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Psychology
USA
2026

D-Index & Metrics

Psychology

D-Index
149
Citations
94600
World Ranking
80
National Ranking
46

Research.com Recognitions

  • 2026 - Research.com Psychology in United States Leader Award
  • 2025 - Research.com Psychology in United States Leader Award
  • 2010 - Member of Academia Europaea

Overview

Jay Belsky is affiliated with the University of California, Davis in the United States and has contributed extensively to the fields of psychology and social sciences. Their research focuses on areas including clinical psychology, education, pediatrics, public health, and social psychology.

The main topics covered in their work include:

  • Child and Adolescent Psychosocial and Emotional Development
  • Early Childhood Education and Development
  • Child Abuse and Trauma
  • Maternal Mental Health During Pregnancy and Postpartum
  • Stress Responses and Cortisol
  • Child Welfare and Adoption
  • Family Dynamics and Relationships

Jay Belsky has a record of publishing in several notable venues. Frequent publication venues include:

  • Development and Psychopathology
  • UNC Libraries
  • Developmental Psychology
  • Developmental Psychobiology
  • Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry

Their recent papers demonstrate a range of interests and collaborative work. Selected recent publications are:

  • "Differential susceptibility 2.0: Are the same children affected by different experiences and exposures?" (2021) published in Development and Psychopathology
  • "The Value of Dimensional Models of Early Experience: Thinking Clearly About Concepts and Categories" (2021) published in Perspectives on Psychological Science
  • "Attachment goes to court: child protection and custody issues" (2021) published in Attachment & Human Development
  • "Early life adversity, pubertal timing, and epigenetic age acceleration in adulthood" (2021) published in Developmental Psychobiology
  • "The co-occurrence between symptoms of internet gaming disorder and psychiatric disorders in childhood and adolescence: prospective relations or common causes?" (2020) published in Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry

Frequent co-authors include:

  • Xiaoya Zhang
  • Kristina Sayler
  • Ashley M. Groh
  • Glenn I. Roisman
  • Věra Skalická

Jay Belsky also has published books with Harvard University Press. Notable book publications include two editions of The Origins of You (2020).

Recognition of their contributions includes membership in the Academia Europaea awarded in 2010.

Best Publications

  • The determinants of parenting: A process model.

    Jay Belsky

  • Beyond Diathesis Stress: Differential Susceptibility to Environmental Influences.

    Jay Belsky;Michael Pluess

  • Childhood Experience, Interpersonal Development, and Reproductive Strategy: An Evolutionary Theory of Socialization.

    Jay Belsky;Laurence Steinberg;Patricia Draper

  • Child maltreatment: an ecological integration.

    Jay Belsky

  • For Better and For Worse Differential Susceptibility to Environmental Influences

    Jay Belsky;Marian J. Bakermans-Kranenburg;Marinus H. van IJzendoorn

  • Differential susceptibility to the environment: an evolutionary--neurodevelopmental theory.

    Bruce J. Ellis;W. Thomas Boyce;Jay Belsky;Marian J. Bakermans-Kranenburg

  • Etiology of child maltreatment: a developmental-ecological analysis.

    Jay Belsky

  • Are There Long‐Term Effects of Early Child Care?

    Jay Belsky;Deborah Lowe Vandell;Margaret Burchinal;K. Alison Clarke-Stewart

  • Vulnerability genes or plasticity genes

    Jay Belsky;C. Jonassaint;Michael Pluess;M. Stanton

  • Early human experience : A family perspective

    Jay Belsky

  • Do Effects of Early Child Care Extend to Age 15 Years? Results From the NICHD Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development

    Deborah Lowe Vandell;Jay Belsky;Margaret Burchinal;Laurence Steinberg

  • Identifying risk for obesity in early childhood.

    Philip R. Nader;Philip R. Nader;Marion O'Brien;Renate Houts;Robert Bradley

  • Clinical implications of attachment

    Jay Belsky;Teresa M. Nezworski

  • Interactional Synchrony and the Origins of Infant‐Mother Attachment: A Replication Study

    Russell A. Isabella;Jay Belsky

  • The Pennsylvania Infant and Family Development Project, III: The origins of individual differences in infant-mother attachment: maternal and infant contributions.

    Jay Belsky;Michael Rovine;Dawn G. Taylor

  • Patterns of marital change across the transition to parenthood: pregnancy to three years postpartum.

    Jay Belsky;Michael Rovine

  • Stability and Change in Marriage across the Transition to Parenthood.

    Jay Belsky;Graham B. Spanier;Michael Rovine

  • Classroom Effects on Children’s Achievement Trajectories in Elementary School

    Robert C. Pianta;Jay Belsky;Nathan Vandergrift;Renate Houts

  • Mothering, fathering, and infant negativity as antecedents of boys' externalizing problems and inhibition at age 3 years: Differential susceptibility to rearing experience?

    Jay Belsky;Kuang Hua Hsieh;Keith Crnic

  • Vantage sensitivity: individual differences in response to positive experiences.

    Michael Pluess;Jay Belsky

  • Patterns of marital change and parent-child interaction

    Jay Belsky;Lise Youngblade;Michael Rovine;Brenda Volling

Frequent Co-Authors

Edward Melhuish
Edward Melhuish University of Oxford
Sarah L. Friedman
Sarah L. Friedman George Washington University
Margaret Burchinal
Margaret Burchinal University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Susan J. Spieker
Susan J. Spieker University of Washington
Michael Pluess
Michael Pluess Queen Mary University of London
Robert C. Pianta
Robert C. Pianta University of Virginia
Robert H. Bradley
Robert H. Bradley Arizona State University
Lars Wichstrøm
Lars Wichstrøm Norwegian University of Science and Technology
Keith A. Crnic
Keith A. Crnic Arizona State University
Deborah Lowe Vandell
Deborah Lowe Vandell University of California, Irvine

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