Other Events

Event Name: Peer Relationships Pre-conference (New perspectives on risks and resilience in online and real-life peer relationships) 

Affiliation/Organization: Michigan State University 

Time of Event: 10:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m.

Event Location: Hilton Minneapolis | Room: Marquette I and Marquette II 

Registration Information: Yijie Wang | yjwang@msu.edu 

Event Description: The Peer Relations Event brings together researchers and scholars across disciplines and countries to discuss and advance scientific research in the field of peer relations among children and adolescents. The Pre-Conference will focus on rethinking widely-held assumptions on risk and resilience in peer relationships across offline and online spaces, as well as on how adolescents can be catalysts of positive societal change and how peer-led interventions could address modern age problems. Specific topics covered will include:

1. Is social media bad?! The beneficial and adverse effects of social media in youth mental health
2. Is prosocial behavior always desirable? Developmental and cultural perspectives on the benefits and risks related to social behaviors
3. Let’s be open about how we feel?! The effects of co-rumination and co-resilience and youth well-being
4. Youth as advocates for positive societal change?! peer influence on youth attitudes and behaviors regarding societal issues such as climate change and intergroup relationships
5. Peers for peers?! The implementation of peer-led interventions to foster positive peer relationships and a prosocial school environment. The sessions will engage invited speakers/moderators and pre-conference attendees to discuss issues of methodologies, developmental changes from childhood through adolescence, mental health implications, culture and diversity, and intervention. The pre-conference will be structured to offer a plenary talk, multiple breakout discussion sessions and working groups, and networking opportunities throughout the day. 

Event Name: Towards a Developmental Science of Intellectual Humility

Affiliation/Organization: University of Toronto Mississauga

Time of Event: 9:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m.

Event Location: Minneapolis Convention Center | Room: M100DE 

Registration Information: Samantha Cottrell | dev.ih.utm@utoronto.ca | https://www.developingintellectualhumility.com/srcd-2025

Event Description: Increased societal polarization has made it critical to understand how to foster children’s ability to navigate productive disagreement. In particular, we need better insights into the development of intellectual humility (IH)—an awareness of what one does not know (the limits of one’s knowledge) and that one could be wrong (the fallibility of one’s knowledge). In adults, greater IH is associated with decreased polarization and extremism (Bowes et al., 2020; Mellers et al., 2019), an openness to opposing viewpoints (Porter & Schumann, 2018), and greater learning (Krumrei-Mancuso et al., 2020; Porter et al., 2021). Understanding the development of this intellectual virtue across childhood can bring us one step closer to understanding how to promote it, and its benefits, among youth.

However, the conceptualization and measurement of IH have proved challenging (e.g., Ballantyne, 2023; Leary et al., 2017; Porter et al., 2021). Only recently has theoretical and empirical work begun to coalesce around a core definition of what IH is and how it can be measured in adults (Leary et al., 2017; Porter et al., 2022). The complexities are magnified when considering the development of IH: Few studies have directly examined IH in children, and those that have done so focused on behavioral manifestations of IH (e.g., delegating questions; Danovitch et al., 2019) or on children’s perception of intellectually humble and arrogant individuals (e.g., Hagá & Olson, 2017).

Understanding how IH develops is a necessary and critical first step toward designing interventions meant to increase IH. However, studying the development of IH is challenging. To take just one example, young children seem simultaneously humble and arrogant: They ask questions all the time (e.g., Butler, Ronfard, & Corriveau, 2020), suggesting that they realize the limitations of their knowledge, but they are also routinely overconfident in their knowledge (e.g., many 4-year-olds assert that they know what “chartreuse” means; Hagá & Olson, 2017; Mills & Keil, 2004). Is one of these behaviors more indicative of the “true” level of IH in childhood? And how would we decide?

This pre-conference workshop aims to stimulate interest in taking a developmental approach to studying intellectual humility, and to foster a rich interdisciplinary dialogue. To ensure a broad range of discussion, we will invite researchers steeped in different theoretical approaches who study a range of ages (e.g., preschool, elementary school, adolescence, and adulthood).

We propose a full-day program, organized into four sessions—two in the morning, and two in the afternoon. We will issue an open call for short talks (10min talk + 5min discussion) and posters, which, together with the invited talks, will be organized into four emerging sub-topics.

Event Name: Emotion Preconference 

Affiliation/Organization: Yale Child Study Center 

Time of Event: 12:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m.

Event Location: Minneapolis Convention Center | Room: M100DE 

Registration Information: Diana Devine | emotion.precon@gmail.com |
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/2025-emotion-preconference-tickets-1084509971519?aff=oddtdtcreator  

Event Description: For the 2025 Emotion Preconference, our theme is Complex Emotions in the Modern World. Throughout our preconference, we will discuss novel approaches to research practices in the emotion space and implications and applications of emotion work in a rapidly evolving society. We will have an exciting half-day program with flash talk presentations, a panel discussion, and small group breakouts to consider how technological innovations are creating opportunities for or barriers to connection and research, how interdisciplinary collaboration between academia and industry can facilitate bigger impacts on communities, and how people think about and navigate complicated emotions and social contexts.

Event Name: University of Michigan Reception 

Affiliation/Organization: University of Michigan

Time of Event: 6:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.

Event Location: Hilton Minneapolis | Room: Duluth 

Registration Information: N/A

Event Description: Traditional reception of the Developmental Psychology Area in the Department of Psychology.

Event Name: Pillars of Developmental Psychology

Affiliation/Organization: The University of New Mexico

Time of Event: 6:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.

Event Location: Hilton Minneapolis | Conrad D

Event Description: This gathering is related to an Invited Conversation Roundtable on the Biennial Program that is related, in turn, to an edited volume, "Pillars of Developmental Psychology: Recollections and Reflections" (that will be published by Cambridge University Press prior to the meeting). This will provide an opportunity for further discussion, especially between young scholars and a wider group of "Pillars' (i.e., not only those on the Roundtable panel).

Event Name: Reception by the Department of Early Childhood Education at The Education University of Hong Kong 

Affiliation/Organization: Department of Early Childhood Education at The Education University of Hong Kong 

Time of Event: 6:00 p.m. – 10:00 p.m.

Event Location: Hilton Minneapolis | Room: Duluth 

Registration Information: N/A

Event Description: The Department of Early Childhood Education (ECE) at The Education University of Hong Kong is hosting a reception to introduce our department to international colleagues, share information about the research we do and the positions currently available, and foster potential collaborations and partnerships. You are warmly invited to join us to enjoy some food, drinks, and conversations with colleagues from our ECE Faculty! 

Event Name: Network of Infant and Toddler Research (NITR) Gathering 

Affiliation/Organization: Network of Infant and Toddler Research (NITR) 

Time of Event: 6:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.

Event Location: Hilton Minneapolis | Room: B and C

Event Description: The Network of infant/toddler Researchers (NitR) consortium brings together leading applied researchers with policymakers and technical assistance providers responsible for overseeing and supporting early childhood programs serving families during pregnancy and the first three years of life. The Administration for Children and Families (ACF), Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation (OPRE) convened the Network to answer questions of interest to ACF. NitR brings together researchers interested in policy and practice issues relevant to programs serving families during pregnancy and when children are infants and toddlers. This includes child care, home visiting, Early Head Start, and child welfare.