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In September 2016, the United Nations adopted Sustainable Development Goals. The goals are a global consensus for supporting individuals in all countries. Goals include improving nutrition and health, ending poverty, promoting education, and achieving gender equality.

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In its early years, the study of human development was based on laboratory research devoted to uncovering universal aspects of development by stripping away contextual influences. This basic research was designed to examine how development unfolds, with the assumption that development is a universal process with all people changing in similar ways and in similar timeframes. In the early 1980s, influenced by contextual theories (such as Bronfenbrenner’s bioecological approach) and the growing assumption that people are active in their development (a cornerstone of lifespan developmental theory), developmental scientists began to examine developmental processes outside of the laboratory (Lerner, Johnson, & Buckingham, 2015). It quickly became apparent that there are a great many individual differences in development and that development varies with a myriad of contextual influences. The field of applied developmental science emerged, studying individuals within the contexts in which they live and applying research findings to improve people’s lives.

Research in human development is now directed toward understanding social problems and issues of immediate social relevance, such as the capacities of preterm infants, children’s ability to provide eyewitness testimony, adolescent sexual practices, and the impact of disability on the psychological and social adjustment of older adults and their adult children (Fisher, Busch-Rossnagel, Jopp, & Brown, 2013; Lerner, 2012). Applied developmental research often raises ethical questions. For example, sometimes seeking consent from parents may interfere with a researcher’s goals or may pose risks to minor participants. For example, in one study, lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender (LGBT) adolescents believed that participating in research on sexuality and health is important for advancing science, yet indicated that they would not participate if guardian permission were required, citing negative parental attitudes or not being “out” about their LBGT identity (Macapagal, Coventry, Arbeit, Fisher, & Mustanski, 2017). As one 15-year-old bisexual participant explained,

I believe it could harm some [teens] because the risk of being let out of the closet. I know some people whose family would not approve of any other sexuality [other than heterosexuality]. Such as my own, my mother would turn on me for not being her perfect image.

In response to these ethical challenges, researchers frequently obtain passive consent for conducting research on sensitive topics with adolescents. Passive consent procedures typically involve notifying parents about the research and requiring them to reply if they do not want their child to participate.

Applied developmental science is a multidisciplinary field that unites scientists from around the world to examine and contribute to policies on issues that affect children, adolescents, adults, and their families, such as health and health care delivery, violence, school failure. For example, they might study contextual influences such as the impact of environmental contaminants or poor access to clean water on development or the ways in which poverty influences children’s development and economic status in adulthood (Aizer, 2017; Gauvain, 2018; Golinkoff, Hirsh-Pasek, Grob, & Schlesinger, 2017; Huston, 2018).

In September 2016, the member states of the United Nations defined and adopted Sustainable Development Goals, a global consensus on 17 goals for supporting individuals and ensuring equity and health in all countries (United Nations General Assembly, 2015). Sample goals include ending poverty in all its forms everywhere; improving nutrition, health, and well-being for all people; promoting education and lifelong learning opportunities; and achieving gender equality and empowering all women and girls. The goals are broad in scope, and reaching them will require the knowledge and skills of applied developmental scientist researchers and practitioners from many disciplines working in interdisciplinary teams (Gauvain, 2018).