P. Lindsay Chase-Lansdale

Professor of Developmental Psychology, School of Education and Social Policy
Faculty Fellow, Institute for Policy Research
Northwestern University
Ph.D., Developmental Psychology, University of Michigan, 1981
lcl@northwestern.edu
Curriculum Vitae
Additional biographical information

P. Lindsay Chase-Lansdale is an expert on the interface between research and social policy for children and families, a former Congressional Science Fellow, and the first developmental psychologist to be tenured in a public policy school in the United States. She is the founding director of IPR's Cells to Society (C2S): The Center for Social Disparities and Health and deputy director of Northwestern University's Multidisciplinary Program in Education Sciences (MPES).

Chase-Lansdale specializes in multidisciplinary research on social issues and how they affect family functioning and the development of children, youth, and adults. Her research takes a risk and resilience perspective on developmental trajectories across the life span as well as children’s social and educational outcomes in the context of economic hardship. Specific topics include postsecondary education, immigration, early childhood interventions and child care, welfare reform, marriage and cohabitation, and social disparities in health. She is an expert in large-scale data sets and in intensive behavioral measurement. Her edited books include: Human Development Across Lives and Generations: The Potential for Change (2004, with Kathleen Kiernan and Ruth Friedman) and For Better and for Worse: Welfare Reform and the Well-Being of Children and Families (2001, with Greg Duncan).

Chase-Lansdale is a fellow in the American Psychological Association and in the Association of Psychological Science, and she chairs the Board of Directors of the Foundation for Child Development, the oldest continuing philanthropy dedicated to improving the lives of children through research and the translation of research for policy and practice. She currently serves on the Visiting Committee of the Harvard Graduate School of Education, the NIH Study Section on Social Sciences and Population Studies, and the selection committee for the Exemplary Dissertation Award of the Spencer Foundation. She was awarded the Society for Research on Adolescence Social Policy Award and the Martin E. and Gertrude G. Walder Award for Research Excellence at Northwestern.

Current Research

Welfare, Children, and Families: A Three-City Study. Welfare, Children, and Families: A Three-City Study. Chase-Lansdale is co-directing this large multidisciplinary research project on the consequences of welfare reform for children and families. With five co-investigators, she is tracking 2,400 low-income families in Boston, Chicago, and San Antonio. A primary focus is the health and development of children. The study consists of four components: a longitudinal survey of mothers, preschoolers, and adolescents followed over six years; an embedded developmental study (EDS) of young children that includes two waves of videotaped interaction with mothers, interviews with their fathers, and observations in childcare settings; an ethnographic study that provides an extensive, in-depth picture of 250 additional families; and the Three-City Teacher Survey (TCTS) in which one teacher of each child and adolescent completes a Web-based survey.
The main findings to date were published in Science. Policy briefs, publications, a design report, and the interviews and measures are accessible at http://www.jhu.edu/~welfare/. The data from the first two waves of the survey and the embedded developmental study are publicly available through Sociometrics.

Selected Publications

Books

Chase-Lansdale, P.L., K.E. Kiernan, and R.J. Friedman, eds. 2004. Human Development Across Lives and Generations: The Potential for Change. New York: Cambridge University Press.

Duncan, G.J., and P.L. Chase-Lansdale eds. 2001. For Better and for Worse: Welfare Reform and the Well-being of Children and Families. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.

Articles, Chapters, and Policy Briefs

Chase-Lansdale, P.L. 2004. The developmentalist perspective: A missing voice. In The Future of the Family, ed. D.P. Moynihan, T. M. Smeeding, L. Rainwater. 166-70. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.

Gordon, R.A., P.L. Chase-Lansdale, J. Brooks-Gunn. 2004. Extended households and the life course of young mothers: Understanding the associations using a sample of mothers with premature, low birth weight babies. Child Development 75, 4: 1013-38.

Lohman, B.J., L.D. Pittman, R.L. Coley, and P.L. Chase-Lansdale. 2004. Welfare history, sanctions, and developmental outcomes among low-income children and youth. Social Service Review 781:41-73.

Votruba-Drzal, E., R.L. Coley, and P.L. Chase-Lansdale. 2004. Child care and low-income children's development: Direct and moderated effects. Child Development 751: 296-312.

Seltzer, J. A., C.A. Bachrach, S.M. Bianchi, C.H. Bledsoe, L.M. Casper, P.L. Chase-Lansdale, T.A. DiPrete, V.J. Hotz, S.P. Morgan, S.G. Sanders, and D. Thomas. In press. Explaining family change and variation: Challenges for family demographers. Journal of Marriage and the Family.

Chase-Lansdale, P.L., et al. 2003. Mothers' transitions from welfare to work and the well-being of preschoolers and adolescents, Science 299:1548-52.

Friedman, R.J., and P.L. Chase-Lansdale, 2002. Chronic adversities. Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Fourth Edition, ed. M. Rutter and E. Taylor, 261-76. London: Blackwell Publishing.

Chase-Lansdale, P.L., and L.D. Pittman, 2002. Welfare reform and parenting: Reasonable Expectations. In Future of Children, ed. M.K. Shields. 12, 1: Children and Welfare Reform, 167-83. The David and Lucile Packard Foundation, Los Altos, CA.

Chase-Lansdale, P.L, R.L. Coley, B.J. Lohman, and L.D. Pittman. 2002. Welfare reform: What about the children? Policy Brief 02-1, Report of Welfare, Children, and Families: A Three-City Study. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University.

Chase-Lansdale, P.L., B. Van Widenfelt, and R.A. Gordon. 2001. Multigenerational family Q-sort. In Handbook of Family Measurement Techniques, vol. 2, ed. J. Touliatos, B.F. Perlmutter, and G.W. Holden, 38. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, Inc.

Chase-Lansdale, P.L., J. Brooks-Gunn, and E.S. Zamsky, 2001. Puzzle task coding system for multigenerational families. In Handbook of Family Measurement Techniques, vol. 2, ed. J. Touliatos, B.F. Perlmutter, and G.W. Holden, 37-38. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, Inc.

Coley R.L., P.L. Chase-Lansdale, and C.P. Li-Grining. 2001 Child care in the era of welfare reform: Quality, choices, and preferences. Policy Brief 01-4, Report of Welfare, Children, and Families: A Three-City Study. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University.

Duncan, G.J., and P.L. Chase-Lansdale. 2001. Welfare reform and child well-being. In The New World of Welfare, ed. R.B. Blank and R.T. Haskins, 391-417. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press.

Gordon, R.A., and Chase-Lansdale, P.L. 2001. Availability of child care in the United States: A description and analysis of data sources. Demography, 38:299-316.

Moore, M.R., and P.L. Chase-Lansdale. 2001. Sexual intercourse and pregnancy among African American adolescent girls in high poverty neighborhoods: The role of family and perceived community involvement. Journal of Marriage and the Family 63:1146-57.

Wakschlag, L.S., P.L., Chase-Lansdale, and J. Brooks-Gunn. 2001. Scale of intergenerational relationship quality. In Handbook of Family Measurement Techniques, vol. 2, ed. J. Touliatos, B.F. Perlmutter, and G.W. Holden, 70-71. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, Inc.

Pittman, L.D., and P.L. Chase-Lansdale, 2001. African American adolescent girls in impoverished communities: Parenting style and adolescent outcomes. Journal of Research on Adolescence 11:199-224.