Department of Human & Community Development | Illinois

REED W. LARSON is a professor in the Department of Human and Community Development, as well as the Departments of Psychology, Educational Psychology, Kinesiology and Community Health, and Recreation, Sport, and Tourism at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He was recently the President of the Society for Research on Adolescence, and is currently Editor-in-Chief of New Directions for Child and Adolescent Development (with Lene Jensen).

My research focuses on adolescents’ processes of positive development, especially as these processes are experienced in the contexts of daily life. Although much of development is not conscious, I’m interested in adolescence as a period when young people are able to better understand our messy complex world, the dynamics of their own minds, and develop more advanced skills for navigating these. My current primary interest is on understanding how these developmental processes occur in effective community-based programs and extra-curricular activities. Along with this, I’m interested in understanding the expertise of skilled professionals who run these programs.

 

Education

Ph.D. 1979, University of Chicago, Human Development

M.S. 1976, University of Chicago, Human Development

B.A. 1974, University of Minnesota, Psychology

Research Interests

Adolescence; organized youth activities and programs; youth practice; adolescence and globalization.

 

Other Activities

Active grants from the W.T. Grant Foundation

Chair, Study Group on Adolescence in the 21st Century, Co-sponsored by the Society for Research on Adolescence and the International Society for the Study of Behavioral Development, 1999-2002

Member, Committee on Community-level Programs for Youth, National Academy of Sciences, 1999-2002

President of the Society for Research, 2008-2012

Editor-in-Chief of New Directions for Child and Adolescent Development (with Lene Jensen), 2005-present.