Associate Professor & Developmental Sciences Division Chair, Educational Psychology
220D Education Building
(mail code 708)
Champaign (UIUC Campus Mail), IL 61820
Association for Psychological Science Rising Star Award, Association for Psychological Science, 2020
Association for Psychological Science Rising Star Award, Association for Psychological Science, 2019
Elmi, C. M., Napolitano, C. M., & Freund, A. M. (2023). Shift Happens: Changes in Goal Orientation During Goal Pursuit. European Psychologist, 28(1), 53-63. link >
Hoff, B. F., & Napolitano, C. M. (Accepted/In press). Can investing in backup plans harm adolescents’ goal performance? Initial evidence from a quasi-experimental study. Current Psychology. link >
Sewell, M. N., Napolitano, C. M., Roberts, B. W., Soto, C. J., & Yoon, H. J. (2023). The social, emotional, and behavioral skill antecedents to college students' volunteering during the COVID-19 pandemic. Journal of Research on Adolescence, 33(2), 618-631. Advance online publication. link >
Soto, C. J., Napolitano, C. M., Sewell, M. N., Yoon, H. J., Murano, D., Casillas, A., & Roberts, B. W. (2023). What I Do and What I Can Do: Testing the convergence and incremental validity of social, emotional, and behavioral skills vs. traits for predicting academic success. Journal of Research in Personality, 104, Article 104382. link >
Youn, J., Napolitano, C. M., Han, D., Lee, W., & Rounds, J. (2023). A meta-analysis of the relations between parental support and children's career self-efficacy in South Korea and the US. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 141, Article 103839. link >
Hoff, K., Van Egdom, D., Napolitano, C., Hanna, A., & Rounds, J. (2022). Dream Jobs and Employment Realities: How Adolescents’ Career Aspirations Compare to Labor Demands and Automation Risks. Journal of Career Assessment, 30(1), 134-156. link >
Lechner, C. M., Knopf, T., Napolitano, C. M., Rammstedt, B., Roberts, B. W., Soto, C. J., & Spengler, M. (2022). The Behavioral, Emotional, and Social Skills Inventory (BESSI): Psychometric Properties of a German-Language Adaptation, Temporal Stabilities of the Skills, and Associations with Personality and Intelligence. Journal of Intelligence, 10(3), Article 63. link >
Napolitano, C. M., Kern, J. L., & Freund, A. M. (2022). The Backup Planning Scale (BUPS): A Brief, Self-Reported Measure of a Person’s Tendency to Develop, Reserve, and Use Backup Plans. Journal of Personality Assessment, 104(4), 496-508. link >
Sewell, M. N., Soto, C. J., Napolitano, C. M., Yoon, H. J., & Roberts, B. W. (2022). Survey data of social, emotional, and behavioral skills among seven independent samples. Data in Brief, 40, Article 107792. link >
Soto, C. J., Napolitano, C. M., Sewell, M. N., Yoon, H. J., & Roberts, B. W. (2022). An Integrative Framework for Conceptualizing and Assessing Social, Emotional, and Behavioral Skills: The BESSI. Journal of personality and social psychology, 123(1), 192–222. link >
Soto, C. J., Napolitano, C. M., Sewell, M. N., Yoon, H. J., & Roberts, B. W. (Accepted/In press). Going Beyond Traits: Social, Emotional, and Behavioral Skills Matter for Adolescents’ Success. Social Psychological and Personality Science. link >
Baay, P. E., Napolitano, C. M., & Schipper, M. C. (2021). It Wasn’t Sheer Luck After All: Opportunity and Preparation Predict Chance Events in School-to-Work Transitions. In E. A. Marshall, & J. E. Symonds (Eds.), Young Adult Development at the School-to-Work Transition: International Pathways and Processes (pp. 20-48). Oxford University Press. link >
Napolitano, C. M., Sewell, M. N., Yoon, H. J., Soto, C. J., & Roberts, B. W. (2021). Social, Emotional, and Behavioral Skills: An Integrative Model of the Skills Associated With Success During Adolescence and Across the Life Span. Frontiers in Education, 6, Article 679561. link >
Soto, C. J., Napolitano, C. M., & Roberts, B. W. (2021). Taking Skills Seriously: Toward an Integrative Model and Agenda for Social, Emotional, and Behavioral Skills. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 30(1), 26-33. link >
Napolitano, C. M., Hoff, K. A., Ming, C. W. J., Tu, N., & Rounds, J. (2020). Great expectations: Adolescents' intentional self-regulation predicts career aspiration and expectation consistency. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 120, Article 103423. link >
Freund, A. M., Napolitano, C. M., & Rutt, J. L. (2019). Personality Development in Adulthood: A Goal Perspective. In D. P. McAdams, R. L. Shiner, & J. L. Tackett (Eds.), Handbook of Personality Development Guilford Press.
Napolitano, C. M., & Freund, A. M. (2019). Adding life to one’s added years: Self-regulatory balancing of life domains across old age. Advances in Life Course Research, 41, Article 100278. link >
Tomasik, M. J., Napolitano, C. M., & Moser, U. (2019). Trajectories of Academic Performance Across Compulsory Schooling and Thriving in Young Adulthood. Child development, 90(6), e745-e762. link >
Napolitano, C. M., & Job, V. (2018). Assessing the implicit theory of willpower for strenuous mental activities scale: Multigroup, across-gender, and cross-cultural measurement invariance and convergent and divergent validity. Psychological assessment, 30(8), 1049-1064. link >
Napolitano, C. M. (2018). Serendipity as an Example for a New Four-tiered Model of the Study of Intentional Self-regulation. Research in Human Development, 15(3-4), 265-279. link >
Napolitano, C. M., & Freund, A. M. (2017). First evidence for "the backup plan paradox". Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 146(8), 1189-1203. link >
Callina, K. S., Mueller, M. K., Napolitano, C. M., Lerner, J. V., & Lerner, R. M. (2016). Positive youth development: Relational developmental systems approaches to thriving from childhood to early adulthood. In The Oxford Handbook of Positive Psychology (pp. 207-223). Oxford University Press. link >
Napolitano, C. M., & Freund, A. M. (2016). On the Use and Usefulness of Backup Plans. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 11(1), 56-73. link >
Freund, A. M., Napolitano, C. M., & Knecht, M. (2015). Life Management Through Selection, Optimization, and Compensation. In N. A. Pachana (Ed.), Encyclopedia of Geropsychology (pp. 1-9). Springer. link >
Geldhof, G. J., Bowers, E. P., Gestsdóttir, S., Napolitano, C. M., & Lerner, R. M. (2015). Self-Regulation Across Adolescence: Exploring the Structure of Selection, Optimization, and Compensation. Journal of Research on Adolescence, 25(2), 214-228. link >
Geldhof, G. J., Bowers, E. P., Boyd, M. J., Mueller, M. K., Napolitano, C. M., Schmid, K. L., Lerner, J. V., & Lerner, R. M. (2014). Creation of short and very short measures of the five Cs of positive youth development. Journal of Research on Adolescence, 24(1), 163-176. link >
Geldhof, G. J., Bowers, E. P., Mueller, M. K., Napolitano, C. M., Callina, K. S., & Lerner, R. M. (2014). Longitudinal Analysis of a Very Short Measure of Positive Youth Development. Journal of youth and adolescence, 43(6), 933-949. link >
Napolitano, C. M., Bowers, E. P., Arbeit, M. R., Chase, P., Geldhof, G. J., Lerner, J. V., & Lerner, R. M. (2014). The GPS to Success Growth Grids: Measurement Properties of a Tool to Promote Intentional Self-Regulation in Mentoring Programs. Applied Developmental Science, 18(1), 46-58. link >
Lerner, R. M., Napolitano, C. M., Boyd, M. J., Mueller, M. K., & Callina, K. S. (2013). Mentoring and positive youth development. In Handbook of Youth Mentoring (pp. 17-28). SAGE Publishing. link >
Lerner, J. V., Minor, K., Boyd, M. J., Mueller, M. K., Napolitano, C. M., Callina, K. S., Lewin-Bizan, S., & Lerner, R. M. (2013). Positive youth development: Processes, philosophies, and programs. In Handbook of psychology: : Developmental psychology (pp. 365-392). John Wiley & Sons, Ltd..
Napolitano, C. M., Callina, K. S., & Mueller, M. K. (2013). Comparing Alternate Approaches to Calculating Reliability for Dichotomous Data: The Sample Case of Adolescent Selection, Optimization, and Compensation. Applied Developmental Science, 17(3), 148-151. link >
Napolitano, C. M. (2013). More than just a simple twist of fate: Serendipitous relations in developmental science. Human Development, 56(5), 291-318. link >
Bowers, E. P., Geldhof, G. J., Schmid, K. L., Napolitano, C. M., Minor, K., & Lerner, J. V. (2012). Relationships With Important Nonparental Adults and Positive Youth Development: An Examination of Youth Self-Regulatory Strengths as Mediators. Research in Human Development, 9(4), 298-316. link >
Lerner, R. M., Wiatrowski, M. D., Mueller, M. K., Napolitano, C. M., Schmid, K. L., & Pritchard, A. (2011). A Vision for the American Juvenile Justice System: The Positive Youth Development Perspective. In Juvenile Justice: Advancing Research, Policy, and Practice (pp. 92-108). John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.. link >
Lerner, R. M., Lerner, J. V., Lewin-Bizan, S., Bowers, E. P., Boyd, M. J., Mueller, M. K., Schmid, K. L., & Napolitano, C. M. (2011). Positive Youth Development: Processes, Programs, and Problematics. Journal of Youth Development, 6(3), 38-62. link >
Lerner, R. M., Boyd, M. J., Kiely, M. K., Napolitano, C. M., Schmid, K. L., & Steinberg, L. (2011). The History of the Study of Adolescence. In Encyclopedia of Adolescence (Vol. 1, pp. 169-176). Elsevier Inc.. link >
Napolitano, C. M., Bowers, E. P., Gestsdóttir, S., & Chase, P. A. (2011). The development of intentional self-regulation in adolescence. Describing, explaining, and optimizing its link to positive youth development. In Advances in Child Development and Behavior (pp. 19-38). (Advances in Child Development and Behavior; Vol. 41). Academic Press Inc.. link >
Napolitano, C. M., Bowers, E. P., Gestsdottir, S., Depping, M., von Eye, A., Chase, P., & Lerner, J. V. (2011). The role of parenting and goal selection in positive youth development: A person-centered approach. Journal of Adolescence, 34(6), 1137-1149. link >
Schmid, K. L., Phelps, E., Kiely, M. K., Napolitano, C. M., Boyd, M. J., & Lerner, R. M. (2011). The role of adolescents' hopeful futures in predicting positive and negative developmental trajectories: Findings from the 4-H study of positive youth development. Journal of Positive Psychology, 6(1), 45-56. link >
Gestsdottir, S., Bowers, E., von Eye, A., Napolitano, C. M., & Lerner, R. M. (2010). Intentional self regulation in middle adolescence: The emerging role of loss-based selection in positive youth development. Journal of youth and adolescence, 39(7), 764-782. link >
Lerner, R. M., Boyd, M. J., Kiely, M. K., Napolitano, C. M., & Schmid, K. L. (2010). Applications of Developmental Systems Theory to Benefit Human Development: On the Contributions of Gilbert Gottlieb to Individuals, Families, and Communities. In Handbook of Developmental Science, Behavior, and Genetics (pp. 339-354). Wiley-Blackwell. link >
Napolitano, C. M. (2010). "MXing it up": how African adolescents may affect social change through mobile phone use. New directions for youth development, 2010(128), 105-113. link >
EPSY 199: Undergraduate Open Seminar (EPSY 199) Approved for both letter and S/U grading. May be repeated.
EPSY 430: Early Adolescent Development (EPSY 430) Examines early adolescent development, covering biological, cognitive, and social transitions. Topics include identity, autonomy, peer and family relationships and the role of schooling and the media.
EPSY 490: Developments in Educational Psychology (EPSY 490) Foundational theories and practices of educational psychology, including learning and development.
EPSY 590: Advanced Seminar in Educational Psychology (EPSY 590) Seminar in educational psychology; topics relate to the areas of specialization represented by the various divisions within the department.