Education

Dr. Finch received her Ph.D. in Developmental and Psychological Sciences from Stanford University’s Graduate School of Education. She holds bachelor's degrees in psychology and mathematics from Georgetown University. She joined the UNL Psychology faculty as part of the Developmental Psychology program in fall of 2018.

Research Interests

Dr. Finch directs the Learning and Development Research group. Her research explores how contextual factors influence children’s early development. Specifically, her work focuses on the development of children’s executive functions and motivation in home and school environments. Her past work has examined how family risk factors are linked to the development of children’s executive functions and social-emotional skills in both domestic and international settings. Currently, Dr. Finch is exploring how interactions with teachers and peers can support executive function development in early and middle childhood.

Please contact Dr. Finch regarding research opportunities if you are interested in getting involved!

Representative Publications:

For a full list of publications, please see the lab website.

* Denotes graduate mentee authors

• Finch, J. E., Kuo, P. X., & *Akhavein, K. (2025). Economic hardship and children’s cognitive outcomes during COVID-19: The Family Stress Model and the compensatory role of family cohesion. Journal of Family Psychology. 
• *Akhavein, K., Clark, C. A. C., Nelson, J. M., Espy, K. A. & Finch, J. E. (2025). Children’s arithmetic strategy use: The predictive roles of executive functions and socio-demographic characteristics. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 249, 106109. 
• Finch, J. E., Garcia, E. B., & Obradović, J. (2024). Back to school: Teachers’ initial perceptions of students’ executive function behaviors are important for teacher–student relationships and executive function development. Applied Developmental Science, 1–21. 
• Finch, J. E., Akhavein, K., Patwardhan, I., & Clark, C. A. C. (2023). Teachers’ self-efficacy and perceptions of school climate are uniquely associated with students’ externalizing and internalizing behavior problems. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 85, 101512. 
• Finch, J. E., Wolf, S., & Lichand, G. (2022) Executive functions and motivation uniquely predict children’s academic development in Côte d’Ivoire. Developmental Psychology, 58(12), 2287-2301.
• Finch, J. E. (2019). Do schools promote executive functions? Differential working memory growth across the school-year and summer months. AERA Open, 5(2), 1-14.
• Finch, J. E., & Obradović, J. (2017). Unique effects of socioeconomic and emotional parental challenges on children’s executive functions. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 52, 126-137.

Research Funding 

• National Science Foundation. CAREER: Self-regulation, Mathematics Achievement, and Mathematical Attitudes during the Third-Grade Transition in High-Poverty Schools (2440608, Principal Investigator). 2025 - 2030 (Active).
  • Read more about the COMET study.
• University of Nebraska–Lincoln Grand Challenges. Inspiring Outcomes for Children through Equitable Early Childhood Education Experiences (TransformED, Co-Investigator). 2023 - 2028 (Active).
  • Read more about the TransformED initiative.
• American Educational Research Association – National Science Foundation (AERA-NSF) Research Grant. All in a Day’s Work: The Effects of Daily Schooling Experiences on Children’s Executive Function Skills. 2023 - 2025 (Completed).