Research

The adults in children’s lives shape how they learn, grow, and experience the world. I study parents’ and teachers’ well-being, caregiver-child interactions, and structural conditions that shape caregiving and learning environments. My work brings together multiple developmental domains with the family, school, and socioeconomic contexts that shape them, aiming to capture the lived realities of children and families and inform practical and responsive strategies to supporting children and families across the world.

Social and economic conditions and children’s development

Children develop within dynamic contexts where they may experience both adverse and enriched environments. My research demonstrates that early adverse experiences, including economic hardship, have lasting consequences for children’s academic, cognitive, and social-emotional health outcomes across global settings. This work also shows that the effects of adversity can vary by specific features of the experience, such as by the type, timing, and duration of risk. At the same time, supportive caregiving and enriched home and school environments can protect kids from adversity, pointing to the need for multi-pronged approaches that reduce poverty and create opportunities that allow children to thrive.

  • Suntheimer, N.M. & Wolf, S. (2023). Duration of poverty and Ghanaian children’s academic skills and executive function. Applied Developmental Science, 1-17. https://doi.org/10.1080/10888691.2023.2225774

  • Gerstner, C.C., Suntheimer, N.M., Weiss, E.M., Appiah, R., Aurino, E., & Wolf, S. (under review). Home and school factors associated with math trajectories before and after COVID-19 in Ghana. Child Development.

  • Do, H., Suntheimer, N.M., Smith, A., Dunn, E.C., Aurino, E., & Wolf, S. (in preparation). Accumulation and sensitive periods of childhood adversity on adolescent development in Ghana

  • Suntheimer, N.M., Pullom, K., & Ip, K. (in preparation). A unified framework for how the U.S. social safety net shapes family pathways and child development.

Caregiver well-being and caregiving practices

While structural conditions, like poverty, shape the contexts in which children live and learn, the well-being and engagement of the adults who care for them also drive healthy development. My research shows that parental well-being can be a risk or a protective factor, shaping their educational investments and children’s development. Cognitively stimulating parent-child interactions are one key type of investment and promote early childhood development across diverse settings, and different configurations of stimulating activities seem to support children’s school readiness equally. In addition, with colleagues, my work extends to the design and evaluation of social interventions that aim to improve the quality of early childhood education, reduce stress, and strengthen family functioning in Ghana.

  • Suntheimer, N.M., Ju, S.G., McCoy, D.C., Wolf, S., Abate, S., Mekonnen, A., Teshome, T.Z., & Demlew, T. (2024). Parent psychological distress and beliefs about nurturing care: Associations with parent investments and early child development in Ethiopia. Developmental Psychology. https://doi.org/10.1037/dev0001820

  • Aurino, E., Suntheimer, N.M., Appiah, R., Wolf, S., Avornyo, E.A., Fishman, J., Thomas, K., Brennan, K., David, D., & Howusu-Kumi, E. (under review). Developing and piloting a context-driven intervention for adolescent development in Ghana. Social Science & Medicine-Mental Health.

  • Suntheimer, N. M., Weiss, E.M., Avornyo, E.A., & Wolf, S. (2024). Patterns of cognitive and social-emotional parent stimulation practices among Ghanaian kindergarteners. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 68, 203-213. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecresq.2024.05.011

  • Suntheimer, N.M., Augsburg, B., Anamoah-Mensah, J., Bornstein, M.H., Krutikova, S., Veroux, O.A., Wolf, S. (in preparation). Mother and father time use of preschool-aged children in rural Ghana.

  • Hatch, S.F.^, Suntheimer, N.M.^, Otwell, A., Tang, L., McCoy, D.C., & Wolf, S. (under review). Caregiver Cognitive Stimulation in early childhood and child development: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Psychological Bulletin. [preprint] ^ indicates equal contribution