Lene Arnett Jensen and Jeffrey Jensen Arnett coauthor textbooks on child, adolescent, and lifespan development that examine development through the amazing range of human cultural diversity. As dedicated teachers and researchers, the author team continuously updates their texts to encompass the most important new scientific findings and to convey those findings in ways that promote student engagement and deep learning.
Their textbooks Human Development: A Cultural Approach and Adolescence and Emerging Adulthood: A Cultural Approach are the recipients of Textbook Excellence Awards from the Textbook and Academic Authors Association.
Child Development: A Cultural Approach, 4e will be available at the outset of 2027.
Why the frog on the cover of the texts?
The Chinese have an expression that loosely translates as “the frog in the well knows not the great ocean,” and it is often used as a cautionary reminder to look beyond our own experience and not assume that what is true for ourselves is true for everyone else as well. All of us are like that frog, in a way. We’ve grown up in a certain culture (or cultures). We’ve learned to think about life in a certain way. And most of us don’t realize how broad and diverse our world really is. The goal of our texts is to rise out of the well together, by taking a cultural approach to understanding development.
Watch a 3-minute video where Lene Jensen and Jeffrey Arnett describe their cultural approach and use of interactive digital technology (Revel) to encourage active and thoughtful student learning.
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Arnett, J. J., & Jensen, L. A. (2024). Adolescence and Emerging Adulthood: A Cultural Approach, 7e. Pearson.
This leading adolescent textbook features research from brain development to globalization, from gender identities to mental health, from effects of Covid to effects of social media, and much more. The 7e includes 30 new videos, and now each chapter starts with a video where diverse adolescents give vivid insight into their lives. Breaking Developments (in Revel) is regularly updated with ground-breaking new research.
Jensen, L. A., & Arnett, J. J. (2020). Child Development: A Cultural Approach, 3e. Pearson.
The expanded and reimagined third edition of this chronologically-organized text brings it completely up-to-date with today’s research and instructor expectations. It covers the full scope of contemporary child development from conception through emerging adulthood, including two new chapters on early and late adolescence. It also includes a new chapter on “The Future of Child Development” that forecasts some of the most important changes in children’s lives in our rapidly changing global world. The interactive digital version of the print text (Revel) helps students learn in a deep and engaged way through a variety of features such as self-assessments, online class discussion, learning objectives that are tied to summaries, and new videos and interactive figures designed by the authors to carefully fit the content of the text.
Given the popularity of the third edition, a fourth edition will be published at the outset of 2027.
Arnett, J. J., & Jensen, L. A. (2026). Human Development: A Cultural Approach, 4e. Pearson.
The fourth edition of this best-selling textbook presents a portrayal of development that covers the whole amazing range of human cultural diversity. There are new videos, interactive figures and maps, journaling questions, and opportunities to apply new knowledge.
Jensen, L. A., & Arnett, J. J. (2018). Child Development Worldwide: A Cultural Approach, 1e. Pearson.
Each chapter in this topically-organized text casts a vivid light on children’s development. This first edition takes an unprecedented approach in several ways. Unlike other texts, it aims for readers to think culturally about development; it covers the full scope of contemporary child development from conception through emerging adulthood; and it includes highly diverse contexts of development such as school, work, and media. The interactive digital version of the print text inaugurates a “Breaking Developments” feature (uploaded every January and July) that provides succinct summaries of landmark new research and cultural trends.