My research interests include young children’s cognitive development, children and the law, family income and its impact on parenting, social relationships and adolescent behavioral health, and emerging adulthood. Specifically, I am interested in how best to talk to young children during forensic interviews, how juvenile offenders are judged in adult courts, and how parental and peer relationships predict adolescent behavioral problems. Since young children’s vulnerability to interviewer suggestion can be partially explained by their tenuous ability to monitor the sources of their knowledge, I have also conducted research on children’s source monitoring. I wrote Children and Crime, a 12-chapter book published in 2019. Using the central question of "Can being a victim cause a child to become a perpetrator?" as a linchpin, the book surveys topics related to the two ways children and crime intersect: Child maltreatment and juvenile delinquency. I served as the lead editor for Perspectives on Childhood: An Interdisciplinary Approach, a 12-chapter book published in 2026. Written by a team of higher education teacher-scholars from diverse fields in the behavioral sciences, the health sciences, the social sciences, and the humanities, the book provides a comprehensive and accessible introduction to the field of childhood studies.

One current project that is in the stage of manuscript submission examines young children’s awareness of when they learned things and experienced physical events, which is linked to the more general topic of children’s developing time concept. The research method employed is secondary analyses of the CHIld Language Data Exchange System (CHILDES). The project is an extension of earlier experimental work to see if research findings are reflected in children’s naturalistic conversations with their parents. Even though this is primarily basic research, the study has applied value in understanding how young children learn and in improving the forensic interviewing of young children.

Another current project that is being conceptualized concerns the effects of juvenile race, intellectual disability, and aversive racism on mock juror perception of false confession. Specifically, a 3 (Juvenile Race/Ethnicity: Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, White) X 2 (Intellectual Disability: yes, no) X 2 (Aversive Racism: high, low) between-subjects factorial design will be employed. Treating aversive/modern racism as a moderating variable, we hope to elucidate the mechanisms underlying the bending-over-backwards effects revealed in past research and assess whether and how these effects extend to Hispanic/Latino youth.

Jennings, K. T., & Tang, C. M. (2025). Causal pathways from child maltreatment to peer popularity. Psi Chi Journal of Psychological Research, 30(1), 84–92. (Link to Article)

Tang, C. M., McCullough, A., & Olunlade, R. (2023). Maternal, paternal, and peer relationships differentially predict adolescent behavioral problems. Journal of Child & Adolescent Trauma, 1-12. (pdf)

Tang, C. M., Colon, M., & Brilla, H. S. (2023). Homework Completion Program in Atlantic County, NJ: The first five years. The Police Journal: Theory, Practice, and Principles. (pdf)

Tang, C.M., Nunez, N. & Estrada-Reynolds, V. (2020). Intellectual disability affects case judgment differently depending on juvenile race. Journal of Police and Criminal Psychology, 35, 228-239. (pdf)

Tang, C.M., Dickey, S. & Samuelsen, D. (2017). Young children's reports of when events occurred: Do event type and assessment method matter? Infant and Child Development, 26. (pdf)

Tang, C.M. & Sinanan, A.N. (2015). Change in parenting behaviors from infancy to early childhood: Does change in family income matter? Journal of Family Social Work, 18, 327-348. (pdf)

Tang, C.M. & Turner, K. (2013). Defendant age, pretrial bias, and crime severity influence the judgment of juvenile waiver cases. American Journal of Forensic Psychology, 31, 5 - 25. (pdf)

I would like to work with as many as six students each semester as research assistants in my laboratory. Preferred qualifications include the completion of Experimental Psychology and Developmental Psychology, a minimum GPA of 3.2, and Psychology majors who are also pursuing a minor in Childhood Studies. Students who are able to stay in the laboratory for at least a year are also preferred.

Students will learn how to comprehend, summarize, and critique empirical research articles. They will acquire critical thinking skills that help with the generation of research hypotheses. Students will learn to collect and code data, analyze data using both univariate and multivariate statistical methods on SPSS, interpret SPSS outputs, and present research findings orally and in writing.

Students should be able to work independently and in collaboration with others. They should plan on attending an hour-long lab meeting once a week and spending up to 8 hours each week on research projects.

Students interested in serving as research assistants (RAs) in my lab should register for the independent study 4-credit course entitled “PSYC 4817 Childhood and Adolescence Lab Research Assistantship.” The prerequisite for the course is “PSYC 1100 Introduction to Psychology” and Permission of Instructor (POI) is required. Interested students should email me (connie.tang@stockton.edu) each semester during precepting days to see if a POI is available, explaining why they are a good match to the lab.

RAs will work closely with me and other RAs on ongoing research projects as well as their own independent research. Therefore, serving as RAs in my lab is an excellent match for students interested in completing a project for distinction.