Texas Tech University

Sybil Hart, Ph.D.

Professor Emeritus
Human Development and Family Sciences

Email: sybil.hart@ttu.edu

Phone: (806) 834-7231

Sybil Hart

Research Focus

Dr. Hart focuses on psycho-social development in infants and young children in the context of their relationships with parents and siblings. Her current research aims to apply her previous findings on infant jealousy toward developing methodology for helping parents and firstborn toddlers prepare for the arrival of a newborn baby sibling. Her goal is to address the age-old problem of sibling rivalry by promoting a smooth transition, hoping that this will serve as a basis for helping sibling relationships off to a good start and preventing sibling rivalry. Along with faculty in the department of Nutrition and the Pediatrics unit at the TTUHSC, Dr. Hart is also working on projects with premature infants and their families.

Areas of Expertise

  • Parent-child-sibling and infant-nursing mother relationships
  • Attachment, exclusivity, and developmental psychopathology
  • Prevention and intervention during early development
  • Nutrition and early development

Selected Publications

Hart, S.L. (2016). Proximal foundations of jealousy: Expectations of exclusivity in the infant's first year of life. Emotion Review.  http://emr.sagepub.com/content/early/2015/10/23/1754073915615431.abstract

Hart, S. L. (2016). Jealousy protest: Ontogeny in accord with the 9-month period of human gestation. Evolutionary Psychology. http://evp.sagepub.com/content/14/2/1474704916646775.full.pdf?ijkey=NvtfJJdNStENvy9&keytype=finite

Chae, Y., Kulkofsky, S., Debaran, F., Wang, Q., & Hart, S. L. (2016). Low-SES children's eyewitness memory: The role of narrative skill. Behavioral Sciences and Law, 34, 55-73.  http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/bsl.2242/epdf

Jackson, S., Boylan, M. & Hart, S. L. (2016). Breastfeeding self-efficacy in the mother-infant dyad.  In J. Worobey (Ed.) Infant Feeding: Parental Perceptions, Behaviors and Health Effects (pp. 45-60).Nova.

Links

Meet Professor Sybil Hart, Ph.D.