Child & Youth Development Minor

Minor Description

The Child & Youth Development Minor explores child and adolescent development across a range of social contexts, spanning early childhood into teenage years and emerging adulthood. This minor focuses on the diversity and richness of development in family, peer, school, and community contexts. Students will develop knowledge of human growth and development processes and theories from infancy through adolescence. Students will also develop and deepen skills as change agents to work against inequity in educational and community contexts. 

Why minor in Child & Youth Development?

Students who minor in Child & Youth Development are interested in:

  • Understanding human growth and development processes and theories from infancy through adolescence.
  • Exploring the rich and diverse context of development including family, school, community, culture, and digital media, as well as how individuals frame their own identities in these spaces.
  • Critically examining systems of marginalization that impact children and youth.
  • Developing social justice practices to work against inequity in educational and community contexts.

Academic Connections & Career Pathways 

The Child & Youth Development Minor provides foundational preparation for a wide range of careers and graduate programs.

Add the Child & Youth Development Minor to pursue these careers:

  • Applied Behavior Analysis
  • Child psychology or mental health counseling
  • Child life specialist work
  • Childcare, childcare center management
  • College teaching & academic research
  • Data & policy analysis and research
  • Early childhood education
  • Early intervention specialist work
  • EdTech, edutainment, or educational software development
  • Educational technology specialist work
  • Family support or liaising in the fields of healthcare or education
  • K-12 teaching (K-12 teaching requires certification)
  • K-12 student services
  • Library science
  • Pediatric medicine
  • Public health & health education
  • School psychology or school counseling
  • Social work
  • User Experience (UX) design
  • Youth development and after-school programming

The Child & Youth Development Minor is a great addition to any major, including: 

  • American & Ethnic Studies
  • Applied Computing
  • Biology
  • Business Administration
  • Computer Science & Software Engineering
  • Conservation & Restoration Science
  • Culture, Literature & the Arts
  • Data Visualization
  • Educational Studies
  • Educational Studies: Elementary Education Option
  • Gender, Women, & Sexuality Studies
  • Health Studies
  • Interdisciplinary Arts
  • Law, Economics & Public Policy
  • Media & Communication Studies
  • Psychology

Declaring the Minor

Students interested in the Child & Youth Development Minor should meet with their advisor to declare the minor as early as possible. 

Minor Requirements

To complete the Child & Youth Development Minor, students must complete 25 credits of Educational Studies coursework.

Required Coursework – 20 credits

  • B EDUC 402 Human Growth and Learning
  • B EDUC 451 Early Childhood Development
  • B EDUC 481 Adolescent Development
  • B EDUC 458 Emerging Adulthood

Elective Coursework – 5 credits

  • B EDUC 230 Culture, Knowledge & Education
  • B EDUC 250 Topics in Education & Popular Culture
  • B EDUC 255 Critical Diversity Studies
  • B EDUC 310 Theories of Learning, Culture & Identity
  • B EDUC 328 Diversity, Leadership, and Engagement
  • B EDUC 391 Special Topics in Education
  • B EDUC 403 Introduction to Special Education
  • B EDUC 441 Second Language Acquisition, Bilingual Education & the Structure of English
  • B EDUC 453 Children in Schools and Society
  • B EDUC 456 Adolescents in School and Society
  • B EDUC 461 Educational Implications of Gender Inequality
  • B EDUC 491 Special Topics in Education
  • BIS 222 Introduction to Human Sexuality
  • BISSTA 331 The Family in US Society

Minor Advising

Course Registration

Some Child & Youth Development Minor courses are restricted to students in SES majors for Registration Period I, but become available to all students from Registration Period II onwards. You can contact the academic advisor for the Child & Youth Development Minor for assistance with registration.

SES Policies & Petitions

SES undergraduate academic policies can be found on the policies page.

SES Course Petition

Minors may request that Child & Youth Development Minor-related courses from UW Bothell or other colleges/universities that are not on the pre-approved elective lists count toward minor requirements. These requests are considered on a case-by-case basis through the SES Course Petition. Students can submit an SES Petition on the policies page.