of Texas at Austin for the University of Texas System Regents’ Outstanding Teaching Award (not awarded)
2014 Lifetime Legacy Achievement Award, Center for the Human Rights of Children, Loyola University Chicago
2014 Outstanding Graduate Advisor Award, Graduate School, University of Texas at Austin
2014 Social Policy Award for Best-Edited Book, Society for Research on Adolescence
2013 Elected Fellow, Association for Psychological Science
2013 College of Natural Sciences Teaching Excellence Award
2010 Appreciation Award for Work with Students with Disabilities, Services for Students with Disabilities, University of Texas at Austin
1996-1997 University Graduate Continuing Fellowship, University of Texas at Austin
1996 Summer Public Policy Fellowship, Center for Young Children and Families, Teacher’s College, Columbia University
1992-1994 University Graduate Recruitment Fellowship, University of Texas at Austin
1988-1992 Echols Scholar, University of Virginia (top 10% of incoming class)
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Undergraduate Courses
HDF 313, Child Development
HDF 362, Children and Public Policy
UGS 303, Modern Family
Graduate Courses
HDF 380K.4, Advanced Regression and Structural Equation Modeling
HDF 394, Grant Writing for the Social Sciences
HDF 394, Prevention, Intervention and Evaluation
HDF 395, Contextual Influences on Indivdiual and Family Development
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