Suman Verma

Dr. Verma is a Developmental Psychologist and former head of the Department of Human Development & Family Relations, Government Home Science College, Panjab University, Chandigarh, India. Her research is in the areas of behavior settings of street/working children, daily ecology of adolescent family life, school stress, adolescent abuse, intervention studies using life skills education approaches, positive youth development, social policy, and developmental science and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.

She was a two-time fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, Stanford, where she developed her cross-cultural “Pathways of Risk and Protection among Street Youth in India, Indonesia, the Philippines, and South Africa” project. As a member of a cross-cultural group, she conducted a study on Learning under Conditions of COVID-19 among Indian Adolescents in 2020.

As an active member of various professional organizations such as ISSBD, SRCD and SRA, her interests are in:

  1. Promoting greater visibility for the Asian region in professional societies

  2. Capacity building and mentoring initiatives for professional growth of young scholars in the Asia, Africa and Latin American region

  3. Facilitating regional collaborations and creating opportunities for resource sharing

She is an ISSBD Fellow, has been a member of several cross-cultural study groups, and has served as a reviewer/editorial committee member on several international journals including Child Development and the International Journal of Behavioral Development. She was a member of the SRCD International Affairs Committee and of its Task Force on Scientific Integrity & Openness. Currently she is a member of International Consortium of Developmental Science Societies (ICDSS) COVID-19 Global Scholar Network, member of the editorial board of Zeitschrift für Psychologie, IJBD and Psychological Science, member of the International Panel on Social Progress, and one of the lead authors of a chapter in their report “Rethinking societies for the 21st century.”She is a member of the workshop planning committee of the International Perspectives in U.S. Psychological Science Journals, National Academies of Sciences, Engineering & Medicine (November 2020-August 2021).

Dr. Verma has authored four books, authored or co-authored 23 book chapters and 54 peer-reviewed journal articles. Her book on Developmental Science and Sustainable Development Goals for Children and Youth with Anne Petersen (2018) addresses developmental issues related to inequity, gender, health, education, social protection, climate change, and needs of vulnerable populations of children and youth with a special focus on low-and middle-income countries. She is a guest editor, along with A.C. Petersen and J.E. Lansford, of the 2019 (2) issue of Zeitschrift für Psychologie on Sustainable Human Development: Challenges and Solutions for Implementing the United Nations’ Goals. Currently she is an associate editor of the International Journal of Behavioral Development (IJBD) and one of the guest editors of a special issue on COVID-19 of Journal of Research in Adolescence (JRA). She earned her PhD in Psychology from Panjab University, Chandigarh.