| Nancy Darling | |
| Education: | BS, 1981, MS, 1987, PhD, developmental psychology, 1990, Cornell University |
| Thesis Title: | Control beliefs during early adolescence: a comparison of the niche formation and socialization models of development |
| Thesis Year: | 1990 |
| Workplaces: | Oberlin College Bard College Penn State University Dickinson College |
Nancy Ellen Darling is an American psychologist. She is the William and Jeannette Smith Chair of psychology at Oberlin College, editor-in-chief of the Journal of Adolescence, and founder of 1step2life.
Darling is of German ancestry; her maternal grandparents arrived in the United States between World War I and World War II.[1] She earned her Bachelor of Science degree, Master's degree, and PhD from Cornell University.[2] Upon completing her doctoral degree, she joined the faculty of psychology at Temple University for her post-doc fellowship until 1993.[3]
Darling joined the faculty at Dickinson College following her post-doc fellowship for two years before accepting a position at Penn State University (PSU).[3] While at PSU, she collaborated with Linda Caldwell to develop the "Structure of Adolescent Leisure" project, which allowed undergraduates to enter multi-disciplinary field research.[4] Darling later authored a study published in the Journal of Youth and Adolescence which concluded that young boys were more vulnerable when it comes to dating.[5] She left PSU in 2000 to accept an associate professor position with Bard College's psychology faculty.[3] During her short tenure at Bard, she co-published Theory, measurement, and methods in the study of family influences on adolescent smoking with Patricio Cumsille through the Addiction journal.[6] She also continued her focus on teenagers and lying and conducted a study which found that 98 percent of teenagers have lied to their parents.[7]
In 2005, Darling transferred to Oberlin College in Ohio to accept an associate professor position in their psychology department.[3] While serving in this role, she was also appointed the newest editor-in-chief of the Journal of Adolescence.[8] In 2019, Darling and her research team received a $20,000 grant towards moving the web-based app 1step2life, which helps adolescents manage chronic pain, to be purchased through the iTunes App Store.[9]