Playing for Change
Jennifer Skeem, Professor
Social Welfare
Applications for Spring 2026 are closed for this project.
Risk-Resilience Research (RRR) is a fun, dynamic, interdisciplinary team of students, staff, and scholars at the University of California, Berkeley. Our mission is to improve justice, safety, and well-being for people and communities at risk, through policy-relevant research. The RRR lab is directed by Professor Jennifer Skeem, a psychologist affiliated with the Goldman School of Public Policy and School of Social Welfare. For more about us and our work, please see: http://risk-resilience.berkeley.edu/
In our Playing for Change project, we have partnered with local youth agencies and schools, and international experts to build a fun and helpful game to prevent aggression and promote prosocial development that can expand the reach of current prevention efforts. We are currently conducting an RCT to test its fun and effectiveness.
See this video clip about our work:
https://tinyurl.com/P4Csummary
Role: We are looking for a student Research Assistant (RA) to join our team. The student RA will assist and support RRR faculty and staff on the Playing for Change project. This study involves working with local youth (9-12 years old) to implement and evaluate a videogame-supported afterschool program designed to prevent aggression and promote positive development among early adolescents.
A significant portion of this role involves fieldwork, where the RA will engage directly with youth in various school settings. Responsibilities include assisting in the implementation of a highly structured group intervention. This includes supporting the lead facilitator by supervising gaming sessions, troubleshooting technical issues, and supporting with classroom management. Additionally, the student RA will assist in tournaments, collaborating closely with other team members while interacting with up to 14 youths in competitive environments
Other duties may include data entry, data coding, assistance with administrative tasks and other duties related to the project as required.
Qualifications: Applicants must have a good GPA and relevant interests. They should be interested in involvement in our lab, including professional development activities, that can contribute to successful graduate school applications. Requires 8-10 hours/week availability. Student RAs need to be available for at least two of the following time periods: Monday (1:00 PM - 5:15 PM), Wednesday (11:30 PM - 4:00 PM)
Day-to-day supervisor for this project: Dr Sharon Farrell, Executive Director, Staff Researcher
Hours: 9-11 hrs
Off-Campus Research Site: Accompanying team members to local schools will be required (schools TBD).
Related website: https://risk-resilience.berkeley.edu/
Social Sciences