Maya Bowen is a third year graduate student on the Developmental Psychology PhD track and a graduate research assistant in the Gunnar Lab. Recently, she has been working as the lead-student investigator on the Lab’s Preschool Return Study. The study, titled “The Pandemic’s Effect on Young Children’s Social Development,” is looking at the social-behavioral effects of the pandemic on children’s readjustment to preschool. 

Bowen has previous research experience from her time in Hong Kong working as the Global Programs Coordinator at OneSky, an international NGO working to bring best-practice childcare to underserved communities in Asia. Due to her high interest, background in early childhood education, and experience with behavioral coding, she was invited to be the lead-student researcher on the Preschool Return Study.

In the Fall of 2021 the Child Development Laboratory School fully reopened. This offered a unique opportunity to take a closer look at the potential effects of social isolation, caused by lock-downs and quarantines, on children’s development.

Bowen and the team formulated this study with two goals in mind. First, to learn how children readjusted in their return to preschool after a wide range of peer and other-adult social experiences during the pandemic. Second, to understand how individual temperaments may moderate children’s readjustment. Through the use of recorded observation and behavioral coding, the team strives to uncover the effects of the pandemic on young children.

“I think this study will prove to be very informative and interesting, giving us a better understanding of how the pandemic has impacted children’s social and emotional development as well as offering some insight into their adjustment to the return of school,” says Bowen.

Results of the study are set to be available in Fall 2022.

Learn more about the study in the Gunnar Lab Newsletter.