Dr. Beth Manke received her Ph.D. in Human Development and Family Studies (with a minor in statistics) in 1995 from the Pennsylvania State University and is currently an Associate Professor in the Human Development Department at the California State University, Long Beach. She has over 10 years of program evaluation experience and is presently coordinating the evaluation efforts for several Houston and Los Angeles organizations. Dr. Manke has expertise in on-line surveys, paper-and-pencil questionnaires, clinical interviews, and observational techniques. She has described her evaluation findings in written professional reports and community-wide presentations. Her results have also been featured in several newspaper articles.

In addition to conducting evaluation studies, Dr. Manke maintains an active research program focused on the interplay of children’s familial relationships (parent-child and sibling), broader contextual factors and developmental outcomes including mental health, academic achievement and behavior problems. She has co-authored over 20 empirical articles and chapters in scholarly journals and edited books. She has also presented her research findings in over 30 conference presentations and has been the invited guest speaker at several universities including the Institute of Child Development in Minneapolis, MN, Oxford University, George Washington University and the University of Oregon. Dr. Manke has received international recognition for her work. For example, she was an invited research fellow at the Institute of Psychiatry in London England; served as the guest presenter at a methodology workshop at the University of Nijmegen, The Netherlands; and was the recipient of the 1999 International Visiting Scholarship awarded by the University of Surrey, Guildford, UK.

Dr. Manke is a current member of the American Psychological Association, the National Council on Family Relations, and the Society for Research in Child Development. She currently serves as an ad hoc reviewer for several scholarly journals including Developmental Psychology, Journal of Marriage and Family, Social Development, Merill Palmer Quarterly, Family Communication, and the British Journal of Developmental Psychology. Dr. Manke is also on the Editorial Board of the Journal of Marriage and Family.

As a faculty member, Dr. Manke has taught courses on child development, research methods and design, and program evaluation. She was awarded the 2000 College of Social Sciences Teaching Excellence Award at the University of Houston, Houston, TX.

Example Publications:

Manke, B., Pike, A. (2003). Combining the social relations model and behavioral genetics to explore the etiology of familial interactions. Marriage and Family Review, 33, 179-204.

McGuire, S., Manke, B., Saudino, K.J., Reiss, D., Hetherington, E.M., & Plomin, R. (2000). Perceived competence and self-worth during adolescence: A Longitudinal behavioral genetic study. Child Development, 70, 1283-1296.

Example Conference Presentations:

Manke, B., Corbitt-Shindler, D., Cizik, P., & Powers, L. (2003). Mentoring programs and children’s depression: the role of life events. Paper presented at the biennial meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development, Tampa, FL, April.

Manke, B., Fried, H., Shiver, J., & Haggard, S. (2000). Predicting children’s well-being: Do neighborhood characteristics matter? Paper presented at the biennial meeting of the Society for Research on Adolescence, Chicago, IL, April.

Manke, B. (2000). Parent education in urban settings: Reaching families at greatest risk. Invited talk given at the annual conference of the World Future Society, Houston, TX, July.