Welcome to the Institute for Applied Research in Youth Development (IARYD) and, as well, to the beginning of our third decade of research, training, and service. 

IARYD was launched when I arrived at Tufts in 1999 and, across the past 20+ years, my colleagues, students, and I have had the opportunity and honor to conduct research aimed at contributing to the application of developmental science across the first three decades of the lives of diverse youth living within diverse communities across the U.S. and internationally. Using a strengths-based approach to theory – our “tag line” is that we seek to understand what goes right in the lives of youth – we have had, and we will continue to have, the goal of producing scholarship – and scholars – who will use cutting-edge theoretical models and methodologically-rigorous developmental methods to promote positive development and health among diverse young people. We hope that our work, and the work of (as of Spring 2021) the 38 Ph.D.s who have been trained in IARYD, will not only enhance the substance of developmental science but, as well, will play a part in furthering social justice for all young people.

We hope that our website will be a useful means to disseminate our scholarship; to tell  visitors about the quality and creativity of the students, post-doctoral fellows, research assistant professors, and staff of IARYD; and to communicate more efficiently with the universities, youth-serving organizations, corporations, governmental bodies, foundations, and the youth and parents who are our collaborators or who are interested in learning more about or using the work we produce.

We are grateful that you have visited our website and we hope that you will visit again.  We want to learn how we can better communicate with you and how the website can be improved to make your visits more useful.

THANKS,

Rich Lerner