Governments struggle to support positive, engaged fatherhood. Macroeconomics and political science might help explain what’s delaying policy reform. Fatherhood is central to raising children well.…
Jack O'SullivanDecember 2018
Latest Research
Articles from leading researchers, knowledge updates and more.
The 2006 family law reforms in Australia heralded a shift towards more sharing of care after divorce. Family law reforms that occurred in Australia in…
The EditorNovember 2018
Trying out what grown-ups do wins out with preschoolers over pretend play with toys - and it’s likely better for child development. Child-raising and early…
Child and Family Blog EditorOctober 2018
A review of 11 well-designed empirical studies of shared parenting in the context of high parental conflict recommends more attention to supporting parenting quality on…
The EditorOctober 2018
Science can now confirm, albeit cautiously, that the best interests of children are commensurate with a legal presumption of shared parenting after divorce. In the…
The EditorOctober 2018
“Educators, parents and policy makers should all be concerned at the rapid decline in unsupervised free play for children, which may damage early child development and later social and emotional learning.”
Stuart BrownFounder and President of National Institute for Play, California, USA
Modern cognitive development theory emphasises relationships, seeing social interaction as the crucible in which children’s cognitive development takes place. Cognitive development theory: a relational approach…
Child and Family Blog EditorOctober 2018
When social emotional development has proceeded well, children develop self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills and responsible decision-making at school, at home, and in the…
Child and Family Blog EditorOctober 2018
Piaget’s Stages of Cognitive Development as part of his theory have had a monumental impact on contemporary child developmental psychology. Jean Piaget’s Stages of Cognitive…
Child and Family Blog EditorOctober 2018
Mothers and fathers convey gender stereotypes when parenting. Conditioning early childhood by gender has long-term influences on social development. Judi Mesman and Marleen Groeneveld at…
The EditorOctober 2018
An Assorted Pick
A global review of 60 studies challenges the claim that joint physical custody reduces the effect of divorce on child development only in low-conflict situations.…
Do children really benefit from shared parenting after divorce? The experts say yes: over 50 recent studies have demonstrated this. In 2017, 12 global expert…
A systematic review of research on different forms of animal-assisted therapy for children and adolescents has found promising early results, but the research is far…
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Social scientists urge more priority to protecting the parent-child relationship to limit the effects of divorce on children