Ettekal, Idean Assistant Professor

Idean Ettekal is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Educational Psychology (Developmental Sciences Program). He received a Ph.D. in Family and Human Development from Arizona State University, and a B.A. at the University of California, Berkeley, majoring in Psychology and American Studies, and minoring in Education.



Before joining the faculty at Texas A&M, Dr. Ettekal served as the Project Director on the Violence in Children's Environment (VICE) study at the University at Buffalo's Research Institute on Addictions. The VICE project (a 5-year grant funded by NIH) focused on examining developmental pathways to youth violence, victimization and drug use in a high-risk sample.



Dr. Ettekal's research examines the impact of children's and adolescent's interpersonal relationships (e.g., peer and parent-child relationships) on their social and emotional development. In particular, he is interested in studying how children's interpersonal experiences (e.g., peer victimization, peer rejection and friendships, and hostile parent-child interactions) shape the development of antisocial and externalizing behaviors such as aggression, bullying, rule-breaking, and youth violence. Key to this work is elucidating how children's self-regulation and social cognitions influence the associations between children's social experiences and their behavioral adjustment. His research applies a variety of longitudinal and developmental methodologies (e.g., structural equation modeling, latent growth modeling, latent transition analysis, mediation analysis, missing data analysis). Related to these interests, Dr. Ettekal has worked on several school-based program evaluations on social and emotional learning.