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Interested in joining the KiDS Lab? There are opportunities to participate in our work at the undergraduate, post-baccalaureate, graduate, and postdoctoral levels. Students in the KiDS Lab have a variety of interests relating to child and family well-being. Involvement in the lab includes research activities and professional development activities. Below includes details about the various training opportunities available at the KiDS Lab.
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Research Assistant Positions
Dr. Parent accepts applications from UPenn students and recent graduates to join our lab on an ongoing basis. Applicants being considered for a Research Assistant position will be contacted for an interview. Undergraduate and volunteer research assistants must commit at least 9 hours per week for at least two terms (fall, spring, and summer). Students can join the lab as a volunteer, for independent study credit (3 per semester), or for hourly paid positions (minimum 1 semester of volunteer or study credit required). Students interested in completing an honors thesis should participate in the lab for at least one year before beginning these projects.
Research Assistant Activities
Email Dr. Parent with your resume/CV if you are interested.
Research Assistant Activities
- Coordinating clinical research activities with a diverse multi-disciplinary team, including psychologists, social workers, counselors, behavioral health specialists, nurses, administrative staff, and psychiatrists
- IRB protocol development and management
- Consent and assessment families for research studies
- Collecting and entering daily diary assessments from parents and youth
- Clinical interviews and survey administration
- Assisting with DNA collection
- Managing passive wearable research devices and their data (e.g., Fitbit and Fitabase)
- Contacting families for follow-up assessment and coordinating remote DNA collection
- Conducting literature reviews in parenting science, sleep health, epigenomics, adversity, and developmental psychopathology
- Didactics on advanced research and professional development topics (e.g., applying to graduate school)
- Co-author conference presentations
- Co-author peer-reviewed publications
- Outreach to community organizations
- Data analysis and preparation
- Conduct a study as lead author
- Develop an honors thesis
Email Dr. Parent with your resume/CV if you are interested.
Summer Internship Opportunities
The KiDS Lab does not currently offer summer internships.
Doctoral Students
Dr. Parent will not be reviewing applications for the upcoming application cycles (due 2026-2027).
To ensure fairness in the application process, Dr. Parent meets only with prospective applicants after the 1st application due date. A diverse range of perspectives, lived experiences, and skills are highly valued by the KiDS Lab. Dr. Parent does not review GRE scores and only considers GPA from the last two years of coursework. Competitive applicants have gained two years of research experience during undergraduate, post-bacc, or both training settings. Dr. Parent is interested in mentoring students with various career aspirations, including academic research, academic teaching, industry and technology careers, state and federal policy, and other areas.
To ensure fairness in the application process, Dr. Parent meets only with prospective applicants after the 1st application due date. A diverse range of perspectives, lived experiences, and skills are highly valued by the KiDS Lab. Dr. Parent does not review GRE scores and only considers GPA from the last two years of coursework. Competitive applicants have gained two years of research experience during undergraduate, post-bacc, or both training settings. Dr. Parent is interested in mentoring students with various career aspirations, including academic research, academic teaching, industry and technology careers, state and federal policy, and other areas.
Diversity, Inclusion, Anti-Oppression, and Activism
The KIDS is committed to fostering a supportive, educational, empowering work environment free from all forms of sexual harassment, racism, oppression, discrimination, exploitation, and intimidation. This allows each of our team members, and our team as a whole, to learn, work, and thrive and more broadly, to help promote a more equitable world through our work. As such, all KIDS lab members are expected to commit to an anti-racist, anti-oppression, and activism-oriented approach to clinical and developmental science. We use the ADDRESSING intersectionality framework (Hays, 2016) to guide our understanding and approach to culturally responsive care and research. Our shared goal is to uplift marginalized individuals and groups and to act against systems of oppression, both within our lab team and through our scientific endeavors.
Select Student Awards & Honors
The Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Awards for Individual Predoctoral Fellowships to Promote Diversity in Health-Related Research (F31)
- Juliana Acosta (Co-Sponsor)
- Karissa DiMarzio (Sponsor)
- Jessica Smith (Co-Sponsor)
- Alexandra Sullivan (Project Mentor)
- Chelsea Dale
- Geraldine Cadet
- Emoni McGregor
- Alejandro Torres
Workshops
The KiDS Lab offers workshops in 2-hour, half-day, and full-day formats on the following topics:
- Tech parenting and youth screen time
- Behavioral parent training and coaching
- Youth sleep health
- Supporting healthy child emotion regulation
- Childhood adversity and trauma-informed intervention