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
CURRICULUM VITAE click to view

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.

Holden, G.W., Vittrup, B., & Rosen, L. (in press). Families, parenting, and discipline. In M. Underwood & L. Rosen (Eds.), Social development. New York: Guilford Press.

Newman, M. L., Holden, G. W., & Delville, Y. (in press). Coping With the Stress of Being Bullied: Consequences of Coping Strategies Among College Students. Social Psychological and Personality Science.

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). Exploring the impact of educational television and parent-child discussions on Children's Racial Attitudes. Analyses of Social Issues and Public Policy, 10, 192-214.

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 childrearing and the risk of physical child abuse. Journal of Partner Abuse, 1, 186-199.

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

Holden, G.W., & Vittrup, B. (2010). Religion. In M. H. Bornstein (Ed.) Handbook of cross-cultural developmental science. New York: Psychology Press.