I am a professor of Psychology and a faculty affiliate of the Institute for Population Research. I am also a Fellow of the National Council on Family Relations and a member of the board of the Council on Contemporary Families.
I received my Ph.D. in Psychology (Developmental) from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2003. My undergraduate degree was also in Psychology from Northwestern University.
Scholarly Interests: coparenting, maternal gatekeeping, father-child relationships, transition to parenthood, child influences on family relationships
My research focuses on the family system as the primary context for young children’s socioemotional development. I have three central areas of interest: (1) coparenting relationships—how effectively adults within the family system coordinate their roles as parents—and the implications of the quality of coparenting relationships for child and family functioning; (2) the roles of fathers in the family system, particularly the roles of fathers within coparenting relationships; and (3) the effects of children’s characteristics and behavior on family relationships.