Faculty photo

Judith Smetana

Professor of Psychology

PhD, University of California, Santa Cruz

Office Location
439 Meliora Hall
Telephone
(585) 275-4592
Web Address

Office Hours: By appointment

Research Overview

Professor Smetana is not accepting graduate student applications for the 2024-2025 academic year.

Professor Smetana's research examines adolescent-parent relationships and development in cultural contexts; children's moral and social reasoning; and development of parenting beliefs.

My current research focuses on three areas:

(a) adolescent-parent relationships and adolescent development in different cultural contexts. We are currently conducting several studies of disclosure and secrecy in adolescent-parent relationships. We are focusing on adolescents' strategies for managing information about their everyday activities and parents' strategies for remaining informed about what their adolescents are doing. Our studies employ multiple methods (narrative interviews, questionnaires, and observations);

(b) the development of children's moral and social knowledge, including the development of and conceptual distinctions between children's understanding of moral and social- conventional rules and transgressions, relationships among social knowledge, affect, and behavior, and contextual influences on social and moral judgments; and

(c) parents' parenting beliefs and their relationships to parenting practices and child outcomes.

For more detail, please visit the website.

Courses Offered (subject to change)

  • PSYC 383:  Moral Development
  • PSYC 563:  Adolescent Development
  • PSYC 569:  Developmental Theory and Research
  • PSYC 583:  Moral Development

Selected Publications

Adolescent - Parent Relationships

  • Smetana, J.G., & Wainryb, C. (2021). Adolescents and emerging adults reminisce about emotions in the context of disclosing, concealing, and lying to parents. Social Development. Online first. Doi: 10.1111/sode12522.
  • Smetana, J.G., & Rote. W. (2019). Adolescent-parent relationships: Progress, processes, and prospects. Annual Review of Developmental Psychology. 1, 41-68.
  • Rote, W. M., Smetana, J.G. & Feliscar, L. (2020). Longitudinal associations between adolescent information management and mother-teen relationship quality: Between - versus within-family differences. Developmental Psychology. 6, 1935-1947.
  • Smetana, J. G., Robinson, J., Bourne, S. V, & Wainryb, C. (2019). "I didn't want to but then I told": Adolescents' narratives regarding disclosure, concealment, and lying. Developmental Psychology, 55, 403-414.
  • Rote, W. M., & Smetana, J. G. (2018). Within-family dyadic patterns of parental monitoring and adolescent information management. Developmental Psychology, 54, 2302-2315
  • Smetana, J.G., & Ahmad, I. (2018). Heterogeneity in perceptions of parenting among refugee youth in Jordan. Child Development, 89, 1786-1802
  • Campione-Barr, N., & Smetana, J. G. (2018). Families with adolescents. In B.H. Fiese (Ed.), APA Handbook of Contemporary Family Psychology: Foundations, Methods, and Changing Forms, Vol 1. (pp.593-609). Washington DC: American Psychological Association.
  • Smetana, J. G. (2018). The development of autonomy in adolescence: A social domain theory view. In B. Soenens, M. Vansteenkiste, & S. Van Petegem (Eds.), The meaning and role of autonomy in adolescent development: Towards conceptual clarity (pp. 53-73). New York, NY: Routledge
  • Villalobos-Solis, M., Smetana, J. G., & Tasopoulos-Chan, M. (2016). Evaluations of conflicts between Latino values and autonomy desires among Puerto Rican adolescents. Child Development. Available online. DOI: 10.1111/cdev.12687
    • Smetana, J. G., Ahmad, I., & Wray-Lake, L. (2015). Iraqi, Syrian, and Palestinian refugee adolescents’ beliefs about parental authority legitimacy and its correlates. Child Development, 86, 2017-2033.
    • Villalobos, M., & Smetana, J. G. (2015). Associations among solicitation, relationship quality, and adolescents’ disclosure and secrecy with mothers and best friends. Journal of Adolescence, 43, 193-205.
    • Smetana, J. G., & Rote, W. (2015). What do mothers want to know about adolescents’ activities? Levels, trajectories, and correlates. Journal of Adolescence, 38, 5-15.
    • Smetana, J. G., Wong, M., Ball, C., & Yau, J. (2014). American and Chinese children’s evaluations of personal domain events and resistance to parental authority. Child Development, 85, 626-642.
    • Rote, W. M., Smetana, J. G., Campione-Barr, N., Villalobos, M., & Tasopoulos-Chan, M. (2012). Associations between observed mother-adolescent interactions and adolescents’ information management. Journal of Research on Adolescence. 22, 206-214.
    • Smetana, J. G. (2011). Adolescents, families, and social development:  How adolescents construct their worlds. West Sussex, England: Wiley-Blackwell, Inc.
    • Amsel, E., & Smetana, J. G. (Eds., 2011). Adolescent vulnerabilities and opportunities: Constructivist and developmental perspectives. New York: Cambridge University Press.

    Moral and Social Reasoning and Behavior

    • Smetana, J. G., Yoo, H., Nguyen, N., & Ball, C. (2021). Moms know best? Children's evaluations of mothers' unfair responses to peer conflicts. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 201.104993.
    • Jambon, M., & Smetana, J.G. (2020). Self-reported moral emotions and physical and relational aggression in childhood: A social domain approach. Child Development, 91 e92-e107.
    • Yoo, H., & Smetana, J. G. (2019). Children’s moral judgments about psychological harm: Links among harm salience, victims’ vulnerability, and child sympathy. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 188, available online.
    • Smetana, J. G., & Ball, C. L. (2019). Heterogeneity in the patterning of children’s moral judgments about different types of harm. Developmental Psychology, 55, 1150-1163.
    • Robinson, J., & Smetana, J. G. (2019). Emerging adults’ judgments of gender norms and gender inequality in relation to Mormon religious beliefs. Cognitive Development, 50, 118-129.
    • Jambon, M., & Smetana, J. G. (2019). Socialization of moral reasoning. In D. Laible, G. Carlo, & L. Padilla-Walker (Eds.), Oxford Handbook of Parenting and Moral Development. New York: Oxford University Press.
    • Jambon, M., & Smetana, J.G. (2018). Self-reported moral emotions and physical and relational aggression in childhood: A social domain approach. Child Development. Available online.
    • Smetana, J.G. Jambron, M., & Ball, C. (2018). Normative change and individual differences in early moral judgements: A constructivist developmental perspective. Human Development, 61, 264-280.
    • Smetana, J.G., Ball, C.L. Jambon, M., & Yoo, H. (2018). Are young children's preferences and evaluations of moral and conventional transgressiors associated with domain distinctions in judgements? Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 173, 284-303.
    • Jambon, M., & Smetana, J. (2018) Individual differences in prototypical moral and conventional judgments and children’s proactive and reactive aggression. Child Development, 89, 1343-1359.
    • Smetana, J. G., & Ball, C. L. (2018). Young children’s moral judgments, justifications, and emotion attributions in peer relationship contexts. Child Development, 89, 2245-2263.
    • White, S. F., Zhao, H., Leong, K., Smetana, J. G., Nucci, L. P., & Blair, R. J. R. (2017) Neural correlates of conventional and harm/welfare-based moral decision-making. Cognitive, Affective and Behavioral Neuroscience, 7, 1114-1128.
    • Smetana, J. G., & Ball, C. L. (2017). Young children’s moral judgments, justifications, and emotion attributions in peer relationship contexts. Child Development. Available online. DOI: 10.1111/cdev.12846
    • Jambon, M., & Smetana, J. (2017). Individual differences in prototypical moral and conventional judgments and children’s proactive and reactive aggression. Child Development. Available online.    DOI: 10.1111/cdev.12757
    • Ball, C., Smetana, J. G., & Sturge-Apple, M. (2016). Following my head and my heart: Integrating preschoolers’ empathy, false belief understanding, and moral judgments. Child Development, 26, 146-164. Available online. DOI: 10.1111/cdev.12605
    • Killen, M., & Smetana, J. G. (2015). Origins and development of morality. In M. Lamb (Ed.), Handbook of child psychology, Vol. 3, Social and emotional development (pp. 701-749).  (7th Ed., R. M. Lerner, Series Ed.). New York: Wiley/Blackwell Publishers.
    • Smetana, J. G., Jambon, M., & Ball, C. (2014). The social domain approach to children’s moral and social judgments. In M. Killen & J. G. Smetana (Eds.), Handbook of Moral Development, 2nd Edition (pp. 23). New York: Psychology Press.

    Parenting and Parenting Beliefs

    • Smetana, J.G., Yau, J. Y. Y., & Rote, W. (2021). How do Hong Kong Chinese youth evaluate parental guilt and shame induction? Age, form, and act type differences. Journal of Youth and Adolescence. Online first: https.//doi.org//10.1007/s10964-021-01468-2.
    • Smetana, J. G., Ball, C.L. & Yoo, H. (2019). Parenting and moral development in M. Bornstein (Ed.) Handbook of Parenting. Vol. 5 (3rdEd.) pp. 122-155. New York, NY: Routledge.
    • Rote, W.M. Olimo, M., Feliscar, L., Jambon, M., Ball, C., & Smetana, J.G. (2020). Helicopter parenting and perceived overcontrol by emerging adults: A family-level profile analysis. Journal of Child and Family Studies, 19, 3153-3168.
    • Rote, W.M., & Smetana, J.G.(2017). Children's and adolescents' perceptions of maternal guilt induction: Variation by features of the inductive message. Developmental Psychology, 53, 1940-1953.
    • Smetana, J.G. (2017). Current research on parenting styles, opinions, and beliefs. Current Opinions in Psychology. 15, 19-25. doi:10.1016/j.copsyc.2017.02.012
    • Smetana, J.G., & Ahmad, I. (2017). Heterogeneity in perceptions of parenting among refugee youth in Jordan. Child Development, 89, 1786-1802. DOI: 10.1111/cdev.12844.
    • Smetana, J. G., Ball, C., Yau, J., & Wong, M. (2017). Effects of maternal control on American and Chinese children's evaluations of personal domain events. Social Development, 6, 146-164.
    • Smetana, J.G., Ahmad, I., & Wray-Lake, L. (2016). Beliefs about parental authority legitimacy among refugee youth in Jordan: Between-and within-person variations. Developmental Psychology, 52, 484-495.
    • Smetana, J., Robinson, J., & Rote, W. (2015). Socialization in adolescence. In J. E. Grusec & P. D. Hastings (Eds.), Handbook of socialization: Theory and Research, 2nd Ed. (pp. 60 – 84). New York: Guilford Press.