Welcome to the Milestones Lab at Mizzou
We focus on questions about the development of emotions, personality, and identity for teens and young adults.
Questions We Tend to Ask
We get excited about a lot of big ideas, including some of the following:
How do people come to understand themselves and their place in the world?
We often use life storytelling to give people the chance to show us what events in their lives are important and how they make sense of those experiences?
How do family experiences shape the major leaps in teen and adult development?
We look at experiences within families, as well as people’s expressed memories about their families to appreciate parent, sibling, and grandparent impacts over time.
How do people navigate important emotion experiences?
We look at “mundane” emotions, as well as emotions in response to major events like the impacts of COVID, to appreciate the development and importance of emotion skills.
Why does it matter that people differ in how they respond to events or act in different ways across family, school, and work?
People differ in important ways, whether in how they tend to experience emotions, problem-solve, and or make sense of their lives. We are always excited to try and capture these differences and the ways they inform development and success for people.
What is contributing to the big questions of “Who am I?” for teens and young adults?
The teen and early adult years are major periods for figuring out identity and the kinds of roles, goals, and values that people want to be defined by. We look at what contributes to identity and the ways identity predicts ongoing life milestones and success.
How do these aspects of development play a role in other areas of functioning and success for teens and adults?
In addition to general questions that excite us about development, we are interested in how our findings inform success in school, work, and with family functioning.
“I’m always proud of the work our team is doing, the questions they pursue, and the relevance our findings can have for families and individuals across mid-Missouri and beyond.“
Jordan A. Booker, PhD
Director of the Milestones Lab
The Milestones Lab at Mizzou 