Cynthia Erdley

she/her
Professor
Psychology

Research Interests

Broadly speaking, my research focuses on the ways in which children’s and adolescents’ peer relationship experiences are associated with their adjustment. I have examined how various social-cognitive processes (e.g., attributions, social goals, strategy knowledge, self-efficacy
perceptions) relate to youth’s behavior, peer status, and psychosocial adjustment.

My lab has been involved in numerous studies investigating these issues. Our research has examined how peer acceptance and friendship (quality and quantity) predict to loneliness, depression, and social anxiety, and whether these associations vary by gender and developmental level. We have also investigated the role of different interpersonal processes (e.g., co-rumination, negative feedback seeking, excessive reassurance seeking) in predicting depression, non-suicidal self-injury, and suicidality in adolescents. In addition, we are exploring the relations among emotional processes (e.g., intrapersonal and interpersonal emotion regulation), friendship quality, and depression. In other work, using a measure of social networks systematically developed in our lab, we are examining how the size and diversity of college students’ social networks predict to their socioemotional adjustment.

Zeman, J. L., & Erdley, C. A. (Eds). (in preparation). Emotion socialization in children and adolescents: The importance of family and peer relationships. Routledge.

Jankowski, M. S., Erdley, C. A., & Schwartz-Mette, R. A. (2020). Social-cognitive risk for suicide and new relationship formation: False perception, self-fulfilling prophecy, or both? Suicide and Life-Threatening Behavior, 416-428.

Erdley, C. A., & Jankowski, M. S. (2020). Assessing youth. In D. W. Nangle, C. A.

Erdley, & R. A. Schwartz-Mette (Eds.). Social skills across the life-span: Theory, assessment, and intervention (pp. 69-90). Elsevier.

Kingery, J. N., Erdley, C. A., & Scarpulla, E. (2020). Developing social skills. In D. W. Nangle, C. A. Erdley, & R. A. Schwartz-Mette (Eds.). Social skills across the life-span: Theory, assessment, and intervention (pp. 25-45). Elsevier.

Nangle, D. W., Erdley, C. A., & Schwartz-Mette, R. A. (Eds.). (2020). Social skills across the life-span: Theory, assessment, and intervention. Elsevier.

Adrian, M., Zeman, J., Erdley, C. A., & Sim, L. (2019). Trajectories of non-suicidal self- injury in adolescent girls following inpatient hospitalization. Clinical Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 24, 831-846.

Andrews, L. A., Brothers, S. L., Sauvé, J. S., Nangle, D. W., Erdley, C. A., & Hord, M. K. (2019). Fight and flight: Examining putative links between social anxiety and youth aggression. Aggression and Violent Behavior, 48, 94-103.

Schwartz-Mette, R. A., Lawrence, H. R., Nangle, D. W., Erdley, C. A., Andrews, L., & Jankowski, M. (2016). Depression in children and adolescents: A guide for practitioners. Momentum Press.

Erdley, C. A., & Day, H. J. (2016). Friendship in childhood and adolescence. In M. Hoijat & A. Moyer (Eds.). Psychology of friendship (pp. 3-19). Oxford University Press.

Nangle, D. W., Hansen, D. J. Hansen, Erdley, C. A., & Norton, P. J. (Eds.) (2010). Practitioner’s guide to empirically based measures of social skills (pp. 69-85). Springer.

Areas of Expertise

Peer Relationships
Psychological Adjustment
Social Cognition

Education

Ph.D., University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1992
M.A., University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1988
B.A., Gettysburg College, 1986
Portrait of Cynthia Erdley
Professor