3-045 - The International Consortium of Developmental Science Societies: contributions on trauma, refugee youth, and climate change.

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Integrative Statement

Developmental science has much to contribute to global issues affecting human development. The International Consortium of Developmental Science Societies was initiated in December 2012 among several founding societies in the field of developmental science, including SRCD. Criteria for membership include global scope and interdisciplinary focus on human development.
Regarding the contribution of developmental science to global issues, there are two dominant but distal topics: violence/conflict and climate change/natural disasters. These two distal factors cause trauma including migration, both well studied by developmental scientists.
In the present symposium, three contributions from the 2017 ICDSS consensus conference will be presented. In the first presentation, the focus is on climate change, and it is stressed that models of positive development and global competencies could be applied to help build capacities of youth to respond effectively as individuals, community members and citizens to this global challenge. In the second presentation, the authors discuss the most common risks that refugee children and youth experience and the most prominent evidence-based recommendations that can help us address them in ways that promote positive development. In the last presentations, the authors draw from developmental science to understand the risk of negative outcomes from trauma-exposure and to develop effective developmentally sensitive interventions.
Together, these papers recommend that collaborative research syntheses are needed because extant research provides partial knowledge on specific populations in specific circumstances; in contrast, a global scope requires a more comprehensive, synthesizing perspective.

Sub Unit

• Social Policy

Chair

• Marcel van Aken, Utrecht University

Discussant

• Anne C. Petersen, University of Michigan, CHGD

Individual Presentations

• Climate Change: The Roles of Developmental Science - Presenting Author: Ann Sanson, University of Melbourne

• Refugee Youth Adaptation: The Role of Developmental Science - Presenting Author: Rob Crosnoe, University of Texas at Austin

• Toward an integrative developmental science perspective on the effects of trauma experienced by refugees of war - Presenting Author: Kristine Ajrouch, Eastern Michigan University