Ep. 71 - Parenting in crisis: A Conversation with Dr. Selcuk Sirin

Dr. Selcuk Sirin is an applied psychologist and a Professor of Applied Psychology at New York University. Selcuk uses empirical research methods to better understand the needs of children and families, and to arm professionals and policy makers with this knowledge so as to better address the needs of the most vulnerable. The goal that unites all of his work is to enhance the lives of marginalized children using development in context as a general framework. He focuses on immigrant children in New York, Muslim youth in the US, refugees in Turkey and Norway, and students at risk in US schools. He has published his work in top journals, such as Child Development, Developmental Psychology, Review of Educational Research, and Pediatrics, in an effort to inform scholars, practitioners, and policy makers about marginalized children. He has also made a concerted effort to get his work to a wider audience both locally and globally, as he believes strongly in “giving scientific knowledge away.” He has served on several policy committees such as the National Academy of Sciences, the Urban Institute, and the Migration Policy Institute. He has also collaborated with UNESCO and Save the Children, in their efforts to improve the lives of refugee children. We begin this episode with a discussion with Selcuk as to how he views parenting as in crisis currently. He speaks to how parental isolation and pressures have created a period in which parents face many challenges. We further discuss his research and advocacy work around supporting early parent-child interactions through book reading in his Million Book Project based in turkey. Through providing high-quality books to parents of very young children, this project supports positive parent-child interactions. Through parent-parent connections supported in large part through instagram this project also helps to bring together parents. We also discuss another one of Selcuk’s projects focused on measuring important early school readiness skills in children. We finish this episode with talking about how being a parent has influenced Selcuck’s work.    For more information on Selcuk and his work please visit the following sites and follow him on instagram @selcuksirin .   https://wp.nyu.edu/sirin/ http://www.selcuksirin.com/  (in Turkish)