Assistant Professor Scott Receives 2019 Outstanding Dissertation Award from Society for Research on Child Development

March 11, 2019

Judith C. Scott, assistant professor at BU School of Social Work, has been honored with the 2019 Outstanding Doctoral Dissertation Award from the Society of Research in Child Development (SRCD).

Scott — who received her PhD in 2017 from the Eliot-Pearson Department of Child Study and Human Development at Tufts University — titled her doctoral dissertation, “Raising a hand against young African American children: The effects on mental health trajectories and consideration of moderating cultural factors.”

In their announcement, SRCD recognized Scott’s work as a “culturally-embedded dissertation examining the links between physical discipline and mental health outcomes for African American children.”

Since joining BUSSW, Scott has continued her work studying behavioral health and physical discipline across culturally-diverse groups. This spring, she will lead a study on parenting behaviors in low-income Chinese immigrant families living in Greater Boston —  funded by a second grant Scott received from the Doris Duke Fellowship, which also supported her award-winning dissertation.

SRCD award recipients are selected based on the quality of their doctoral dissertation, publications emerging from the project, and the nominee’s current position and engagement in the field of child development research. Scott will be recognized at the 2019 SRCD Biennial Awards on Thursday, March 21 in Baltimore, Maryland.