Wendy Hoglund, PhD, MA, BSc

Area of Study / Keywords

Social and Emotional Development Peer Relations Resiliency Early Childhood Middle Childhood Adolescence

About

I am an Associate Professor of Developmental Science and Associate Chair in the Department of Psychology at the University of Alberta. I received my PhD in Lifespan Development from the University of Victoria and completed a Postdoctoral Fellowship at New York University. In my research, teaching, and daily life I am interested in ways that we can best support the well-being and development of children and adolescents. 

Research

How do individual, social and contextual processes converge in enhancing or undermining the social and emotional development of socially and economically marginalized children and adolescents? The developmental significance of social and economic adversity for children and adolescents continues to be an applied social challenge facing our communities and a rich area for scientific discovery. My research scholarship is aligned with a developmental psychopathology perspective that seeks to understand the etiology and developmental pathways of the various competencies and challenges that emerge across childhood and adolescence. 

I conduct both basic and applied, community-engaged research on the social and emotional development of marginalized children and adolescents and factors that enhance or undermine their resiliency. Most typically, my research investigates how relationships with peers and teachers and setting-level processes (e.g., classroom instructional practices) offer protection or confer risk for social and emotional development in childhood and adolescence. My applied research uses a community-engaged approach to investigate how evidence-informed practices promote positive peer relations and social and emotional competencies in childhood and adolescence. 

In my research I encourage the active participation of junior colleagues, including graduate and undergraduate students. Students are involved in all phases of research, from project development to data collection and analysis to knowledge mobilization. 

Teaching

I believe that learning is a lifelong process and a shared experience that is informed by our everyday interactions with others. Community service-learning (CSL) is a pedagogical practice that I regularly integrate into my formal teaching to engage all participants in the learning process. My formal teaching assignments commonly include PSYCH 323 (Infant & Child Development), PSYCH 325 (Applied Research in Developmental Psychology), PSYCH 327 (Adolescent Development), PSYCH 423/622 (Special Topics: Developmental Psychopathology; Peer Relations in Childhood; Social and Emotional Development in Childhood), and PSYCH 421/522 (Developmental Methods: Design & Data). I also regularly supervise students in individual research courses, including research apprenticeships (PSYCH 299), individual research courses (PSYCH 396/398/496/498), and honours theses (PSYCH 390/399/490/499).

Each year I provide ongoing mentorship to several graduate and undergraduate students. This mentorship is focused on social and emotional development in childhood and adolescence and on rigorous and ethical developmental methods. I have been the primary supervisor for 1 Doctoral student, 8 Master’s students, and 38 undergraduate honors students, and have served as a committee and/or examining member on several Master’s and Doctoral theses and candidacy exams (~20 students). Each year I mentor several undergraduate students in research apprenticeships, independent study courses, honours theses, and volunteer placements in the PEERS lab.

Undergraduate Students: Our lab is full for the 2024-2025 academic year. I am not currently accepting any new undergraduate students for volunteer, individual research or honours program positions for the 2024-2025 academic year. I do not accept new students for the spring and summer terms. I typically only supervise individual research students who have previously volunteered in our lab.

Graduate Students: I will potentially be accepting new graduate students for September 2025. Students with interests in peer relations and social-emotional development in early childhood and who have a strong academic record, research and applied experience, and training in advanced developmental and statistical methodology are encouraged to apply. Please see the Department of Psychology Application Information for admission requirements and all procedures and deadlines for applying to our graduate program. I do not accept individual applications that do not follow these guidelines or deadlines.