Research Topic

Families and Parenting

Family relationships influence child development from infancy to adulthood. CCFP researchers examine how biological, cultural and familial processes, practices, and characteristics impact child and youth development both in the US and around the world. Our teams also develop programs and services and work to affect systems change to ensure that families and parents have the supports they need to provide safe, stable, nurturing relationships for their children.

Latest Research

Videos

Co-Regulation: What It Is and Why it Matters

Short video on co-regulation, the interactive process by which caring adults (1) provide warm supportive relationships, (2) promote self-regulation through coaching, modeling, and feedback, and (3) structure supportive environments.

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Book Chapter

The Parenting of Adolescents and Young Adults in the United States

In the APA Handbook of Adolescent and Young Adult Development, Drew Rothenberg and co-authors focus on the parenting of adolescents and young adults in the United States. First considering some of the sociodemographic trends that are reshaping families, then examining classic social learning and behavioral approaches to conceptualizing the parenting of adolescents as well as family systems approaches.

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Book Chapter

An International Perspective on Parenting and Family Influences on Adolescents and Young Adults

In the APA Handbook of Adolescent and Young Adult Development, Jen Lansford and co-authors discuss how parents and their adolescent and young adult offspring observe and participate in parent–offspring interactions in their communities and hold expectations about their own relationships derived in part from culturally shaped expectations.

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Jennifer Lansford

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Carolyn Barnes

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Anna Gassman-Pines

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Lisa Gennetian

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Christina Gibson-Davis

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Marcos Rangel

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Ann Skinner

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Drew Rothenberg

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Jennifer Godwin

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Helen Milojevich

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Durham Navigation Study

The Durham Navigation Study is a randomized control trial to evaluate the impact of Community Navigation on outcomes for young children and their families.

learn more about Durham Navigation Study
learn more about Durham Navigation Study

Child and Adolescent Predictors of Young Adults’ and Their Parents’ Primals in Nine Countries

This study provides an unprecedented opportunity to understand whether and how primals in early adulthood are predicted by childhood and adolescent experiences and how parents’ primals are related to their young adult children’s primals in the most diverse long-term longitudinal study ever conducted.

learn more about Child and Adolescent Predictors of Young Adults’ and Their Parents’ Primals in Nine Countries
learn more about Child and Adolescent Predictors of Young Adults’ and Their Parents’ Primals in Nine Countries

Baby’s First Years Study

Baby’s First Years is a pathbreaking study of the causal impact of monthly, unconditional cash gifts to low-income mothers and their children in the first three years of the child’s life. The cash gifts are funded through charitable foundations. The study will identify whether reducing poverty can affect early childhood development and the family processes that support children’s development.

learn more about Baby’s First Years Study
learn more about Baby’s First Years Study
January 1, 2023
Journal Articles

The HOME-21: A Revised Measure of the Home Environment for the 21st Century Tested in Two Independent Samples

To reflect historical changes in family composition, gender roles and division of childcare, norms about the acceptability of different forms of discipline, and the digital environment in which children live, this report presents the HOME-21, a revised version of the Home Observation for Measurement of the Environment–Short Form, which has been the most widely used measure of children’s home environments for decades.

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December 26, 2022
Videos

Why Are My Parents So Annoying?

CrowdScience listener Ilixo, age 11, has been wondering why it is that our parents become so annoying as we become teenagers. Is it something that is changing in his brain or are they actually becoming more annoying as they age? Presenter Marnie Chesterton consults our assembled panel of experts, including Jennifer Lansford, a Research Professor at Duke University who studies parenting and child development.

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December 24, 2022
Journal Articles

Predicting Child Aggression: The Role of Parent and Child Endorsement of Reactive Aggression Across 13 Cultural Groups in 9 Nations

Parent and child endorsement of reactive aggression both predict the emergence of child aggression, but they are rarely studied together and in longitudinal contexts. The present study does so by examining the unique predictive effects of parent and child endorsement of reactive aggression at age 8 on child aggression at age 9 in 1456 children from 13 cultural groups in 9 nations.

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December 20, 2022
Research Brief

Practitioners in North Carolina’s TANF and Related Income Assistance Programs Offer Perspectives on Latino Families’ Experiences

This brief is part of a series to examine state-level policies that relate to social service and safety net programs and the ways in which state and federal policy implementation at the local level may affect the reach of program benefits among Latino families.

learn more about Practitioners in North Carolina’s TANF and Related Income Assistance Programs Offer Perspectives on Latino Families’ Experiences