Dr. Grolnick received a B.A. from Cornell University in 1981, and an M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Rochester in 1984 and 1987, respectively. She has been at Clark since 1991.

Dr. Grolnick is interested in motivational development in children and adolescents. Her research focuses on how social contexts (e.g., homes, schools) facilitate children’s autonomous motivation, in which they regulate their own behavior and feel agentic with respect to it. She is currently exploring how parenting, on dimensions of autonomy support to control, involvement, and structure, predicts children’s autonomous motivation, competence, and adjustment. She is also focusing on factors (e.g., parent attitudes and beliefs, stress and support, evaluative environments) that help or hinder parents’ abilities to provide parenting resources to their children. Dr. Grolnick is currently developing a parenting intervention designed to prevent motivational and behavioral problems in school-age children. Dr. Grolnick’s work has been funded by the National Institute of Mental Health, the William T. Grant Foundation, and the Spencer Foundation. Dr. Grolnick teaches courses in motivation, child development, and psychopathology.