Want to learn more about how current research connects to parenting? Listed below are numerous research briefs summarizing topics related to parenting and families.

Featured Research Briefs

Parenting and Child Learning: This research brief highlights findings from the Parenting and Child Learning: The Role of Parental Beliefs about Child Learning and Language Development project.  This project examines the ways in which young children’s play with certain types of toys promotes learning and cognitive development.  Caregivers’ beliefs about early learning, their rationale for toy selections, and interactions with their toddlers in a play session were assessed. Results highlight the relation among parental beliefs about learning, access to quality toys and child learning.

How to Engage More Men in Future Parenting Programs: This brief gives and overview of men who attend CCE parent education programs and provides tactic for helping to engage them.

Better Understanding Fathers: An Overview of Fatherhood Trends and Common Issues Fathers Face: This brief discusses national fathering trends and provides an overview of various issues that different types of fathers encounter.

Why Spanking Should Be Discouraged: This brief reviews recent research about the effectiveness and ethics of using spanking as a disciplinary tool for children. Also available in Spanish.

Parenting a Child with Autism Spectrum Disorder: What is the Latest Research?: This brief describes recent research about parenting children with autism.

Please email Julia Chapman (jc2933@cornell.edu) for any of the documents listed below:

Infants & Young Children

  • Maternal Employment and Child Well-Being
  • Games and Children's Brains: What is the Latest Research? 
  • Child Care Center Quality and Child Development

Teens & Pre-Teens

  • Parenting Styles and Adolescents
  • What's New: Parenting and Adolescent Development

Kinship Care

  • Multigenerational Relationships in Grandfamilies
  • Biological Parents and Kinship Care: It's Complicated!! Research and tips to support families
  • Grandparent Caregivers and Teens in New York State
  • Kinship Care and Communication
  • The Benefits of Parenting a Second Time Around
  • Characteristics of Relative Caregivers and Children in Their Care
  • Grandparents as Caregivers
  • The Hudson Valley Regional Relatives as Parents Program

Research to Practice

Parent-Child Reading Time and Child Reading Scores: This brief summarizes new research that links increased shared reading time to improved child reading scores and discusses outcomes relevant to CCE parent education programs.

Other Research Brief Topics

  • Do Family Meals Really Make a Difference?
  • Children of Incarcerated Parents
  • The Impact of Couples-Based Interventions on Families
  • Sleep and Children's Weight
  • Characteristics of Cohabiting Families
  • An Educator's Guide to Family Literacy

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