Human Development & Family Sciences
Lives in Context
The Human Development and Family Sciences department at UT Austin is consistently ranked among the top five HDFS departments in the nation. Our department has significant strengths in the areas of parenting, child and adolescent development, personal relationships, the development and maintenance of intimate relationships and individual development in social contexts such as poverty, families, race/ethnicity and education.
Stories
UT News
UT Center on Aging and Population Sciences Awarded 6-Year Grant Renewal to Accelerate Research, Expand Trainings
The University of Texas at Austin center is 1 of only 15 such centers on aging in the U.S.
Helping Others Shown To Slow Cognitive Decline
Regular volunteering or helping others outside the home can reduce the rate of cognitive aging by 15-20%.
Deborah Jacobvitz Earns 2025 Bowlby-Ainsworth Award
The award recognizes her exemplary research on attachment theory and other areas of family relationships.
Better Sleep Can Reduce Worry and Rumination in Older Adults
People’s perceptions of their sleep also proves to have stronger associations with their worry and rumination than objective sleep quality monitored with a device.
First Recognition of Self in the Mirror Is Spurred by Touch
New evidence reveals that young children learn self-awareness through experiences of touch.
Caregiving Can Be Stressful, But It Could Also Lower Risk of Depression
Becoming a caregiver to an older relative can decrease risk of depression.
The Neighborhood You Grow Up in May Impact Your Cognitive Health Decades Later
Jean Choi, Elizabeth Muñoz and collaborators identified associations between neighborhood cohesion and cognitive health.
