About the Network
The CYFS Research Network is a hub that sparks collaboration and discovery. This dynamic tool is designed to foster connections among Nebraska researchers in the social, behavioral and educational sciences — and to share their life-changing work.
Research Themes:
Academic Intervention & Learning
Academic Intervention & Learning
Academic Intervention & Learning
The CYFS Research Network promotes educational excellence through evidence-based programs and practices.
Researchers:
- Use evidence-based approaches to support and maintain children’s learning across their lifespan.
- Investigate strategies for educators of all grade levels, school specialists and administrators. These proven strategies create positive effects across academic areas, including: math, science, arts, technology and social sciences.
- Identify strategies that support learning more broadly, such as promoting teacher professional development, building family-school-community partnerships, improving school environments and informing policy development.
Research Affiliates Research Projects
Early Education & Development
Early Education & Development
Early Education & Development
The CYFS Research Network is strengthened by its early childhood arm, the Nebraska Academy for Early Childhood Research, which includes experts in all facets of early education and development, and helps bridge the gap between the research, practice and policy communities.
Researchers:
- Study early childhood areas ranging from cognition and social-emotional well-being to language and behavior.
- Address both typical development and the progression of children who are especially vulnerable or have special needs.
- Investigate how children function and are influenced by different social and cultural systems — within homes, schools, peer groups and communities.
Research Affiliates Research Projects
Psychosocial Development & Social-Emotional Learning
Psychosocial Development & Social-Emotional Learning
Psychosocial Development & Social-Emotional Learning
The CYFS Research Network includes work that promotes children’s social and emotional well-being.
Researchers:
- Work to understand children's social-emotional strengths and challenges to help build competencies and manage or prevent behavioral difficulties.
- Study how ecological systems influence children's social skills and capabilities, feelings, perceptions and motivations.
- Develop interventions that provide parents, educators and practitioners with resources to assess and confront negative behaviors, including aggression, bullying, delinquency and substance abuse.
- Strive to improve early childhood education, child care programs and home visitation interventions by building partnerships and supporting teachers and early childhood professionals.
Research Affiliates Research Projects
Research & Evaluation Methods
Research & Evaluation Methods
Research & Evaluation Methods
The CYFS Research Network is elevated by its research methods and data analysis arm, the Nebraska Academy for Methodology, Analytics and Psychometrics, which includes experts in rigorous, data-driven research and evaluation methods.
Researchers:
- Specialize in advanced statistical and methodological approaches, work closely with colleagues to conceptualize research designs, conduct statistical analyses and interpret results to maximize the research impact.
- Leverage their expertise in mixed-methods, experimental, quasi-experimental and correlational designs to improve the research quality. They are also well-versed in cross-sectional, longitudinal and correlational approaches to data analysis.
- Adapt and innovate to address challenging research questions.
- Deliver workshops and seminars on quantitative analysis and other research methods.
Research Affiliates Research Projects
Rural Education & Communities
Rural Education & Communities
Rural Education & Communities
The CYFS Research Network includes research to better understand and address the unique challenges and needs of teachers, students, individuals and families in rural communities.
Researchers:
- Identify, develop and validate methods that help teachers deliver research-based instruction in rural classrooms and improve outcomes for students.
- Investigate how professional development opportunities influence teachers’ knowledge, perceptions and practices.
- Seek to understand quality-of-life concerns among rural ethnic minorities.
- Study ways to improve access to high-quality STEM education and other resources for health and well-being in rural communities.
Research Affiliates Research Projects
Advancing learning and development — across the state and around the globe.
Research Affiliates
diverse faculty from across four campuses
CYFS Research Affiliates make up a team of faculty with diverse backgrounds and disciplines within the University of Nebraska system. Their work significantly contributes to Nebraska’s vibrant research community in the social, behavioral and educational sciences.
Together, they create solutions to the critical challenges we face in today’s classrooms, homes and communities.
Connect with them, discover their research expertise and learn how their work enhances lives — across the state and around the globe.
