UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Daniel Max Crowley, assistant professor of human development and family studies and faculty affiliate of the Edna Bennett Pierce Prevention Research Center at Penn State, will present on the relationship between healthy child development and public spending to leaders at the Federal Reserve in Washington, D.C., on March 23.

The 2017 meeting, “The Economic Future of Kids and Communities,” will also feature remarks by Federal Reserve staff, including Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen, and will provide an opportunity for policymakers and community practitioners to learn about and glean lessons from high-quality and emerging research like Crowley’s.

The event will spotlight research that can inform questions about key drivers of success, differences across subpopulations, scalable intervention strategies, and policy considerations.

Crowley, who directs the Prevention Economic Planning and Research Labs at Penn State, will present research on the importance of early social and emotional competence and the value of taking preventive interventions to scale.

His talk will highlight findings demonstrating that upstream investments in strengthening self-regulation in children not only have the potential to improve health, education and public safety outcomes, but also reduce the burden on the nation’s economy.

“Our research indicates that investing in emotional self-regulation and social competencies in kindergarten can improve high school graduation, employability and reduce arrest rates into adulthood. This has important implications for how we finance our public systems,” Crowley said.