Toni Falbo is a Professor in the Department of Educational Psychology and a Faculty Research Associate of Population Research Center at the University of Texas at Austin. Falbo earned the status of Fellow of the American Psychological Association in 1982 and Fellow of the Society for Experimental Social Psychology in 2009. She has served as President of Division 34 (Society for Environmental, Population, and Conservation Psychology) of the American Psychological Association and as President of the Southwestern Psychological Association. In 2007 she won the Newman-Proshansky Award from Division 34 for her contribution to the field of Population Psychology.
Falbo is most well-known for her research about sibling effects on a variety of outcomes, including academic achievement, psychological adjustment, and loneliness. Since 1978, she has published 38 journal articles and chapters about sibling effects, examining these effects within child, adolescent, adult, and elderly populations. She is internationally recognized as a leading expert on only children, including Chinese only children. In addition, Falbo has made significant contributions to the study of ethnic minority education and cross-cultural research. For example, in 1996 she published Latino High School Graduation, with Harriett D. Romo, and most recently she published an article comparing the family obligation values of Korean and American college students.
Falbo runs the Social Psychology and Human Development Lab: Siblings, Family & Culture.
Ph.D. in Social Psychology, University of California, Los Angeles, 1973
M.A. in Psychology, University of California, Los Angeles, 1969
B.A. in Psychology, George Washington University, 1968
Falbo uses both quantitative and qualitative methodologies to address problems in education and health. She is an internationally recognized expert on only children, including their academic, social, emotional, and health outcomes. Falbo is also an expert on conducting cross-cultural research and research aimed at improving the education of ethnic minorities in the U.S.
Interim Graduate Advisor, Department of Educational Psychology(2018 - 2020)
Chair, Graduate Studies Committee, Educational Psychology Department(2013 - 2018)
Faculty Advisor, Hogg Foundation for Mental Health(1992 - 1994)
President, Division 34 (Society for Environmental, Population, and Conservation Psychology), American Psychological Association(1984 - 1985)
President, Southwestern Psychological Association(1983)
Departmenal Review Committee, Institutional Review Board, University of Texas
Oh, H., Falbo, T. & Lee, K. (2020). Culture moderates the relationships between family obligation values and the outcomes of Korean and European American college students. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 51(6), 511–525. doi:10.1177/0022022120933682.
Falbo, T. & Lin, S. (2020). Birth Order. Encyclopedia of Creativity (3ed., Vol. 1, pp. 129–133): Elsevier. doi:10.1016/B978-0-12-809324-5.23745-0.
Falbo, T. & Rodgers, J.L. (2019). Population Psychology. Handbook of Population (2ed., pp. 499–520): Springer.
Falbo, T. (2018). Evaluations of the behavioral attributes of only children in Beijing, China: moderating effects of gender and the one-child policy. Heliyon, 4(4). doi:10.1016/j.heliyon.2018.e00607..
Falbo, T. & Hooper, S.Y. (2015). Chinas Only Children and Psychopathology: A quantitative synthesis. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 85(3), 259–274. doi:10.1037/ort0000058.
Lin, S.L., Falbo, T., Qu, W., Wang, Y. & Feng, X. (n.d.). Chinese Only Children and Loneliness: Stereotypes and Realities (in press). American Journal of Orthopsychiatry.
Loneliness (2015-present)
Project with Yidan Wang; Collecting data from two Chinese middle schools comparing the loneliness of only children to that of their peers with siblings. We have analyzed both quantitative and qualitative data, and have found moderators of only-child loneliness.
Reactions to One-Child Parents (2016-present)
Project with Yiwen Yang, Shengjie Lin, and Huajian Gao; conducting six experiments to study reactions to young adults who choose to have two or one child.
Critical Comparisons (2018-present)
Project with Yiwen Yang; Conducting research about how parents use social comparison comments in responding to their adolescents behavior in Chengdu, China, and the effect of these comments on adolescents moods and motivation.
Shame (2016-present)
Project with Yidan Wang; studying the experience of shame for Chinese college students, and the effect of shame on academic motivation.
Perfectionism (2015-present)
Project with Shengjie Lin; studying cultural variations in the meaning, antecedents, and consequences of perfectionism.
Obesity (2019-present)
Project with Shengjie Lin; conducting research about sibling effects on obesity among U.S. adolescents, using Add Health data, a longitudinal study of adolescent and adult health. We have found that only children have higher Body Mass Indices than their peers with siblings, an effect probably caused by their greater consumption of fast food and more screen time.
Newman-Proshansky Award, American Psychological Association Division 34 (Population and Environmental Psychology) (2007)
Yiwen Yang (Supervisor)My current interest of research focus on social comparisons among middle/high school adolescents and their parents. My research aims to understand if theres any association between parents use of critical comparison and students psychological and behavioral outcomes. I did interviews with middle and high school students in Chengdu, China on their parents use of critical comparisons and consequential results. Im now collecting and analyzing survey data on this project. Another part of my research is...
Huajian Gao (Supervisor)Huajian Gao's current research interests focus on understanding social emotional development in childhood and adolescence across family systems. He is now working on a study to investigate how overprotective parents influence emerging adults emotional autonomy development and their feeling of loneliness and aloneness.
Courses by year and semesterYear | Semester | Course |
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2024 | Spring | EDP 382C: 2-Social Psychology |
2024 | Spring | EDP 350G: Adolescent Development |
2023 | Fall | EDP 382C: Social Psychology Of Siblings |
2023 | Fall | EDP 350G: Adolescent Development |
2023 | Spring | EDP 382C: 2-Social Psychology |
2023 | Spring | EDP 350G: Adolescent Development |
2022 | Fall | EDP 382C: 2-Social Psychology |
2022 | Fall | EDP 350G: Adolescent Development |
2022 | Spring | EDP 382C: 2-Social Psychology |
2022 | Spring | EDP 350G: Adolescent Development |
2021 | Fall | EDP 350G: Adolescent Development |
2021 | Spring | EDP 382C: 2-Social Psychology-Wb |
2020 | Fall | EDP 381C: 6-Literature/Rsrch Synth-Wb |
2020 | Fall | EDP 350G: Adolescent Development-Wb |
2020 | Spring | EDP 382C: 2-Social Psychology |
2019 | Fall | EDP 382C: 2-Social Psychology |
2019 | Fall | EDP 350G: Adolescent Development |
2019 | Spring | EDP 382C: 2-Social Psychology |
2018 | Fall | EDP 382C: 4-Families & Ed In Three Culs |
2018 | Fall | EDP 350G: Adolescent Development |
2018 | Spring | EDP 382C: 2-Social Psychology |
2018 | Spring | EDP 350G: Adolescent Development |
2017 | Fall | EDP 382C: 2-Social Psychology |
2017 | Fall | EDP 350G: Adolescent Development |
2017 | Spring | EDP 363M: 3-Adolescent Development |
2016 | Fall | EDP 363M: 3-Adolescent Development |
2016 | Fall | EDP 382C: 2-Social Psychology |
2016 | Spring | EDP 382C: 2-Social Psychology |
2016 | Spring | EDP 363M: 3-Adolescent Development |
2015 | Fall | EDP 382C: 2-Social Psychology |
2015 | Fall | EDP 363M: 3-Adolescent Development |
2015 | Spring | EDP 363M: 3-Adolescent Development |
2014 | Fall | EDP 381M: 2-Seminar In Social Psychology |
2014 | Fall | EDP 363M: 3-Adolescent Development |
2014 | Spring | EDP 363M: 3-Adolescent Development |
2014 | Spring | EDP 381M: 2-Seminar In Social Psychology |