UN3615: Children at Risk | G. Downey

Psychology
Undergraduate and Graduate Lecture
Tu Th 10:10-11:25AM

This course considers contemporary risk factors in children's lives. We analyze the immediate and enduring biological and behavioral impact of risk factors, their interaction, and child characteristics that modify their effects. This course is organized developmentally. It begins with a discussion of prenatal development and prenatal hazards, such as mother's drug use and lack of access to health care, and ends with adolescent risks, such as unsafe sex. We examine risks originating inside (e.g. family violence) and outside (e.g., poverty, racism, and other forms of social exclusion) the family and explore both traumatic and chronic stressors. We end with a discussion of why some children survive extreme adversity and why some intervention programs (at both the individual, family, community, and societal level) work. The course will attempt to bridge the areas traditionally covered by life course developmental psychology and social psychology. There is an emphasis on considering the public policy implications of risk and protective factors in children's lives from a human rights and social justice perspective. 

Prerequisites: PSYC UN1010, PSYC UN2280, PSYC UN2620, or PSYC UN2680, and the instructor's permission.

Link to Vergil
Note: only courses offered during the two previous semesters have active Vergil links.