SRA Awards

International Fellowship Program

In 2008, SRA established the International Fellowship Program (IFP). Instead of focusing on facilitating the development of early career international scholars/professionals (who can and should be supported, but through different mechanisms), the IFP was designed for well-established scholars and professionals. Such senior Fellows have much to offer in terms of substance and experience, and they are also well-networked in their home regions such that they could be important advocates for SRA. The IFP involves hosting one fellow at each conference. Bame Nsamenang from Cameroon was the inaugural Fellow for the 2008 meeting.

Previous Awardees:
  • 2008 A. Bame Nsamenang, (Cameroon)
  • 2010 Silvia H. Koller (Brazil)
  • 2012 Raija-Leena Punamäki (Finland)
  • 2014 Barbara Lethem Ibrahim (Egypt)
  • 2018 Rita Giacaman (Palestine)
  • 2021 María Cristina Richaud (Argentina)
  • 2022 Suman Verma (India)
  • 2024 Kofi Marfo (Kenya)

Hershel D. Thornburg Dissertation Award

The Hershel D. Thornburg Dissertation Award was established in 1987 to honor the founding president of SRA. During the 1960s and 1970s, Dr. Thornburg concentrated on adolescence, educational psychology, and health-related issues publishing 11 books. Dedicated to teacher training, he was one of the few adolescent psychology specialists who encouraged a continuing and highly interactive dialogue and exchange of issues between scientists and educators regarding effective teaching, school structure, and curriculum offerings for middle school-age youth. This award recognizes outstanding scholastic promise in research on adolescence.

Previous Awardees:
  • 1988 Grayson Holmbeck
  • 1990 Christy M. Buchanan
  • 1992 Nancy Leffert
  • 1994 Lauren Wakschlag
  • 1996 Miranda Yates
  • 1998 Robert Roeser
  • 2000 Carol A. Wong
  • 2002 Jennifer L. Matjasko
  • 2004 Janis L. Whitlock
  • 2006 Margo Gardner
  • 2008 Koen Luyckx
  • 2010 Aprile D. Benner
    • Moin Syed, runner-up
  • 2012 Virginia Huynh
  • 2014 Eva H. Telzer
  • 2016 Deinera Exner-Cortens

John P. Hill Memorial Award

John P. Hill was one of the charter members and second president of SRA. Dr. Hill was especially interested in puberty and its psychosocial impact, the development and expression of gender roles, adolescent attachment and autonomy, and the study of family relations in early adolescence. His impact on the field of adolescence was profound and revolutionary. This award recognizes an individual whose overall program of work has had a significant impact on our understanding of development and behavior during the second decade of the lifespan.

Previous Awardees:
  • 1990 Daniel Offer
  • 1992 Sir Michael Rutter
  • 1994 Erik Erikson
  • 1996 Jeanne Brooks-Gunn
  • 1998 David Magnusson
  • 2000 Laurence Steinberg
  • 2002 Avshalom Caspi
  • 2002 Terrie Moffitt
  • 2004 Frank J. Furstenberg, Jr.
  • 2006 Jacquelynne S. Eccles
  • 2008 Elizabeth J. Susman
  • 2010 Richard M. Lerner
  • 2012 Wyndol C. Furman
  • 2014 William M. Bukowski
  • 2016 Reed W. Larson

Young Investigator’s Award (2006-2014)

The Young Investigator’s Award was established by the SRA Governing Council in 2006 to recognize a beginning scholar who already has made a significant contribution to understanding adolescent development and behavior. This award is made to a young investigator whose scholarly contributions are distinguished through research, publications, grants, conference presentations, and visibility in the field.

Previous Awardees:
  • 2008 Deanna L. Wilkinson
  • 2010 Tina Malti
  • 2012 Guillermo Prado
  • 2014 Jane Mendle

Early Career Research Award (2016-present)

The Early Career Research Award was established by the SRA Executive Council in 2016 to replace the Young Investigator’s Award. This award is presented to recognize a beginning scholar who already has made a significant contribution to understanding adolescent development and behavior. This award is made to a young investigator whose scholarly contributions are distinguished through research, publications, grants, conference presentations, and visibility in the field.

Previous Awardees:
  • 2016 Adriana M. Manago
  • Russell B. Toomey

Roberta Grodberg Simmons Prize Lecture

Roberta Grodberg Simmons was one of the 20 charter members of SRA. Roberta completed her undergraduate degree in sociology at Wellesley in 1959 and an M.A. and Ph.D. in sociology at Columbia University in 1964 under the guidance of Robert K. Merton. She served as a faculty member at Barnard and Wellesley Colleges, as well as Columbia, before accepting a two-year position at the National Institute of Mental Health. She worked closely at NIMH with the late Morris Rosenberg and others on her first study of adolescent self-esteem that resulted in the book, Black and White Self-Esteem: The Urban School Child. She spent the next 18 years of her professional life at the University of Minnesota teaching graduate students and directing major research programs in both adolescent development and medical sociology.

Her work with Morris Rosenberg on self-image and studies with colleagues at the University of Minnesota began to influence the way researchers looked at the self and the impact of puberty and school transitions. Her third book, Moving into Adolescence: The Impact of Pubertal Change and School Contexts, with Dale A. Blyth helped move the field of adolescence to a richer appreciation of the importance of social-structural contexts and biopsychosocial changes. In 1987 she moved to the University of Pittsburgh as a professor of psychiatry and sociology. There she undertook additional innovative research on organ donors, altruism, and adolescence.

Roberta served on the Executive Council of SRA from 1986 to 1990 and as chair of the 1992 Program Committee for the 4th Biennial Meeting. During these years, and even before, Roberta was engaged in a long and courageous battle with cancer, passing away on February 15, 1993 at the age of 55. Roberta’s family, friends, and colleagues elected to endow a special lectureship at each of the Society’s Biennial Meetings as a tribute to her work and her life. This lecture fund sponsors a distinguished speaker who represents Roberta’s commitment to interdisciplinary and theoretically sound empirical work.

Previous Awardees:
  • 1994 William Julius Wilson
  • 1996 Deborah Prothrow-Smith
  • 1998 Felton J. Earls III
  • 2000 Linda Burton
  • 2002 Marcelo Suárez-Orozco and Carola Suárez Orozco
  • 2004 Håkan Stattin and Margaret Kerr
  • 2006 Sandra Graham
  • 2008 William Julius Wilson
  • 2010 Cynthia Garcia Coll
  • 2012 Cigdem Kagitcibasi
  • 2014 Hirokazu Yoshikawa
  • 2016 Nancy A. Gonzales
  • 2018 Diane Hughes
  • 2022 Tammy Chang (University of Michigan), Xochitl Amaro (University of Michigan)
  • 2024 Margaret Beale Spencer (University of Chicago), Chair: Zena Mello

Presidential Citation Award for Excellence in Research (2016-present)

The Presidential Citation Award was established by the SRA Executive Council in 2016 to recognize innovative, interdisciplinary, policy-informative research that has advanced Developmental Science as well as our understanding of Adolescents and improved the lives of young people along with their families and communities.

Previous Awardee:
  • 2016 Kenneth A. Dodge

Presidential Citation Organizational Impact Award for Excellence in Research and Programming for Youth (2016-present)

The Presidential Citation Award was established by the SRA Executive Council in 2016 to recognize unwavering promotion and support of research, programming, and mentoring for the optimal development of adolescents.

Previous Awardee:
  • 2016 William T. Grant Foundation

Mid-Career Award for Research Excellence (2016-present)

Managing the transition from being an early career scholar to a mid-career scholar can be a challenge because demands increase and support often declines. In addition, expectations for more influential scholarship intensify. It is essential for the advancement of our science for scholars to meet this challenge and to continue to expand their research programs. The Mid- Career Award for Research Excellence was established by the SRA Executive Council in 2016 to replace the Young Investigator’s Award. This award is presented to recognize a beginning scholar who already has made a significant contribution to understanding adolescent development and behavior. This award is made to a young investigator whose scholarly contributions are distinguished through research, publications, grants, conference presentations, and visibility in the field.

Previous Awardee:
  • 2016 Noel A. Card

Outstanding Mentor Award (2016-present)

Training, guiding, and encouraging early career researchers through direct instruction and collaboration in research are integral components of advancing the multidisciplinary field of research on adolescence. The Outstanding Mentor Award was established by the SRA Executive Council in 2016 to recognize the importance of mid-career scholarship and to celebrate mid-career scholars who exemplify research excellence on any topic regarding adolescence and the transition to adulthood.

Previous Awardee:
  • 2016  Adriana J. Umaña-Taylor

Awards presented by the SRA Research, Policy & Public Information Committee for “best authored book”, “best edited volume”, “best journal article” and “best policy report/brief”: Books or articles published between July 1, 2003 and December 31, 2005 were

eligible for the 2006 award (In press articles or books in 2005 could be submitted). Article submissions were from peer-reviewed journals. Nominated articles or books exemplified research on adolescence with implications for social policy. Submissions included policy- oriented research, program evaluations, or basic research in which implications for policy or practice were articulated. Submissions from a variety of disciplines were encouraged and self- nominations were welcome.

The SRA Committee on Research, Policy, and Public Information reviewed all nominations. Selection criteria: 1) research and theory should meet high standards, (2) policy issues should be substantive and timely, and (3) the work should clearly articulate the implications of the research for a social policy issue, such that policy problems are clarified and/or solutions are illustrated.

Best AUTHORED BOOK Awards

Year

Awardee(s)

Book Title

1990

Stephen F. Hamilton

Apprenticeship for Adulthood: Preparing Youth for the Future (New York: Free Press, 1990)

1992

Michelle Fine

Framing Dropouts: Notes on the Politics of an Urban Public High School  (Albany, NY: SUNY Press, 1991)

1996

Nicholas Emler & Stephen Reichler

Adolescence and Delinquency (Blackwell Publishers, 1995)

1996

Carola Suárez-Orozco & Marcelo Suárez-Orozco

Transformation: Migration, Family Life and Achievement Motivation among Latino Adolescents (Stanford University Press, 1995)

1998

Rebecca Maynard

Kids Having Kids (Urban Institute Press, 1997)

2002

Bonnie Leadbeater & Niobe Way

Growing Up Fast: Transitions to Early Adulthood in the Inner City (Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 2001)

2004

Roger J. R. Levesque

Not by Faith Alone: Religion, Law, and Adolescence (New York University Press, 2002)

2006

Barton J. Hirsch

A Place to Call Home: After-School Programs for Urban Youth. (New York: American Psychological Association & Teachers College Press, 2006)

2008

Frank F. Furstenberg

Destinies of the Disadvantaged: The Politics of Teen Childbearing. (New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 2007)

2010

Elizabeth Scott & Laurence Steinberg

Rethinking Juvenile Justice (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2008)

2012

 

 

2012

Catherine R. Cooper

 

 

Barton J. Hirsch, Nancy L. Deutsch, and David L. DuBois

Bridging Multiple Worlds: Cultures, Identities, and Pathways to College. (New York: Oxford University Press, 2011)

After-School Centers and Youth Development: Case Studies of Success and Failure. (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2011)

2014

Constance A. Flanagan

Teenage Citizens: The Political Theories of the Young. (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2013)

2016

Ben Kirshner

Youth Activism in an Era of Educational Inequality. (New York, NY: New York University Press, 2015)


Best EDITED BOOK Awards

Year

Awardee(s)

Book Title

2002

Thomas Grisso & Robert Schwartz

Youth on Trial: A Developmental Perspective on Juvenile Justice (Chicago, 2000)

2002

Jeffrey Fagan & Franklin Zimring

The Changing Borders of Juvenile Justice: Transfer of Adolescents to the Criminal Court (Chicago, 2000)

2004

B. Bradford Brown, Reed W. Larson, & T. S. Saraswathi

The World’s Youth: Adolescence in Eight Regions of the Globe (Cambridge University Press, 2002)

2006

David L. DuBois & Michael J. Karcher

Handbook of Youth Mentoring (New York: Sage Publications, 2002)

2008

Jeffrey M. Jenson & Mark W. Fraser

Social Policy for Children and Families: A Risk and Resilience Perspective (Thousand Oaks, California: Sage Publications, 2006)

2010

Marybeth Shinn & Hirokazu Yoshikawa

Toward Positive Youth Development: Transforming Schools and Community Programs. (New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2008)

2014

Elizabeth T. Gershoff, Rashmita S. Mistry & Danielle A. Crosby

Societal Contexts of Child Development: Pathways of Influence and Implications for Practice and Policy. (New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2013)

2016

Carola Suárez-Orozco, Mona M. Abo-Zena & Amy K. Marks

Transitions: The Development of Children of Immigrants. (New York, NY: New York University Press, 2013)


Best Journal ARTICLE Awards

Year

Awardee(s)

Article Title

1992

J. Shedler & J. Block

"Adolescent drug use and psychological health: A longitudinal inquiry." American Psychologist, 1990, 45(5), 612-630.

1994

W. R. Hammond & B. Yung

“Psychology’s role in the public health response to assaultive violence among young African-American men.” American Psychologist, 1993 48, 142-154.

1996

Jennifer J. Frost & Jacqueline Darroch Forrest

“Understanding the Impact of Effective Teenage Pregnancy Prevention Programs.” Family Planning Perspectives, 1995, 27, 188-195.

2002

Thomas Dishion, Joan McCord, & François Poulin

“When interventions harm: Peer groups and problem behavior.” American Psychologist, 1999, 54, 755-764.

2004

P. Lindsay Chase-Lansdale, Robert A. Moffitt, Brenda J Lohman, Andrew J. Cherlin, Rebekah Levine Coley, Laura D. Pittman, Jennifer Roff, and Elizabeth Votruba-Drzal

“Mothers’ transitions from welfare to work and the well- being of preschoolers and adolescents.” Science, 2003, 299, 1548-1552.

2006

Lisa A. Gennetian, Greg Duncan, Virginia Knox, Wanda Vargas, Elizabeth Clark-Kauffman, and Andrew S. London

“How welfare policies affect adolescents' school outcomes: A synthesis of evidence from experimental studies.” Journal of Research on Adolescence, 2004, 14(4), 399-423.

2008

Jessica Owen-Kostelnik, N. Dickon Reppucci, & Jessica R. Meyer

Testimony and interrogation of minors: Assumptions about maturity and morality. American Psychologist, 2006, 61(4), 286—304.

2010

Nancy E. Hill & Diana F. Tyson

Parental involvement in middle school: A meta-analytic assessment of the strategies that promote achievement. Developmental Psychology, 45(3), 740-763.

2012

Antti Kärnä, Marinus Voeten, Todd D. Little, Elisa Poskiparta, Erkki Alanen, & Christina Salmivalli

Going to scale: A nonrandomized nationwide trial of

the KiVa antibullying program for grades 1-9.

Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 79(6),

796-805.

2014

Sarah D. Lynne-Landsman, Melvin D. Livingston & Alexander C. Wagenaar

Effects of State Medical Marijuana Laws on Adolescent Marijuana Use. American Journal of Public Health, 103(8), 1500-1506.

2016

Nolan L. Cabrera, Jeffrey F. Milem, Ozan Jaquette & Ronald W. Marx

Missing the (Student Achievement) Forest for All the

(Political) Trees: Empiricism and the Mexican American Studies Controversy in Tucson.  American Educational Research Journal, 51(6), 1084-1118.


Best Policy Report/Brief Awards

Year Awardee(s) Report/Brief Title
2014

Howard S. Bloom & Rebecca Unterman

"Sustained Progress: New Findings About the Effectiveness and Operation of Small Public High Schools of Choice in New York City." MDRC (2013)
2016 Not Awarded for 2016