About

Kenneth A. Dodge is the William McDougall Distinguished Professor of Public Policy Studies at the Sanford School of Public Policy. He also holds positions as a Professor in the Sanford School of Public Policy, a Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience, and is a Faculty Network Member of the Duke Institute for Brain Sciences. Additionally, he is a Faculty Research Scholar of DuPRI's Population Research Center and an affiliate of the Center for Child and Family Policy. His work has been featured on the Ways & Means podcast, highlighting his research on programs that support new moms and dads in adjusting to life with a newborn. His contact information is available at the Sanford School of Public Policy, located at 214A Sanford Building, Durham, NC.

Research topics

• Psychology
• Political Science
• Developmental psychology
• Medicine
• Clinical psychology
• Social psychology
• Demography
• Sociology
• Economic growth
• Medical education
• Economics
• Psychiatry
• Computer Science
• Internal medicine
• Law
• Mathematics education
• Geography
• Demographic economics

Selected publications

• Investigating if high‐quality kindergarten teachers sustain the pre‐K boost to children's emergent literacy skill development in North Carolina

  UNC Libraries · 2026-04-18

  articleOpen access

  This study tested the hypothesis that high-quality kindergarten teachers sustain and amplify the skill development of children who participated in North Carolina's NC Pre-K program during the previous year, compared to matched non-participants (N = 17,330; 42% African American, 40% Non-Hispanic White, 15% Hispanic; 51% male; M_age = 4.5 years at fall of pre-K). Kindergarten teacher quality was measured using a "value-added" approach. NC Pre-K participants outperformed non-participants in the fall of kindergarten (β = .22) and 11% of this boost remained evident by the spring of kindergarten. Higher value-added teachers promoted the skill development of all children (β = .30 in the spring) but did not differentially benefit the skill development of former NC Pre-K participants compared to non-participants.

  PublisherDOI

• Predictors of Young Adults' Primal World Beliefs in Eight Countries

  Child Development · 2025-04-23 · 5 citations

  articleOpen access

  Primal world beliefs ("primals") capture understanding of general characteristics of the world, such as whether the world is Good and Enticing. Children (N = 1215, 50% girls), mothers, and fathers from Colombia, Italy, Jordan, Kenya, Philippines, Sweden, Thailand, and United States reported neighborhood danger, socioeconomic status, parental warmth, harsh parenting, psychological control, and autonomy granting from ages 8 to 16 years. At age 22 years, original child participants reported their primal world beliefs. Parental warmth during childhood and adolescence significantly predicted Good, Safe, and Enticing world beliefs, but other experiences were only weakly related to primals. We did not find that primals are strongly related to intuitive aspects of the materiality of childhood experiences, which suggests future directions for understanding the origins of primals.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Future Orientation in Adolescents: Development and the Roles of Parenting in Different Income Countries

  Journal of Youth and Adolescence · 2025-11-25 · 1 citations

  articleOpen access

  Future orientation – the ability to envision and plan for the future – is a crucial task during adolescence. However, little is known about how adolescents’ future orientation develops, how it is influenced by parenting dimensions, and how it varies across countries with different income levels and cultural values. This longitudinal study addresses this gap by exploring how parents’ monitoring, family obligations, individualism, collectivism, and conformity influence future orientation. The sample is composed of 1,086 adolescents (50.5% females) at ages 10, 14, 17, and 20 (mean age at study time 1 = 10.8, SD = 0.69) and their 1,071 parents (85% mothers; mean age at study time 1 = 39.4, SD = 6.8), divided into high-income (Italy, the United States), upper-middle-income (Colombia, Thailand), and lower-middle-income countries (Jordan, Kenya, the Philippines). Full information maximum likelihood multigroup latent growth curve models revealed that adolescents’ future orientation trajectories are nonlinear, that family obligations and conformity values are the parenting dimensions more strongly related to future orientation, and differences across broader economic and cultural contexts. This study clarifies the role of parental monitoring, family obligations, individualism, collectivism, and conformity values in shaping adolescents’ future orientation across cultures, highlighting the importance of responsive parenting and balanced family obligations for family-focused policies and programs.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Do child and household regulation moderate the bidirectional relation between harsh parenting and externalizing problems in the transition to adolescence?

  Development and Psychopathology · 2025-03-12 · 2 citations

  articleOpen access

  The present study examined several distinct indicators of regulation (i.e., task-based executive function, surveyed child effortful control, and surveyed household chaos) as moderators of longitudinal bidirectional links between developmental changes in harsh parenting (HP) and child externalizing behaviors (EXT) from age 9 to 14 years. The sample included 311 children (50.4% female; 111 White or European American; 97 Hispanic or Latino; 103 Black or African American). We conducted cross-lagged panel analyses and utilized multiple reporters (mother, father, and child). Regarding bidirectionality between HP and EXT, findings were mixed depending on informant, but overall more child effects than parent effects or bidirectional effects emerged. Child and household regulation moderated certain effects, providing initial evidence of the potential role of regulations in bidirectional links between HP and EXT. The present study adds impetus to considering child self-regulation and household chaos as critical features influencing the bidirectional link between parenting and child functioning.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Physical activity and two‐year change in adolescent well‐being in nine countries

  Journal of Research on Adolescence · 2025-05-24 · 2 citations

  review

  The benefits of physical activity (PA) for well-being are well known; however, studies examining longitudinal effects across diverse international samples in late adolescence are limited. This study advances prior work by combining a partial longitudinal design with a multinational sample to assess the predictive effect of PA on biennial change in older adolescents' well-being, while testing for sex differences. The sample included 903 adolescents (50.4% female) from nine countries, who completed The European Health and Behavior Survey at age 16 and the EPOCH Measure of Adolescent Well-Being at ages 16 and 18. Multilevel modeling estimated the average impact of PA on change in well-being, controlling for baseline well-being. To further interrogate the findings, an additional analysis tested the effect using relative difference scores of well-being to provide a direct measure of simple change. Meta-analytic techniques then captured the degree of cross-country consistency in the estimated effect. Results indicated that more PA at age 16 significantly predicted greater EPOCH well-being at age 18, controlling for prior well-being at age 16, and that adolescent sex did not moderate this effect. The relative difference score analysis confirmed these results. The meta-analysis revealed no significant heterogeneity in the predictive effect across countries. Findings extend previous research by demonstrating the cross-cultural consistency of PA benefits during a critical developmental transition period. They suggest that PA is a modifiable behavior that can be utilized globally to enhance adolescent well-being, though individual differences and context-specific factors should be considered in public health policies and interventions.

  PublisherDOI

• Learning Variability Network Exchange (LEVANTE): A Global Framework for Measuring Children's Learning Variability Through Collaborative Data Sharing

  Child Development · 2025-08-02 · 1 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  Despite the ubiquity of variation in child development within individuals, across groups, and across tasks, timescales, and contexts, dominant methods in developmental science and education research still favor group averages, short snapshots of time, and single environments. The Learning Variability Network Exchange (LEVANTE) is a framework designed to enable coordinated data collection by research teams worldwide, with the goal of measuring variability in children's learning and development. The LEVANTE measure set aims to capture variability in learning outcomes (literacy and numeracy) as well as in core cognitive and social constructs. LEVANTE will yield a large, open access longitudinal dataset for long-term research use, both creating a multidisciplinary research network and facilitating the science of learning variability.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Parent–adolescent discrepancies in perceptions of parental warmth: Cross‐cultural differences and longitudinal associations with internalizing symptoms

  Journal of Research on Adolescence · 2025-10-31 · 1 citations

  articleOpen access

  Research suggests that adolescents often perceive parental behaviors-such as expressions of warmth and affection-differently than their parents do. These parent-adolescent discrepancies offer meaningful insight into family functioning during adolescence and adolescent mental health, though existing findings remain mixed. Grounded in interpersonal acceptance-rejection theory (IPARTheory), this study investigates longitudinal, bidirectional associations between parent-adolescent discrepancies in perceived parental warmth and adolescent internalizing symptoms. The sample included 1219 parent-adolescent dyads (both mothers and fathers) from 12 cultural groups across 9countries, followed across three time points spanning 5 years, with children's mean age being 10.72 years (SD = 0.67) at Wave 1, 13.19 years (SD = 0.90) at Wave 2, and 15.60 years (SD = 0.94) at Wave 3. The results of latent congruence models showed that mothers reported higher warmth than adolescents, whereas no significant discrepancies emerged between fathers and adolescents. The cross-sectional analyses indicated that a higher parent-adolescent discrepancy in parental warmth perceptions was linked to increased internalizing symptoms in adolescents and lower overall warmth perceived by parents and adolescents in the dyad. However, over the long term, marginal effects were observed only between greater internalizing symptoms in adolescents and lower overall warmth experienced, and vice versa. Additionally, some cross-cultural differences in the discrepancies between parents and adolescents were identified. These findings highlight the importance of congruence between parents' and adolescents' perceptions of parental warmth, which may play a critical role in reducing adolescent internalizing symptoms, at least in the short term. Future research should deepen these dynamics across different cultures and developmental stages to improve intervention strategies and strengthen family-based mental health support.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Positive risk taking across the world

  Journal of Research on Adolescence · 2025-04-15 · 4 citations

  article

  Abstract Around the world, adolescence is characterized by increased risk taking. Much research has focused on negative risk taking, but there is growing recognition of positive risk taking, which can benefit adolescent development. So far, research on positive risk taking has been limited to Western samples. This study examined a self‐report scale of positive risk taking with a sample of 962 adolescents ( M age = 18.51 years) from nine diverse countries: China, Colombia, Italy, Jordan, Kenya, the Philippines, Sweden, Thailand, and the United States of America. There were three aims: (1) Examine the measurement invariance of positive risk taking across countries, (2) examine whether positive and negative risk taking are distinct constructs, and (3) compare positive risk taking endorsement and perceptions of its safety and benefits across countries and sex. Results indicated that the 14‐item positive risk‐taking scale was invariant across all nine countries. Evidence also suggested that positive and negative risk taking were distinct constructs. Endorsement of positive risk taking varied significantly across all countries, with adolescents from China and Jordan exhibiting the lowest endorsement. Although positive risk taking was generally perceived as safe and beneficial, adolescents from Asian countries perceived positive risk taking to be less safe and beneficial than their peers from other countries. Together, findings from this study offer evidence of a promising positive risk‐taking measure for cross‐national use. Future research directions for identifying cultural factors that can help explain cross‐national differences in positive risk taking are discussed.

  PublisherDOI

• The relations among depressive symptoms, self-esteem, and optimism during adolescence: Longitudinal evidence from nine countries

  Development and Psychopathology · 2025-09-15

  articleOpen access

  Previous research has suggested bidirectional relations between depressive symptoms and both internal and external core beliefs (self-esteem and optimism, respectively) in adolescence. However, little work has examined the cultural commonality versus specificity of these developmental pathways in adolescence across diverse contexts. To address this gap, the current study traced bidirectional associations among depressive symptoms and two forms of core beliefs (self-esteem and optimism) in adolescents from 12 cultural groups in nine countries. Longitudinal data were collected from 1,090 adolescents at ages 15 and 17. Significant associations emerged between age 15 depressive symptoms and both age 17 core beliefs across all cultural groups except Sweden. No significant associations between age 15 core beliefs and age 17 depressive symptoms were found in the multigroup model. However, the pathways from core beliefs to depressive symptoms and from depressive symptoms to core beliefs did not significantly differ in strength. These findings provide cross-cultural evidence for the scar theory (depressive symptoms → core beliefs), but no clear support for the vulnerability theory (core beliefs → depressive symptoms), perhaps due to the measurement and stability of depression. These findings have implications for understanding the adolescent development of psychopathology and cognitions, such as core beliefs, across diverse cultures.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Rubbing off on each other: Applying a developmental science perspective to variance in primal world beliefs by family and culture

  Applied Developmental Science · 2025-07-18 · 1 citations

  articleOpen access

  Primals are beliefs about the world's basic character (e.g., good, safe, enticing, or alive) that are associated with well-being and behavioral patterns. But primals' developmental origins remain mysterious, hampering theoretical understanding and clinical efforts to change primals. The current preregistered study of 905 families from 11 cultural groups adopts bioecological theory to examine (1) variance in primals accounted for by individual, family, and cultural differences, (2) concordance in primals within families, and (3) mean differences in primals across cultures. Results indicate most variance in primals is attributable to individual differences, but significant variance also emerges due to family and cultural differences. Positive correlations between mothers' and fathers' primals suggest assortative mating, and positive correlations between parents' and children's primals suggest intergenerational transmission. Findings shed light on primals' mysterious origins: humans do appear to somehow "rub off on each other." Future clarification of this interchange can help equip clinicians to leverage primals to improve wellbeing.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

Recent grants

• NIH Grant R01MH056961

  NIH · $2.3M · 2011

• NIH Grant K05DA015226

  NIH · $235k · 2013

• Pilot Research Project Core

  NIH · $13.4M · 2008–2026

• NIH Grant R01MH042498

  NIH · $1.1M · 1993

• NIH Grant R01HD029816

  NIH · $1.0M · 1999

Frequent coauthors

• Jennifer E. Lansford

  Center for Child and Family Health

  442 shared

• Gregory S. Pettit

  Auburn University

  338 shared

• John E. Bates

  Indiana University

  310 shared

• Ann T. Skinner

  Duke University

  210 shared

• Marc H. Bornstein

  Institute for Fiscal Studies

  205 shared

• Laurence Steinberg

  173 shared

• Suha M. Al‐Hassan

  Emirates College for Advanced Education

  152 shared

• Kirby Deater‐Deckard

  University of Massachusetts Amherst

  134 shared

Education

• B.A.

  Northwestern University

  1975