Emeritus Professor Ron Rohner was featured in UConn Today for an article on parental rejection across cultures. Read the article here.

Associate Professor

Annamaria Csizmadia is a scholar-teacher of cultural diversity. She has spent the past two decades studying how culturally relevant and group-specific factors shape developmental processes among monoracial and Multiracial (including immigrant) youth of color. She investigates how youth of color develop a positive ethnic-racial identity and the role that families play in helping youth navigate life in a racialized society where access to resources and opportunities is determined based on one’s race (as well as class and gender). She has a special interest in Multiracial youth development (in part because she is the proud mother of a wonderfully brilliant Multiracial daughter).

Her work is Informed by cultural ecological, critical race, and intersectional theories. In this research she highlights the important role of family ethnic-racial socialization, such as how parents teach children pride in their race, ethnicity, and culture, and help them cope with bias and discrimination. Her research demonstrates that these socialization practices along with other culture-specific parenting behaviors contribute to social-emotional adjustment among youth of color in important ways. She also has found that how parents identify their child’s race is a highly salient form of ethnic-racial socialization in families of Multiracial youth. Her theoretical and empirical work emphasizes the dynamic interaction of family socialization, Multiracial youth’s social cognition, and their social environment that shapes Multiracial youth development.

Alongside family practices and youth’s identity-related social cognition, Annamaria seeks to understand how influences outside the family shape development in monoracial and Multiracial youth. Some of her most recent work focused on learning about racial microaggressions. In 2019-2020, as part of the UConn Racial Microaggression Study research team, she surveyed over 1,200 UConn students of color to learn about their experiences with racial microaggressions in and outside the classroom. The team found that students who reported more interpersonal experiences that communicated to them invalidation, insult, or derogatory messages due to their racial group also reported lower levels of psychological well-being and more discrimination-related trauma symptoms. The team presented their research to the University administration and disseminated it through campus news and the Hartford Courant to inform policy change and the community.

Annamaria began developing a keen interest in cultural diversity when she started taking Russian and German languages as an elementary-school student in Hungary where she was born and raised. Speaking other languages besides her native tongue exposed her to all kinds of cross-cultural experiences. She learned about life in different cultural settings from pen pals from Eastern and Western Europe (prior to the fall of the Iron Curtain!), summer camps that hosted students from Austria to Korea, and school trips abroad. Her informal learning through travel and cross-cultural exchange in time shifted to formalized learning about linguistics, culture, literature, and, in the end, diversity issues in human development. She did not only traverse cultures and national borders, but eventually also disciplinary boundaries. After studying “Germanistik” and “Anglistik (German for German and English literature and linguistics) at the University of Trier, followed by a master’s degree in German Literature, in 2008 she completed her Ph.D. in Human Development and Family Studies at the University of Missouri.

In addition to her research, Annamaria feels privileged to learn about cultural diversity through daily interactions with her students at the UConn Stamford campus where she teaches courses on diversity issues, intergroup relations, research methods, and other HDFS topics. As a scholar-teacher, she regularly engages students in her research. Over the years, she has published numerous journal articles, book chapters, and encyclopedia entries with her students and taken them to national conferences to present their work.

For her teaching excellence and commitment to student success, Annamaria has received several honors and awards, including the 2013-2014 Honors Mentor of the Year Award, 2019-2020 Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning Teaching Fellow Award, and the 2020 College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Faculty Excellence in Teaching Award. Although these recognitions mean a lot to Annamaria, she is most proud of her students who secured competitive funding to do their research under her mentorship and went on to pursue graduate training at UConn, Harvard, and many other prestigious universities. As a first-generation college student and immigrant, herself, providing access to opportunities and resources for her students, many of whom are also first-generation college students and of immigrant backgrounds, is the most fulfilling part of her job!

Annamaria also serves her professional community as an editorial board member of the Journal of Marriage and Family, Journal of Family Psychology, and Journal of Research on Adolescence, and as a peer reviewer for two dozen journals, ad hoc conferences, and funding agencies. As member of the board, advisory council, and now Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion committee, she has been supporting the work of the Stamford Public Education Foundation, a local educational non-profit since 2008.

Outside work, Annamaria loves traveling, reading, running long distances, Barre and HITT workouts, doing puzzles, home renovation, gardening, and spending time with her daughter, family, and friends. She lives in Stamford, CT where she feels right at home given that over 35% of the city’s population is foreign born.

Professor Rebecca Puhl was featured in multiple news outlets for her work on weight discrimination and stigma:

Strong Support for Laws Against Weight Discrimination, Bullying in Medscape (read the article here); Women Feel More Stigma from ‘Spare Tire’ Around Middle Than Men, US News (read the article here); The Public Welcomes Policies Prohibiting Weight Discrimination, Clinical Advisor (read the article here); The Pandemic is Changing the Way Young People Eat and How They Feel About Their Bodies: 4 Essential Reads, Herald Review (read the article here).

Assistant Professor Na Zhang featured in UConn Today for her work on reducing suicide risk in parentally bereaved youth through strengthening parenting.  Read the article here.

Professor Rebecca Puhl testified at the Massachusetts State Hearing considering Senate Bill 1127, An Act Prohibiting Body Size Discrimination.

Recently, Professor and Department Head Eva Lefkowitz presented to the Early College Experience (ECE) HDFS 1070 course at Wilton High School, Eva’s own high school (class of 1986!).

Assistant Professor in Residence Terry Berthelot joined the United Services, Inc., Board of Directors on November 18, 2021. The purpose of the organization is to provide and encourage comprehensive human services, including behavioral health, social, and prevention services for towns in northeast Connecticut.

Professor Rebecca Puhl was among only six UConn faculty on the world’s highly cited research list.  Congratulations Rebecca!

Lecturer & Executive Director, UConn Child Development Laboratories

Anne Bladen has devoted her life to families and children in one way or another for the entirety of her career. After graduating with a BA in Anthropology from Bryn Mawr College, Anne moved to Connecticut and worked in Willimantic for three years as a bilingual Welfare Caseworker with the Town of Windham Social Services.  The timing of her work as a caseworker overlapped with the AIDS and burgeoning Opiod epidemics, the recession, and the gutting of social services and job training programs. After several of her clients died of drug overdoses and AIDS, and as increasingly fewer individuals and families qualified for much needed benefits, Anne realized that it was time for a career change to work where she could have an impact much earlier on in people’s lives. As she explored how she might influence people earlier in the lifespan, Anne thought of her volunteer work with young children while in high school and college and applied to UConn’s Teacher Certification Program for College Graduates.

Anne completed her student teaching and MA placements in special education in public preschool programs in Hartford. Her MA thesis focused on the use of Alternative and Augmentative Communication with bilingual children with special needs.  These experiences solidified her belief in the power of early intervention.  Following her time in Hartford, Anne taught special education for preschoolers and their typically developing peers as well as resource room support for students in grades K-4.

Anne has been a member of the UConn Child Development Labs (CDL) community for 25 years. Having attended the Smith College Campus School for her own elementary years, the CDL’s mission of high quality education for children and college students was comfortable and welcoming when she became a kindergarten teacher at the CDL in 1996. She introduced the Writers’ Workshop model into the curriculum, building on her love of reading and writing.  Anne incorporated her passion for nature into her teaching of both children and UConn students as she hatched chickens, grew potatoes, built birdhouses and planted 2000 daffodils in the circle outside the Child Labs in celebration of the millennium.

Anne’s commitment to the wellbeing of young children led her to accept the role as Special Needs Coordinator at the Child Labs. While leaving the classroom as a teacher was a hard choice, she welcomed the opportunity to work with children, students, teachers and families in a different capacity. She was instrumental in combining ages to create a Preschool/ Kindergarten classroom. She supported teachers in meeting the individual needs of children and worked with other UConn departments to access resources for children and teachers.  At the same time, Anne became the instructor of two practicum classes at the CDL, allowing her to continue to help college students learn about the importance of the early years.

Anne moved into the role of Executive Director fifteen years ago, and continues to teach practicum classes, work with teachers, and support children.  Anne teaches her belief that all children should have access to high quality programs and that teachers should have the resources they need.  To this end, Anne has served in various community capacities during her career.  She chaired Mansfield Advocates for Children, coached and mentored several early childhood centers around the state in different stages of accreditation and helped them navigate the many facets of intentional teaching. Anne is an active member of NAACP and promotes understanding and diversity in both her professional and personal life.

Anne lives in an old house in the Mansfield Hollow Historic District and enjoys time at home with her daughter and two dogs. Her son is a 2019 UConn political science graduate who lives in Washington, DC. She is an avid gardener and quilter. You can find Anne outside in her gardens or at the river, hiking or exploring different biking trails.