Current Research
Dr. Lippold has a new website.
For more information please visit
healthy-family-research.org
Currently I am working on research projects in three areas:
Parenting and the prevention of risky behaviors during adolescence and young adulthood
Through my research, I aim to identify parenting behaviors and combinations of parenting behaviors that promote positive youth mental health and prevent poor mental health and risky behavior such as substance use and delinquency. Much of this work has focused on parenting during key developmental periods, such as the transition to adolescence or the transition to adulthood-- critical periods where parenting may have long-term implications for youth development. I have used a variety of methods and approaches- aiming to understand the long-term (across years; Lippold et al., in press, 2021, 2020) and short term (across days) associations between parenting and youth outcomes (Lippold et al., 2016, Fosco et al, 2019). Our team is currently gathering and analyzing pilot data to examine how parents may help promote youth well-being and prevent risky behavior during emerging adulthood, a critical yet understudied time period. We are also conducting a systematic review of parenting and mental health and substance use among LGBTQ youth- a group that experiences high stress from discrimination and is at high-risk for mental health and substance use challenges. These studies aim to identify key targets for family-based prevention programs that reduce youth risk for substance use, delinquency, and mental health challenges.
Family stress and coping
In a series of studies, we are examining how parenting and parent-child relationships may be linked to youth and parent stress, and disruptions in their stress-related physiology (the HPA axis). These studies have highlighted the key role that negative parent-child interactions may play in disrupting their child's physiological stress-system (Lippold et al., 2016; Lippold et al, 2015) and also how positive parenting may buffer youth from the negative effects of stress on their physical health (Lippold et al., 2016). In recent work, we examined the transmission of stress between parents and their children (assessed via the parent-child covariation of cortisol, a stress hormone). Findings suggest that the transmission of physiological stress between parents and children is primarily child-driven: Child cortisol predicted parent cortisol but not vice versa (Lippold et al., 2021; Lippold et al, in press). We are currently expanding these models to understand how child experiences affect parent cortisol. We are also gathering data on parenting and youth stress and coping during the transition to young adulthood.
Predictors of parenting
Lastly, I am identifying targets for family-based interventions by investigating parent and child characteristics that may influence their parenting behaviors. Specifically, my work has focused on how parent factors, such as parent cognitions of efficacy and competence (Lippold et al., 2018; 2021), as well as their ability to maintain mindful awareness, compassion, and nonjudgmental acceptance (i.e., mindfully parent) may affect parenting behaviors and the parent-child relationship (Lippold, Duncan et al, 2016; Lippold et al., 2021). We have also examined the effects of child behaviors on parent behaviors, finding evidence that child characteristics, such as child externalizing and internalizing problems, can affect parenting behavior (Lansford et al., 2018; Lippold et al., 2019). We are currently working on projects that examine several key predictors of parenting behavior including family cultural values and parent technology use.