College of Education and Human Development

Institute of Child Development

Daniel Berry

  • Pronouns: he/him/his

  • Associate Professor

“There is no such thing as philosophy-free science; there is only science whose philosophical baggage is taken on board without examination.” (Daniel Dennett, Darwin’s Dangerous Idea, 1995)

Daniel Berry

Areas of interest

Child care, Cognitive development, Developmental neuroscience, Early childhood, Executive function, Families and parenting, High-risk populations, Hormones and behavior, Infancy, Relationships (peer, parent, and romantic partner), Social and emotional development, Vulnerable populations, Quantitative methods for longitudinal & time series data, Causal inference, Complexity science

Degrees

EdD, 2010, Harvard University

Biography

Lab

The Bioecology, Self-Regulation and Learning Lab

Research

My research focuses on clarifying the processes—mind, brain and environment—through which children’s experiences shape their abilities to control their impulses, purposely maintain and shift their attention, and hold and manipulate information in mind. Broadly, this set of inter-related skills is referred to as "self-regulation."

A good deal of research indicates that these skills play a critical role in the way children understand and get along with others, as well as how they learn at home and school. In my lab, we are particularly interested in clarifying the experiential and physiological mechanisms through which these processes emerge. We leverage a variety of methodological approaches in this work, ranging from lab-based experiments to long-term longitudinal studies of children in their natural contexts. 

Collectively, this work reflects my dual interests in: (1) the experiential and neurophysiology processes underlying children’s development of self-regulation skills, and (2) rigorous quantitative methods for longitudinal data and causal inference.  

Advising expectations and availability

If you are a prospective student who is interested in working in the Bioecology, Self-Regulation and Learning (BSL) Lab with Dr. Berry, click here to review his advising expectations. The document outlines Dr. Berry's expectations for students in their thinking, study, deliverables, and commitments.

Please note that for the 2025 admissions cycle Dr. Berry is looking to take on new Ph.D. students as their primary advisor. Please reach out to Dr. Berry via email if you are interested in learning more.

Publications

*Current or former trainee

*Kim, S. Berry, D. Carlson, S.M. (in press). Should I stay or should I go? Children’s persistence in the context of diminishing rewards. Developmental Science.

Willoughby, M. T., Gatzke-Kopp, L., Warkentien, S., Browne, E., & Berry, D. (in press). An introduction to inverse probability of weighting and marginal structural models: The impact of environmental tobacco exposure to Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder behaviors. Developmental Psychology.

*Stallworthy, I. C., Elison, J. T., & Berry, D. (2024). The infant parasympathetic nervous system is socially embedded and dynamic at multiple timescales, within and between people. Developmental Psychology. Advance online publication. https://doi-org.ezp2.lib.umn.edu/10.1037/dev0001787

*DeJoseph, M.L., *Leneman, K.L., *Palmer, A.P., *Padrutt, E., *Mayo., O., & Berry, D. (2024) Adrenocortical and autonomic cross-system regulation in youth: A meta-analysis. Psychoneuroendocrinology. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psyneuen.2023.106416

*Padrutt, E. R.,* DeJoseph, M. L., Wilson, S., Mills-Koonce, R., & Berry, D. (2023). Measurement invariance of maternal depressive symptoms across the first 2 years since birth and across racial group, education, income, primiparity, and age. Psychological Assessment, 35(8), 646–658.

Rey-Guerra, C., Zachrisson, H. D., Dearing, E., Berry, D., Kuger, S., Burchinal, M. R., Naerde, A, van Huizen, & Cote, S.M. (2023). Do more hours in center-based care cause more externalizing problems? A cross-national replication study. Child Development, Early view. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.13871  

*DeJoseph, M. L., Herzberg, M. P., *Sifre, R. D., Berry, D., & Thomas, K. M. (2022). Measurement matters: An individual differences examination of family socioeconomic factors, latent dimensions of children’s experiences, and resting state functional brain connectivity in the ABCD sample. Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience, 53, 101043.

*Hu, Y., McElwain, N. L., & Berry, D. (2021). Mother–child mutually responsive orientation and real‐time physiological coordination. Developmental Psychobiology, 63(7), e22200

~*Stallworthy, I. C., ~*Sifre, R., ~Berry, D., *Lasch, C., Smith, T. J., & Elison, J. T. (2020). Infants’ gaze exhibits a fractal structure that varies by age and stimulus salience. Scientific Reports, 10(1), 1-14.

Berry, D., *Palmer, A. R., *Distefano, R., & Masten, A. S. (2019). Autonomic complexity and emotion (dys-) regulation in early childhood across high-and low-risk contexts. Development and Psychopathology, 31, 1173-1190.

Berry, D., Vernon-Feagans, L., Mills-Koonce, W. R., & Blair, C. (2018). Otitis media and respiratory sinus arrhythmia across infancy and early childhood: Polyvagal processes?. Developmental Psychology, 54(9), 1709-1722.

Berry, D., & Willoughby, M. T. (2017). On the practical interpretability of cross‐lagged panel models: Rethinking a developmental workhorse. Child Development, 88(4), 1186-1206.

Berry, D., Blair, C., Willoughby, M., Granger, D. A., Mills-Koonce, W. R., & Family Life Project Key Investigators. (2017). Maternal sensitivity and adrenocortical functioning across infancy and toddlerhood: Physiological adaptation to context? Development and Psychopathology, 29(1), 303-317.

Berry, D. & Willoughby, M. T. (2016). On the practical interpretability of cross-lagged panel models: Re-visiting a developmental workhorse Child Development.

*Serdiouk, M., Berry, D., & Gest, S. D. (2016). Teacher-child relationships and friendships and peer victimization across the school year. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 46, 63-72.

Berry, D., Blair, C., Willoughby, M., Mills-Koonce, R., Granger, D., & The Family Life Project Key Investigators (2016). Maternal sensitivity and adrenocortical functioning across infancy and toddlerhood: Physiological adaptation to context? Development and Psychopathology. Advance online publication. doi:10.1037/a0028240

Berry, D., Blair, C., Willoughby, M., Garrett-Peters, P., Vernon-Feagans, L., Mills-Koonce, W. R., & Family Life Project Key Investigators. (2016). Household chaos and children’s cognitive and socio-emotional development in early childhood: Does childcare play a buffering role? Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 34, 115-127.

Berry, D. Blair, C., Willoughby, M., Granger, D.A. & the Family Life Project Key Investigators (2016). Childcare and cortisol across infancy and toddlerhood: Poverty, peers, and developmental timing. Family Relations. 65(1), 51-72.

*Merrin, G., *Davis, J.P., Berry, D., D’Amico, E.J., & Duman, T. (2016). Longitudinal associations between substance use, criminal behavior, and environmental risk among emerging adults: A longitudinal within- and between-person latent variables analysis. Drug and Alcohol Addiction. Advance online publication. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2016.05.009

*Davis, J., *Merrin, G., Berry, D., Dumas, T., Hong, J.S., & Smith, D.C. (2016). Examining within-person and between-person effects of victimization and social risk on cannabis use among emerging adults in substance-use treatment. Psychology of Addictive Behaviors, 30, 52-63.

Sulik, M., Blair, C., Berry, D., Greenberg, M., & The Family Life Project Key Investigators (2015). Early parenting and the development of externalizing symptoms: Longitudinal mediation through children’s executive function. Child Development, 86(5), 1588-1603.

Berry, D., Blair, C., Ursache, A., Willoughby, M. T., & Granger, D. A. (2014). Early childcare, executive functioning, and the moderating role of early stress physiology. Developmental Psychology, 50, 1250 -1261.

Berry, D., Blair, C., Ursache, A., Willoughby, M., Garrett-Peters, P., Vernon-Feagans, L.,… (2014). Child care and cortisol across early childhood: Context matters. Developmental Psychology, 50, 514-525.

Berry, D., McCartney, K., Petrill, S., Deater-Deckard, K., & Blair, C. (2014). Gene–environment interaction between DRD4 7-repeat VNTR and early child-care experiences predicts self-regulation abilities in prekindergarten. Developmental Psychobiology, 56(3), 373-391.

Blair, C., Raver, C.C., Berry, D. & the Family Life Project Key Investigators (2014). Two approaches to estimating the effect of parenting on the development of executive function in early childhood. Developmental Psychology, 50, 554-565.

Belsky, J., Fraley, C., Pluess, M., Newman, D.A., Widaman, K. F., Helm, J. L., Rodkin, P., Berry, D. & Roisman, G. I. (2014). Differential susceptibility to effects of maternal sensitivity? A study of candidate plasticity genes. Development and Psychopathology.

Berry, D., Deater-Deckard, K., McCartney, K., Wang, Z., & Petrill, S. A. (2013). Gene–environment interaction between dopamine receptor D4 7-repeat polymorphism and early maternal sensitivity predicts inattention trajectories across middle childhood. Development and Psychopathology, 25, 291-306.

Blair, C., Berry, D., Mills-Koonce, R., & Granger, D. (2013). Cumulative effects of early poverty on cortisol in young children: Moderation by autonomic nervous system activity. Psychoneuroendocrinology, 38, 2666-2675.

Kieffer, M. J., Vukovic, R. K., & Berry, D. (2013). Roles of attention shifting and inhibitory control in fourth-grade reading comprehension. Reading Research Quarterly, 48, 333-348.

Berry, D., Blair, C., Willoughby, M., Granger, D., & The Family Life Project Key Investigators (2012). Resting salivary alpha-amylase and cortisol in infancy and toddlerhood: Direct and indirect relations with executive functioning in early childhood and academic ability in pre-kindergarten. Psychoneuroendocrinology, 37, 1700-1711.

Berry, D. (2012). Inhibitory control and teacher–child conflict: Reciprocal associations across the elementary-school years. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 33(1), 66-76

Berry, D. & O’Connor, E. (2010). Behavioral risk, teacher-child relationships, and social skill development across middle childhood: A child-by-environment analysis of change. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 31, 1-14.

McCartney, K. & Berry, D. (2005). Commentary: Gene-environment processes in task persistence. Trends in Cognitive Science, 9, 407-408.