About

Edward Seidman is a Professor of Applied Psychology at NYU Steinhardt. His work focuses on understanding the operation of social settings such as families, classrooms, schools, peer groups, and community-based organizations where children and youth experience their formative daily interactions. He investigates social regularities—practices, transactions, and norms within these settings—and how they influence positive and negative developmental trajectories of youth. His research aims to inform the creation of programs and policies that promote positive youth development. Seidman's current research emphasizes providing teachers with feedback about their actual practices, examining how these practices change over time, and assessing their impact on student academic and socio-emotional learning, as well as teacher self-efficacy and job satisfaction, particularly in developing countries. His scholarly contributions include exploring social setting interventions, social processes in community psychology, and the development of an action science of social settings. He has authored and edited numerous publications in these areas, contributing significantly to the understanding of social interventions and community psychology.

Research topics

• Medicine
• Sociology
• Psychology
• Demography
• Art
• Visual arts
• Developmental psychology
• Medical education
• Clinical psychology

Selected publications

• Capturing the Prevalence, Patterns, and Predictors of Supportive Relationships in Early Adolescence

  The Journal of Early Adolescence · 2024 · 1 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding
  • Sociology
  • Developmental psychology
  • Psychology

  Guided by self-determination theory and the bioecological model, this latent class analysis explores the patterns and predictors of supportive relationships in a national sample of early adolescents ( N = 6,469). A six-class solution emerged: youth with (1) emotional, informational, and academic support from various adults and peers across home, school, and community settings; (2) emotional and informational support from school friends; (3) low support; (4) emotional, informational, and academic support from parents and school friends; (5) emotional and informational support from out of school friends, and (6) emotional and informational support from family. Multinomial logistic regression results indicate the unequal distribution of relational support was predicted by individual, home, or school characteristics: being female, extracurricular participation, and higher socioeconomic home or school contexts were associated with membership in classes with a pattern of greater relational support in comparison to the low support class. The importance of targeting subgroups of adolescents in need of relational support and enhancing home and school settings are discussed.

  PublisherDOI

• On Grand-Mentors and Great-Grand-Mentors: Reflecting on Graduate Program Support for a Multigenerational Mentorship Model

  Health Behavior Research · 2022 · 1 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding
  • Medical education
  • Psychology
  • Medicine

  Doctoral programs often reflect a formal mentoring project wherein an advisor closely guides a junior scholar through degree completion. But the primary mentor-mentee relationship is only one of many relationships that blossoms during this time. ‘Mosaic’ mentorship models are becoming more common, leading to better outcomes for junior scholars. In this commentary, we reflect on one type of mosaic mentorship model wherein multiple ‘generations’ mentor more junior scholars (and mentor those who are doing the mentoring, too). The authors are five links in this continuing mentorship chain. Together we reflect on what made this style of mentorship a unique and positive experience, and how graduate programs can support their students by encouraging this model.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Evaluating the Impact of a Focused Reading and Math Intervention Integrated with a Social-Emotional Learning Program on Student Learning Outcomes and Psychosocial Wellbeing

  RIDIE datasets · 2021-07-15

  dataset

  The Registry for International Development Impact Evaluations (RIDIE), is a project of the International Initiative for Impact Evaluation (3ie). RIDIE is a registry of impact evaluations related to development in low and middle income countries. The purpose of the registry is to enhance the transparency and quality of evaluation research as well as to provide a repository of impact evaluation studies for researchers, funders, and others.

  PublisherDOI

• Improving 21st-century teaching skills: The key to effective 21st-century learners

  Research in Comparative and International Education · 2019-02-28 · 485 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  The development of competencies known as 21st-century skills are garnering increasing attention as a means of improving teacher instructional quality. However, a key challenge in bringing about desired improvements lies in the lack of context-specific understanding of teaching practices and meaningful ways of supporting teacher professional development. This paper focuses on the need to measure the social quality of teaching processes in a contextualized manner. We do so by highlighting the efforts made to develop and measure teacher practices and classroom processes using the Teacher Instructional Practices and Processes System© (TIPPS) in three different contexts: Uganda (secondary), India (primary), and Ghana (pre-school). By examining how such a tool can be used for teacher feedback, reflective practice, and continuous improvement, the hope is to pave the way toward enhanced 21st-century teacher skills and, in turn, 21st-century learners.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• People, Not Numbers: Using Data to Humanize and Strengthen Teacher Support Systems in India

  Teaching and Teacher Education · 2019-01-01

  book-chapterOpen accessSenior author

  Utilizing data to improve teacher professional development presupposes a need to know how it can serve people in the education delivery system. In Gujarat, India progress is steered by using data to build personal agency and integrate actionable evaluation for improvement. The shift in the system, however, manifests from the core: the administrators, principals, and teachers. These individuals are leveraging data to improve their contribution to the system, and in the process, improving the system as a whole. The data that flow between these different levels are meaningful, easy to understand and use. The data are used in different ways, district administrators use them to hone their teacher training programming, principals use them to differentiate their support by teacher needs, and teachers use them for self-reflection and improving the quality of education in their classrooms. Previously siloed levels of the education system are connecting through the shared goals of professional and personal growth. And as a consequence, the Teacher Professional Development system is moving toward a person-centric focus, and moving away from a data-centric focused one.

  PublisherDOI

• Improving Primary Education in the Democratic Republic of the Congo: End-Line Results of a Cluster-Randomized Wait-List Controlled Trial of Learning in a Healing Classroom

  Journal of Research on Educational Effectiveness · 2019-05-10 · 37 citations

  articleOpen access

  We used a cluster-randomized, wait-list controlled trial to examine impacts of a school-based social-emotional learning intervention on Congolese students and teachers. Seventy-six school clusters in two groups (A and B) were randomized to treatment or control. The groups differed in geographic location, accessibility, exposure to violence, and external donor investment. We estimated causal impacts in Group A, tested whether those impacts were replicated in Group B, and conducted sensitivity analyses on the pooled sample. Pooled analyses had higher statistical power and were therefore more likely to represent the true average impacts of the program. Improvements in students’ perceptions of school predictability and in addition and subtraction, geometry, and reading performance were specific to Group B. Only the effect on addition and subtraction remained significant in the pooled analysis. Improvements in teachers’ sense of accomplishment were found in Group A and remained significant in the pooled analysis. We detected no impacts on other outcomes. School-based interventions embedding social-emotional learning principles into the academic curricula are a promising but not yet proven approach to improving children’s outcomes in low-income countries affected by war.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Assessment of pedagogical practices and processes in low and middle income countries: Findings from secondary school classrooms in Uganda

  Teaching and Teacher Education · 2018-02-23 · 40 citations

  articleOpen access1st author
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Measuring and predicting process quality in Ghanaian pre-primary classrooms using the Teacher Instructional Practices and Processes System (TIPPS)

  Early Childhood Research Quarterly · 2018-01-01 · 59 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Transportability of an Evidence-Based Early Childhood Intervention in a Low-Income African Country: Results of a Cluster Randomized Controlled Study

  Prevention Science · 2017-07-21 · 28 citations

  articleOpen access
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Studies of Behavior Modification and Juvenile Delinquency: A Review, Methodological Critique, and Social Perspective

  2017-07-28 · 1 citations

  book-chapterSenior author

  An increasing concern of contemporary society is the prevention, treatment, and control of juvenile delinquency. This concern is found in the mass media, heard in political rhetoric, and demonstrated by increased federal funding for law enforcement agencies. At the same time, social scientists have been asked to provide explanations and solutions for the problems posed by juvenile delinquency. Their work has been concerned, among other things, with the identification of demographic, physical, and personality correlates of delinquency; examination of social structure as it affects the availability of legitimate goals; suggestion of genetic predeterminants of delinquent behavior; exploration of the crucial role of criminal associations; explanation of criminality as a result of intrapsychic conflict; and consideration of retarded cognitive development as an important variable in the prediction of delinquent activity. This chapter reviews the published literature, from 1960 through June 1973, investigating methods of behavior analysis applied to the modification of delinquent behavior.

  PublisherDOI

Recent grants

• NIH Grant R01MH043084

  NIH · $3.9M · 1997

Frequent coauthors

• Phillip Cadogan

  NHS Lothian

  64 shared

• Irene Rowlands

  NHS Lothian

  64 shared

• Kenneth Sclentvk Meetlllg

  NHS Lothian

  64 shared

• Vale Hospital

  Pennsylvania Hospital

  64 shared

• Swansea John Wiluam

  Huddersfield Royal Infirmary

  64 shared

• Samuel Cunon

  St James's University Hospital

  64 shared

• Abdullah Affara

  NHS Lothian

  64 shared

• Paul E. Mullen

  64 shared

Education

• PhD - Clinical Psychology, Psychology

  University of Kentucky

  1969

• MS - Psychology, Psychology

  Temple University

  1964

• BS, Psychology

  Pennsylvania State University

  1963