Jay Belsky | |
|---|---|
| Born | (1952-07-07)July 7, 1952 (age 72) |
| Nationality | American |
| Alma mater | Cornell University (Ph.D., 1978) |
| Known for | Work on effects ofchild care on children |
| Awards | 1988 Boyd McCandless Award, 2007 Urie Bronfenbrenner Award, 2015 Bowlby-Ainsworth Award |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Child psychology |
| Institutions | University of California-Davis |
| Thesis | Family interaction in toddlerhood: a naturalistic observational study (1978) |
Jay Belsky (born July 7, 1952)[1] is an American child psychologist and the Robert M. and Natalie Reid Dorn Professor ofHuman Development at theUniversity of California, Davis. He is noted for his research in the fields ofchild development andfamily studies. He was a founding investigator of theNICHD Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development in theUnited States, and of the National Evaluation ofSure Start in theUnited Kingdom.[2] He has been anISI Highly Cited Researcher since 2002.[3]
After receiving his Ph.D. fromCornell University in 1978, Belsky joined the faculty ofPenn State University, where he became a distinguished professor of human development before leaving the faculty there in 1999. From 1999 to 2010, he was a professor of psychology atBirkbeck University of London, where he was also the founding director of the Institute for the Study of Children, Families and Social Issues. He became the Robert M. and Natalie Reid Dorn Professor of Human Development at the University of California, Davis in 2011. Since 2010, he has been a member of theAcademy of Europe.[3]
Belsky has published multiple studies reporting thatchild care is associated with an increased risk of psychological and behavioral problems for children. These studies have been covered extensively by the media,[4][5] though they have been criticized by other researchers. One such critic,Kathleen McCartney, former director of the Child Study and Development Center at theUniversity of New Hampshire and dean of theHarvard Graduate School of Education, said in 1987 that "None of the studies Jay [Belsky] talks about look at the quality of child-care arrangements or the family backgrounds".[6]
