Jenae Neiderhiser, Ph.D. Jenae Neiderhiser, Ph.D. 
Jenae Neiderhiser received her Ph.D. in Human Development and Family Studies from The Pennsylvania State University in 1994. She was at the Center for Family Research at The George Washington University from 1994-2007 before returning to The Pennsylvania State University as a member of the Department of Psychology. Dr. Neiderhiser is interested in understanding the interplay between genes and environment throughout the lifespan. The environmental influences that she has examined most closely are interpersonal relationships – including parent-child, spouse, sibling and peer relationships.
Examining how individuals influence their environments, in part because of their genetically-influenced characteristics (genotype-environment correlation), has been a primary focus of her work. The studies that have been used to examine these research questions include the following three sets of studies. The Nonshared Environment in Adolescent Development (NEAD) project and the Young Adult Sibling Study (YASS) is a longitudinal study of 720 twin and sibling pairs in two parent families with both parents and both twins/siblings participating followed from when the twins/siblings were in middle adolescence to young adulthood. The Twin/Offspring Study in Sweden (TOSS) is a study of 909 pairs of twin parents and includes linked twins who are parents, one adolescent child per twin and the spouse/partner of each twin. Finally, the Early Growth and Development Study (EGDS) is a prospective, longitudinal study of 561 sets of adopted children, their adoptive families and birth parents. All of these studies include extensive assessment of the environment within the household, interpersonal relationships, prenatal environment, adult and child adjustment, temperament and personality, and other related measures. DNA has also been collected or will be collected for these samples. Dr. Neiderhiser is also collaborating on other studies focused on examining gene-environment interplay in high-risk contexts and on social relationships and biomarkers across the lifespan.