Jonathan Tudge, Ph.D.

Professor
Department of Human Development and Family Studies
University of North Carolina at Greensboro

Contact Information:
Email:jrtudge@uncg.edu

Website: http://www.uncg.edu/hdf/faculty/tudge/

Research Interests & Goals:
Jonathan Tudge is Professor in the Department of Human Development and Family Studies at The University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Most of his research focuses on the interrelations between the social world and children’s social, moral, and cognitive development. In much of his research, he uses cultural-ecological theory, a contextualist theory that draws on the ideas of Lev Vygotsky and Urie Bronfenbrenner. The major line of research is longitudinal and cross-cultural in design, dealing with the ways in which young children become part of the cultural group in which they live. This work involves extensive observations of the everyday activities of children when they are three years of age as well as interviews and questionnaires with their parents regarding their child-rearing values and beliefs. The children are followed through their first years of school, when data on parents’ and teachers’ perceptions of the children’s social and academic competence are also gathered. This research is cross-cultural (US, Russia, Estonia, Finland, Korea, Kenya, and Brazil) and examines within-societal variations as a function of ethnicity and social class. A book was published that is based on this research: Tudge, J. R. H. (2008). The everyday lives of young children: Culture, class, and child rearing in diverse societies. New York: Cambridge University Press.