Tracy Spinrad

Tracy Spinrad is a professor in the T. Denny Sanford School of Social and Family Dynamics. Her research focuses on two interrelated areas: (1) family contexts that support children’s emotion-related regulation and well-being and (2) family and contextual processes involved in understanding children’s moral development, empathy-related responding, prosocial behavior. and altruism. Spinrad and her colleagues developed a theoretical model to delineate how adults socialize children’s emotions and emotion-related regulation in which we coined the term “emotion-related socialization behaviors” (ERSBs).

Spinrad's research findings from the Toddler Emotional Development project indicate that family and parents’ socialization behaviors are linked with children’s later emotional reactivity, regulatory skills, moral emotions and behavior,  compliance, and maladjustment. Further, the team identified characteristics of family members (i.e., infant, mother, father), and contextual factors, such as marital quality, family-level chaos, and family structure, that predict ERSBs. 

In a recent study, Project KID (Kindness in Development), Spinrad sought to understand the impact of family context and processes on young children’s outgroup empathy-related responding and prosocial behavior. We showed that nurturant parenting positively predicted, whereas restrictive parenting negatively predicted, children’s prosocial behavior toward diverse others. We also found that parents’ own attitudes predicted children’s sympathy toward outgroup versus ingroup children and that children’s regulatory skills predicted prosocial behavior toward outgroup children.

Spinrad is also the Principal Investigator of QUEST (Quality First Experiences Study). Supported by First Things First, this study aims to learn how the Quality First program—a state-funded initiative to improve the quality of childcare in over 1,300 programs in the state of Arizona, helps young children learn, grow, and thrive. This research is particularly exciting for its efforts to impact the broader community and state of Arizona's children.

Spinrad was recently awarded the inaugural Provost’s Teaching Award and has been honored with the ASU Faculty Women’s Association Outstanding Mentoring Award and the Zebulon Pearce Distinguished Teaching Award. She currently serves as the Family and Human Development doctoral program lead.