Mahmut Sami Gurdal

Mahmut is a Ph.D. student in the Department of Human Development and Family Science at Virginia Tech. He received his M.S. in Human Development in Spring 2024. His research interests center on understanding the influences of technology on children’s development within the family context.

Mahmut is currently focusing on examining various parental factors that contributed to children’s screen use as parents play a seminal role in young children’s media exposure. Specifically, he investigates how both parental and child self-regulation—including emotional, behavioral, and cognitive aspects—affect parental and child screen use as well as how parental and child screen use, in turn, impact their self-regulation skills. Furthermore, he examines the effects of media interactivity, content, and context of screen media use on these relations.

Mahmut is currently working as a graduate research assistant supporting projects within the Cognitive Developmental Science Lab and the Child Development Center for Learning and Research at Virginia Tech.

Reach him online!
mahmutgurdal.github.io  |  linkedin.com/in/msgurdal  |  twitter.com/msamigurdal  |  msgurdal@vt.edu