Prior to his research career, David Yeager was a middle school teacher in Tulsa, Oklahoma. In his substantive area of research, he studies adolescent development, with a focus on aggression, stress, and academic achievement. His approach is to conduct longitudinal, randomized field experiments at key transitions (e.g., the transition to high school or college) to investigate the role of social cognitive processes in shaping adolescents' developmental trajectories. This is because he believes that one good way to understand a developmental system is to try to change it. In addition, he draws on qualitative and correlational methodologies to examine developmental phenomena. In his current research, he is investigating the psychological causes of A) adolescents' reactions to peer exclusion or victimization, and B) changes in academic performance among racial minority adolescents at the transition to high school or college. This research has appeared or is scheduled to appear in Child Development, Developmental Psychology, JEP:General, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Educational Psychologist, Review of Educational Research, the Journal of Adolescent Research, and other outlets.

In his methodological research, he investigates the psychology of asking and answering questions, so as to optimize the accuracy of self-reports. In addition, he evaluates the accuracy of methods for sampling survey respondents (e.g., random samples and non-probability samples of Internet volunteers). His methodological research has appeared or is scheduled to appear in Public Opinion Quarterly, Developmental Psychology, and Medical Care