Wendy Rote

Wendy Rote, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of South Florida (USF), based on the St. Petersburg campus. She is affiliated with the Cognition, Neuroscience, and Social Psychology program area and serves as the director of the Parent-Adolescent Relationships (PAR) Lab.

Education:

• B.A. in Psychology, Whitman College
• M.A. in Psychology, University of Rochester
• Ph.D. in Developmental Psychology, University of Rochester
• Post-Doctoral Fellowship, Positive Youth Development Lab, University of Rochester

Dr. Rote's research centers on developmental psychology, particularly how parenting influences adolescent development. Her work explores autonomy development, parental socialization, divergent perceptions within families, overparenting, and moral development grounded in Social Domain Theory. She investigates emotional processes such as guilt induction, parental psychological control, and information management during adolescence. Her teaching includes developmental psychology, statistics, and psychological testing at both undergraduate and graduate levels.

Her recent publications reveal a consistent focus on parent-adolescent dynamics, perception discrepancies, and moral-emotional development. Key themes include helicopter parenting, inductive discipline, and the psychological impact of parental control. The research often employs dyadic and longitudinal designs, emphasizing within-family variations.

Scientific Awards:

• USF Women in Leadership and Philanthropy Award (2019)

Dr. Rote has secured significant research funding, including a Research and Creative Scholarship Grant to study helicopter parenting in students with disabilities and a USF Nexus Initiative Award for cross-cultural research on overparenting with a collaborator from the Chinese University of Hong Kong. She advises several students, many of whom are co-authors on her publications. As director of the PAR Lab, she leads a research team dedicated to understanding family dynamics and adolescent development.