Change and growth across the life-cycle

karen herland

President Claude Lajeunesse enjoyed a comprehensive tour of the facilities and programs of the Centre for Research in Human Development (known by its French acronym CRDH) on Feb. 28.

The tour was part of the second cluster of activities organized by the Office of Research, this one under the theme Learning, Human Development and Human Environment.

Lisa Serbin, the director of the 25-year-old centre, began with a presentation for Lajeunesse and Truong Vo-Van, Vice-Provost Research. Two dozen professors, graduate students and staff provided information on their projects. The overarching theme of the centre’s work is “Navigating critical transitions and challenges across the life-course.”

“This theme was selected specifically because it allows a multidisciplinary approach to understanding how we handle life’s inevitable challenges,” Serbin said.

The CRDH, funded by the FQRSC Regroupements stratégiques program encompasses research on factors that affect periods of potential stress and change: such as early childhood, adolescence, parenting and aging. The CRDH also focuses on methodology.

Although initiated in the Psychology Department 25 years ago (16 of the 35 professors involved are in that department) the centre has expanded to include researchers in sociology, exercise science, geography, decision science, education, epidemiology and political science across five Quebec institutions (Concordia, UQAM, McGill, Laval, College de Maisonneuve).

In addition to faculty re-searchers, six postdoctoral fellows, over 100 graduate students and nearly twice as many undergrads work with the CRDH.

“Approximately 80 per cent of our psychology graduate students have fellowships. We have fantastic students,” Serbin said. Presently, the Centre has over $9 million in research grants from federal and provincial sources.

Researchers and trainees have a unique and enriching opportunity to build on each other’s work. To keep members up on each other’s research and methods, the CRDH holds monthly seminars.

“Coordinating the mechanics of allowing people to work across disciplines is a huge challenge,” said Serbin, “yet it is also the program’s strength.”

Psychology professor Paul Hastings said he came to the CRDH from the National Institute of Mental Health in Bethesda, Maryland, because the colleagues, support and re-sources here are stronger for studying developmental psychology. His research examines environmental and biological contributors to competent and problematic behaviours in children and adolescents.

Associate Director Karen Li added, “you have a real critical mass of people working on life-span developmental issues. The concentration of expertise makes the CRDH more like a think tank.”

Her current research concerns multitasking strategies and compensatory brain changes in older adults when performing motor tasks (see Concordia’s Thursday Report, March 28, 2002).

Similarly, the CRDH is working toward obtaining the infrastructure to manage large-scale survey research. This approach will allow CRDH trainees and researchers alike to familiarize themselves with a type of research that is traditionally offered in disciplines like political science or sociology, Serbin said.

Collaboration with policy-makers is another growing area for the centre. The CRDH is frequently approached by the Ministry of Education for opinions on policy-making. “It is not always clear how to go from basic research to policy development. But that’s why I went into psychology in the first place, to do research that matters,” Serbin said.

For more information, on the centre’s upcoming activities and projects, including their annual conference go to crdh.concordia.ca