Elizabeth Gershoff is a developmental psychologist who studies how parenting generally and discipline in particular affect children's development. She is interested in how parenting affects children differently within contexts of poverty and low income, neighborhoods, schools, and culture. She is also interested in associations between children's exposures to various forms of violence (from parents, communities, and terrorism) and their mental health and risk behaviors.

Gershoff is PI on an NICHD grant examining the dynamic effects of income and material hardship on parents and children over time; co-investigator on a CDC-funded project examining the long-term effectiveness of a school-based violence prevention program; and co-investigator on an NIMH-funded project identifying the developmental outcomes for children with comorbid depression and conduct disorder. Her research combines longitudinal and hierarchical methods for understanding the dynamic and multilayered contexts of children's lives.