Laurence Steinberg, Ph.D.

 

Email:  lds@temple.edu
Phone: (215) 204-7485

Interests: Adolescent brain, behavioral, and psychosocial development; parent-child relationships; developmental psychopathology; juvenile justice; implications of developmental research for legal and social policy

Laurence Steinberg , Ph.D. , is the Distinguished University Professor and Laura H. Carnell Professor of Psychology at Temple University. Dr. Steinberg has taught previously at Cornell University, the University of California at Irvine, and the University of Wisconsin at Madison. He was educated at Vassar College and at Cornell University, where he received his Ph.D. in Developmental Psychology in 1977. He is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association, has been a Faculty Scholar of the William T. Grant Foundation, and was Director of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Research Network on Adolescent Development and Juvenile Justice. Dr. Steinberg is Past-President of the Division of Developmental Psychology of the American Psychological Association and a former President of the Society for Research on Adolescence. He has been the recipient of numerous honors, including the John P. Hill Award for Outstanding Contributions to the Study of Adolescence, the American Psychological Association Urie Bronfenbrenner Award for Lifetime Contribution to Developmental Psychology in the Service of Science and Society, the Society for Adolescent Medicine's Gallagher Lectureship, the American Psychological Association Presidential Citation, and the American Psychological Association Award for Distinguished Contributions to Research in Public Policy. Dr. Steinberg also has been recognized for excellence in research and teaching by the University of California, the University of Wisconsin, and Temple University, where he was honored as one of the university's Great Teachers. In 2009, he was named as the first recipient of the Klaus J. Jacobs Research Prize, one of the largest prizes ever awarded to a social scientist, for his contributions to improving the lives of young people and their families.

A nationally and internationally renowned expert on psychological development during adolescence, Dr. Steinberg's research has focused on a range of topics in the study of contemporary adolescence, including adolescent brain development, risk-taking and decision-making, parent-adolescent relationships, adolescent employment, high school reform, and juvenile justice. His work has been funded by a variety of public and private organizations, including the National Institutes of Health, the U.S. Department of Education, the U.S. Department of Justice, the MacArthur Foundation, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the William Penn Foundation, the William T. Grant Foundation, the Lilly Endowment, the Spencer Foundation, and the Ford Foundation. Dr. Steinberg served as a member of the National Academies’ Panel on the Health Implications of Child Labor; Committee on the Science of Adolescent Health and Development; and Board on Children, Youth, and Families, and currently chairs the Committee on the Science of Adolescence. He has been a frequent consultant to state and federal agencies and lawmakers on child labor, secondary education, and juvenile justice policy and was the lead scientist on the amicus curiae brief filed by the American Psychological Association in Roper v. Simmons, the landmark U.S. Supreme Court case that abolished the juvenile death penalty, as well as in the two cases now before the Court on sentencing juveniles to life without parole.  He has also provided expert testimony and consultation in a number of legal cases involving adolescent brain and behavioral development.

Dr. Steinberg is the author of more than 250 articles and essays on growth and development during the teenage years, and the author or editor of eleven books, including Adolescence (McGraw-Hill), the leading college textbook on adolescent development, now in its 8th edition; When Teenagers Work: The Psychological and Social Costs of Adolescent Employment (with Ellen Greenberger; Basic Books); You and Your Adolescent: A Parent's Guide for Ages 10 to 20 (with Ann Levine; HarperCollins); Crossing Paths: How Your Child's Adolescence Triggers Your Own Crisis (with Wendy Steinberg; Simon & Schuster), Beyond the Classroom: Why School Reform Has Failed and What Parents Need to Do (with Bradford Brown and Sanford Dornbusch; Simon & Schuster), Studying Minority Adolescents: Conceptual, Methodological, and Theoretical Issues (co-edited with Vonnie McLoyd; Erlbaum), the Handbook of Adolescent Psychology (co-edited with Richard Lerner; Wiley), Rethinking Juvenile Justice (with Elizabeth Scott; Harvard University Press), Development: Infancy Through Adolescence (with Deborah Vandell and Marc Bornstein; Wadsworth), and The Ten Basic Principles of Good Parenting (Simon & Schuster), which has been translated into ten languages. Dr. Steinberg is a frequent consultant on adolescent development for print and electronic media, including The New York Times and National Public Radio. He has also has written for many popular outlets, including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Post.

Dr. Steinberg is available for speaking and workshops on child and adolescent development, family relationships, and juvenile justice policy and practice.  Presentations can be customized to suit the needs of the audience and sponsor.