Welcome!

Welcome to the SPROUT Lab! The lab is under the direction of Dr. Morgan Thompson. We are located at Kent State University and are affiliated with the Department of Psychological Sciences.

Research in the SPROUT Lab integrates developmental psychopathology and biopsychosocial perspectives to investigate children’s socioemotional development within the family context. A central theme of our work is that children do not respond to the same family experiences in the same way. Some children may be relatively resilient across a wide range of environments (sometimes described as “dandelions”), whereas others may be especially sensitive to both supportive and adverse environments (sometimes described as “orchids”). Our research seeks to understand the processes that contribute to these differences in developmental risk and resilience.

Our three primary aims include:

1. Investigating how family dynamics (e.g., interparental conflict, parenting, family instability) impact children’s socioemotional development in ways that lead to increased risk for psychopathology or more adaptive adjustment.
2. Exploring the role of sleep in relation to the family environment and children’s socioemotional development.
3. Identifying individual (e.g., temperament, attention biases) and contextual (e.g., SES, neighborhood safety) sources of variability in children's adjustment in the family context. 

To address these aims, we draw on theory-driven models (e.g., emotional security theory, family systems theory) and integrate multiple levels of analysis (e.g., family and child behavior, sleep, eye-tracking), diverse methodologies (e.g., observational, narrative, survey), and perspectives from multiple informants (e.g., caregivers, children, teachers), often leveraging longitudinal data to capture developmental processes over time. 

Prospective graduate and undergraduate students, please see the prospective students page. The SPROUT Lab plans to review applications from students seeking to begin the program in Fall 2027. Undergraduate students interested in joining the lab as research assistants may participate through either credit-based or volunteer-based options.