SEED Lab Research Projects
Supporting Social-Emotional Learning in Context: Classroom and Home Partnerships
Funded by the Strengthening Future Families Foundation, this research aimed to strengthen future parenting by equipping high school students and teen parents with social-emotional learning (SEL) skills that promote healthy relationships, emotional regulation, and well-being. Building on prior work, this project developed a set of quick and easy to implement activities based on evidence-based “Kernels of Practice” (Jones et al., 2017) that teach SEL competencies.
Currently, our team is working to expand the activities to include competencies of empathy and perspective taking while integrating additional activities focused on literacy, numeracy, and science.
Funder: Strengthening Future Families Foundation
- Core project team: Stacey Neuharth-Prtichett, Kristen Bub, Erin Hamel
- Current graduate students: Ya-Wen Teng, Liwei Zhao, Abbigaile Noyes, Jazmine Gutierrez
- Current undergraduate students: Molly Drake
- Former graduate student: Taehee Kim
- Collaborators: Georgia High School Career, Technical, and Agricultural Education (CTAE) early childhood education programs
Early Educator Stress and Well-Being
This project combines wearable technology (Oura Rings) with ecological momentary assessments (EMAs) to understand experienced and perceived stress patterns among early childhood educators and administrators stress across their day. Biometric markers, including heart rate variability, resting heart rate, and sleep quality, provide indicators of experienced stress.
Perceptions of stress were gathered using a two-item survey gathered via four random text messages a day across six separate weeks. Pre- and post-test survey data along with focus group data also offer insight into participants’ well-being. Findings suggest that while participants are reporting low to moderate levels of stress, biometric data indicate considerable wear and tear on the body. Findings are being prepared for dissemination in both developmental and health journals and will be used to design just-in-time interventions.
Funders: Owens Institute for Behavioral Research and the University of Georgia Research Foundation, Inc
- Core project team: Kristen Bub, Stacey Neuharth-Pritchett, Sycarah Fisher, Erin Hamel
- Current graduate students: Sinan Akalin, Abbigaile Noyes, Kirstin Wilson, Ya-Wen Teng, Jingjing Xu
- Collaborators: Early Head Start and Head Start programs in Burke County, Fort Valley, Clarke County, and Barrow County
Select publications:
- Bub, K.L., Neuharth-Pritchett, S., Fisher, S., Hamel, E., Akalin, S., Noyes, A., & Teng. Y. (2026). Innovative approaches to measuring educator stress in early childhood: Wearables and ecological momentary assessments. [Manuscript submitted for publication]. Child Development.
Voices of the Community: Rural Child Care Needs
This research is conducted in collaboration with Archway Partnership at UGA and multiple rural counties in Georgia to assess early care and education needs across communities.
Using surveys and interviews, we gather the perspectives of parents, employers, early childhood professionals, informal caregivers, and other community members to identify community strengths, challenges, and opportunities for improving early care and education access and quality. Currently, the team is working with the Columbia County Chamber of Commerce to understand the community needs in the greater Augusta area.
- Core project team: Chantal Mihailovic, Ya-Wen Teng, Jingjing Xu, Liwei Zhao
- Past team members: Maryjane Richard
- Collaborators: UGA Archway Partnership, Dublin-Laurens County Chamber Foundation, Columbia County Chamber of Commerce
Media coverage:
- Survey: Parents Stressed Over Childcare Needs , The Courier Herald, May 8, 2026
Examining the Pathway from Early Head Start Leadership to Child Outcomes: Secondary Data Analysis
Funded by the Administration of Children and Families, this research examined how Early Head Start directors’ leadership influences teachers’ work environments, the quality of teacher-child interactions, and child outcomes using the 2022 Baby FACES dataset. We used exploratory factor analysis and structural equation modeling to develop and test a model of relationships among director support, teacher distress, workplace conditions, classroom interactions, and children’s development.
To date, findings have been disseminated through local, regional, and national conferences. Currently, a manuscript is in preparation to share findings on strategies to strengthen leadership and support the early childhood workforce.
Funder: Administration of Children and Families
- Core project team: Erin Hamel, Kristen Bub, Stacey Neuharth-Pritchett, Jingjing Xu
Play Behaviors with Natural and Synthetic Materials
Providing enriching materials in early childhood classrooms for children’s play is a core professional standard and competency by the National Association for the Education of Young Children. This study seeks to explore how considering the materiality itself prompts varied sensory-motor behaviors during play. The study focuses on older toddler’s self-initiated play with classroom materials using audiovisual recordings to microcode children’s exploratory, gross motor, pretend and social play behaviors with natural (e.g. wood, seashells, stone) and synthetic (e.g. plastic) materials.
Video data was recorded during the classroom’s morning free play hour. Using a codebook created from a prior pilot study, videos are now being microcoded for children’s play behaviors and time spent with material type using the open-source software DataVyu.
- Core project team: Kelsey Forester, Stacey Neuharth-Pritchett, Anna Abraham
- Current graduate student: Jazmine Gutierrez
- Current undergraduate student: Cary Bannon
Peer Interactions and Executive Functioning in Early Childhood
This project explores links between children’s early peer interactions and their executive function skills during preschool. More specifically, using intensive observational data, teacher-completed surveys, and direct assessments of children’s executive functioning, the project tests the hypothesis that children who engage more with their peers have better executive functioning skills due, in part, to the fact that they have more opportunities to practice those skills.
Findings provide support for our hypotheses, with some nuances, including how executive functioning was assessed (teacher report or direct assessment) and what measures of peer engagement were used (teacher report or observation). Data have also been used to explore the architecture of peer relationships using social network analysis.
Funder: National Science Foundation
- Core project team: Kristen Bub, Taehee Kim, Danielle Vaughn
- Collaborators: Brian Vaughn (Auburn University); Head Start partners in central Illinois