George W. Holden
Professor of Psychology
Ph.D., University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 1984

TEL 214.768.4696
EMAIL gholden (add @smu.edu to all email addresses)
OFFICE 311A Hyer Hall

Dr. Holden has been the recent Chair of an international conference to end corporal punishment: GLOBAL SUMMIT on ENDING CORPORAL PUNISHMENT and PROMOTING POSITIVE DISCIPLINE, JUNE 2-4, 2011, DALLAS, TX. Click to view conference website complete with videos, PowePpoint presentations, posters, photographs, conference details and outcomes.

The Holden lab focuses on understanding the determinants and significance of the parent-child relationship in development. Much of the work conducted in this lab has addressed the proximate causes of parental behavior with an emphasis on parental social cognition. For example, we have investigated parental attitudes and thinking as it relates to parental use of physical punishment. We are currently examining parental yelling from both the parents’ and children’s perspective. A second but closely related area of research concerns the causes and effects of family violence, including how intimate partner violence affects parenting and children’s development.

Tamm, L., Holden, G.W., Nakonezny, P.A., Swart, S., & Hughes, C.W. (2012). Metaparenting: Associations with parenting stress, child-rearing practices, and retention in parents of children at risk for ADHD. ADHD Attention Deficit and Hyperactivity Disorders, 4, 1-10.

Holden, G.W. (2012). Discipline and punishment. In Oxford Bibliographies Online: Childhood studies. H. Montgomery (Ed.). New York: Oxford University Press. http://oxfordbibliographiesonline.com/

Ellison, C.G., Musick, M.A., & Holden, G.W. (2011). Does conservative Protestantism moderate the association between corporal punishment and child outcomes? Journal of Marriage and Family, 73, 946-961.

Newman, M.L., Holden, G.W., & Delville, Y. (2011). Coping with the stress of being bullied: Consequences of coping strategies among college students. Social Psychological and Personality Science, 2, 205-211.

Holden, G.W., Vittrup, B., & Rosen, L.H. (2011). Families, parenting, and discipline. In M. K. Underwood & L. H. Rosen (Eds.), Social development: Relationships in infancy, childhood, and adolescence (pp. 127-152). New York: Guilford Press.

Holden, G.W. (2010). Childrearing and developmental trajectories: Positive pathways, off-ramps, and dynamic processes. Child Development Perspectives, 4, 197-204.

Vittrup, B., & Holden, G.W. (2010). Children’s assessments of corporal punishment and other disciplinary practices: The role of age, race, SES, and exposure to spanking. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 31, 211-220.

Holden, G.W., Barker, E. D., Appel, A., & Hazlewood, L. (2010). Partner-abusers as fathers: Testing hypotheses about their child rearing and the risk of physical child abuse. Partner Abuse, 1, 186-199.

Holden, G. W. (2010). Parenting: A dynamic perspective. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.