Justin Jager

As a developmental psychologist, the goal of my interdisciplinary research program is to map and dissect the transformation from dependent child to independent, productive citizen. This complicated and delicate metamorphosis is crucial to the health of individuals as well as society at-large. It is also a period when the surrounding world is in near-constant flux as relations with parents are renegotiated, relations with peers evolve and mature, and familiar contexts (the family home and high school) are replaced by new and unfamiliar ones (a dorm room/apartment, college, and work). Therefore, accurately mapping pathways through this critical period of development requires the analytical and theoretical finesse to dynamically capture the individual in context. My research program takes this challenge head-on and is devoted to unpacking complex person-context interactions across adolescence and the transition to adulthood involving contexts ranging from proximal (e.g., family) to distal (e.g., historical time).

Much of my current research focuses on how historical variation in the frequency and pattern of adolescent and young adult transitions has altered life-course norms differentially across gender and race, including the normative, developmental course of substance use, union formation, and the school to work transition. Focusing more directly on the more proximal family and peer contexts, another segment of my research documents how the family and peer contexts interact with one another to inform adolescent health and well-being. Finally, out of my substantive research, which relies heavily on novel and sophisticated analytical approaches, I also developed a line of research that focuses on advancing developmental quantitative methods.

Recent representative publications:

Jager, J., Xia Y., Putnick, D. L., & Bornstein, M. H. (2025). Improving generalizability of developmental research through increased use of homogeneous convenience samples: A Monte Carlo simulation. Developmental Psychology. Advance online publication https://doi.org/10.1037/dev0001890

Jager, J., Staff, J., & Espinoza, P. (2024). Age 19-30 Union Formation Trajectories Across The Past 30 Years Within The US: Delineating Heterogeneity in Trajectories and Its Historical and Sociodemographic Variation. Research in Human Development, 21(1), 26-49. https://doi.org/10.1080/15427609.2024.2366110

Jager, J., Keyes, K.M., Son, D., Patrick, M.E., Platt, J. & Schulenberg, J.E. (2023). Age 18-30 trajectories of binge drinking frequency and prevalence across the past 30 years for men and women: Delineating when and why historical trends reversed across age. Development and Psychopathology, 35(3), 1308-1322. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0954579421001218

Jager, J., Rauer, A., Staff, J., Lansford, J.E., Pettit, G.S., & Schulenberg, J.E. (2022). The destabilization and destandardization of social roles across the adult life course: Considering aggregate social role instability and its variability from a historical-developmental perspective. Developmental Psychology. 58(3), 589–605. https://doi.org/10.1037/dev0001303

Jager, J., Putnick, D. L., & Bornstein, M. H. (2017). More than just convenient: The scientific merits of homogeneous convenience samples. In N. A. Card (Ed.), Developmental Methodology. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, 82(2), 13-30. https://doi.org/10.1111/mono.12296

Jager, J., Mahler, A., An, D., Putnick, D. L., Bornstein, M. H., Lansford, J. E., Dodge, K. A., Skinner, A. T., & Deater-Deckard, K. (2016). Early adolescents’ unique perspectives of maternal and paternal rejection: Examining their across-dyad generalizability and relations with adjustment 1 year later. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 45(10), 2108-2124. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-016-0509-z

Jager, J., Yuen, C. X., Putnick, D. L., Hendricks, C., & Bornstein, M. H. (2015). Adolescent peer relationships, separation and detachment from parents, and internalizing and externalizing behaviors: Linkages and interactions. Journal of Early Adolescence, 35(4), 511-537. https://doi.org/10.1177/0272431614537116

Jager, J., Yuen, C. X., Bornstein, M. H., Putnick, D. L., & Hendricks, C. (2014). The relations of family members' unique and shared perspectives of family dysfunction to dyad adjustment. Journal of Family Psychology, 38(3), 407-414. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0036809