Shawna J Lee

• PhD, MSW, MPP, MS
• Professor (Associate) at University of Michigan

Emotions play an important role in fostering positive parenting and healthy child development. This qualitative study explored the affective experiences of racially diverse US fathers with low income across the prenatal, postnatal, and early childhood periods. Semi‐structured interviews were conducted with 24 fathers. Interview questions asked abou...

Children in low‐ and middle‐income countries (LMICs) are disproportionately at risk of not meeting their developmental potential. Parental discipline can promote and hinder child outcomes; however, little research examines how discipline interacts with contextual factors to predict child outcomes in LMICs. Using data from 208,156 households with ch...

Objectives This study describes the development, acceptability, and implementation of an interactive text messaging program to engage fathers enrolled in home visitation programs. Methods We used an iterative development approach that integrated rapid testing of intervention content with acceptability feedback from program participants to examine...

Objective: The goal of this study was to determine if parents view spanking as a form of hitting and view hitting children as more acceptable than hitting other family members, including dogs. Method: Parents of children 0–8 years of age from across the United States (N = 286; 85% White; 56% women) were recruited through Prolific to participate in...

Early in the COVID-19 pandemic, studies documented a marked decline in mental health and well-being when compared with prepandemic levels. This study examined how different coping styles were associated with anxiety, depression, and sleep problems among U.S. adults March–April 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic. Data from 535 U.S. adults across thre...

COVID-19 and its economic fallout have resulted in unprecedented financial insecurity and material hardship for many American families, with a disproportionately negative impact on children and families from socioeconomically disadvantaged contexts. The current study applied the family stress model to examine the family processes underlying pandemi...

Objectives To test associations between 11 caregiver aggressive and non-aggressive discipline behaviours and outcomes (aggression, distraction and prosocial peer relations) of children under 5 years in low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs). Participants Data came from the fourth (2009–2013) and fifth (2012–2017) rounds of the UNICEF Multi...

Objective Informed by the family systems theory, the current study aimed to examine whether shared parental responsiveness between fathers and mothers with low income was associated with preschoolers' developmental outcomes. Background Both fathers' and mothers' parental responsiveness are key contributors to their young children's development. Ho...

Purpose: This "From the Field" article reports on the Text4Dad text messaging intervention designed to engage fathers in home visiting. We introduce implementation process components from our pilot study across three Healthy Start home visitation sites. Description: Three Fatherhood Community Health Workers (F-CHWs) and three fathers from one Te...

Purpose The Family Stress Model was applied to examine the associations between material hardship, parental depressive symptoms, destructive interparental conflict, and parental emotional availability. This study contributes novel information to the literature by including data from both mothers and fathers from racially diverse and socioeconomical...

Background The COVID-19 pandemic exerted profound effects on parents, which may translate into elevated child abuse risk. Prior literature demonstrates that Social Information Processing theory is a useful framework for understanding the cognitive processes that can contribute to parental abuse risk, but the model has not adequately integrated affe...

Gender inequality perpetuates women’s economic insecurity and a culture of violence. Parental distress caused by economic pressure may increase violence against children. High levels of gender inequality and interpersonal violence may contribute to higher levels of physical abuse. Using an ecological perspective, this study examines the association...

Gender inequality perpetuates women’s economic insecurity and a culture of violence. Parental distress caused by economic pressure may increase violence against children. High levels of gender inequality and interpersonal violence may contribute to higher levels of physical abuse. Using an ecological perspective, this study examines the association...

On March 11, 2020, COVID-19 was declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization. The social isolation and economic stress resulting from pandemic have the potential to exacerbate child abuse and neglect. This study examines the association of parents’ perceived social isolation and recent employment loss to risk for child maltreatment (neglect...

Background Nearly one third of children under five in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) experience spanking. Studies from North America suggest that spanking is associated with heightened risk of physical abuse. However, the link between spanking and physical abuse in the international context remains understudied. Objective To examine the...

The rise of mental health problems during COVID-19 has been called a national crisis. Parents and caregivers reported parenting stress, anxiety, and depression, which may be exacerbated by economic insecurity. This study used longitudinal data to examine the association of food insecurity and material social support to subsequent parent and child m...

Background Caregivers use a variety of disciplinary methods to respond to undesired child behavior. Many caregivers use nonaggressive forms of discipline, such as verbal reasoning and redirection. Some caregivers use aggressive forms of discipline, such as spanking and yelling. However, most caregivers use a combination of aggressive and nonaggress...

Objective: The current study used the family stress model to test the mechanisms by which economic insecurity contributes to mothers' and fathers' mental health and couples' relationship functioning. Background: Although low household income has been a focus of poverty research, material hardship-defined as everyday challenges related to making...

Purpose Preliminary research early in the COVID-19 pandemic suggested children appeared to be at increased risk for child maltreatment, particularly as parents struggled with mental health and economic strains. Such strains were likely to influence parental emotions about their children, affecting their parent-child interactions to contribute to el...

Purpose: We undertook a study to determine the prevalence and associations of technology-facilitated abuse (TFA)-insults, harassment, coercion, or threats carried out using digital tools such as smartphones and computers-among a US nationally representative sample of young men. Methods: Analyses were based on 1,079 men aged 18 to 35 years who co...

U.S. adults have experienced a threefold increase in anxiety and depression symptomatology during COVID-19. Caregivers of children reported elevated parenting stress, food insecurity, and economic worries. Many struggled to manage childcare and home education. However, prior studies used non-representative samples and lacked comparison to non-careg...

Families with low income experience high levels of economic insecurity, but less is known about how mothers and fathers in such families successfully navigate coparenting and parenting in the context of material hardship. The current study utilized a risk and resilience framework to investigate the underlying family processes linking material hards...

The COVID-19 pandemic has exerted profound effects on parents, which may translate into elevated child abuse risk. Prior literature demonstrates that Social Information Processing theory is a useful framework for understanding the cognitive processes that can contribute to parental abuse risk, but the model has not adequately integrated affective p...

Purpose: Preliminary research early in the COVID-19 pandemic suggested children appeared to be at increased risk for child maltreatment, particularly as parents struggled with mental health and economic strains. To identify the potential affective elements that may contribute to such increased maltreatment risk, the current study focused on whether...

Given the scope and adverse clinical consequences of child abuse, assessment of salient etiological factors can lend critical insights needed for abuse prevention. Increasingly, dual-processing models have been applied to aggression, which postulate that parallel automatic and conscious processes can evoke aggressive behavior, implicating both affe...

Objective: To test associations between 11 parental discipline behaviors and child aggression, distraction, and prosocial peer relations across low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Study Design: Data came from the fourth (2009-2013) and fifth (2012-2017) rounds of the UNICEF Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys (MICS). Survey responses publicly...

Objective: Ending violence against children is critical to promote the health and socioemotional development of children across the globe. To this end, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the World Health Organization (WHO) have called for the abolishment of spanking, which is the most pervasive form of physical violence against childre...

Objective: To explore longitudinal associations between receiving criticism about parenting choices with parental anxiety, depression, and financial worries during COVID-19. Background: During COVID-19, parents have struggled with high levels of economic insecurity, parenting stress, and mental health difficulties. Parents were also forced to make...

Background Understanding factors that contribute to parents’ use of physical and psychological parent-child aggression (PCA) is critical in efforts to mitigate child maltreatment. Objective Extant research has not adequately distinguished risk factors that may differ by race. Participants and methods The present study investigated potential racia...

The Covid-19 pandemic upended the country, with enormous economic and social shifts. Given the increased contact from families living in virtual confinement coupled with massive economic disarray, the Covid-19 pandemic may have created the ideal conditions to witness a rise in children's experience of abuse and neglect. Yet such a rise will be diff...

This study uses a risk and resilience framework to examine short-term self-reported changes in relationship conflict early in the COVID-19 pandemic (March and April 2020). Longitudinal data from U.S. adults in a romantic relationship (N = 291) were collected via three waves of an online survey. Participants self-reported anxiety, depression, increa...

Objective (1) To describe young men's knowledge of infant routines, discipline, development, safety, sleep, and nutrition, using items assessing the American Academy of Pediatrics Bright Futures: Guidelines for Health Supervision of Infants, Children, and Adolescents. (2) To report differences in knowledge between fathers and non-fathers. (3) To ex...

Objectives To examine whether adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and physical punishment (ie, spanking) are unique risk factors for behavior problems in early childhood, and whether ACEs moderate the associations of spanking with child behavior problems. Study design We conducted prospective, longitudinal analyses on 2,380 families in the Fragil...

Background and Objective Sixty countries worldwide have banned the use of physical punishment, yet little is known about the association of physical and nonphysical forms of child discipline with child development in a global context. The objective of this study is to examine whether physical punishment and nonphysical discipline are associated wit...

Objective: This study examined whether fathers’ prebirth pregnancy intentions were associated with fathers’ involvement with his child 15 months later. Method: Propensity score matching was used to assess the effects of fathers’ pregnancy intentions (self-reported before the birth of the child) on three measures of father involvement (residency wit...

Background: On March 11, 2020, COVID-19 was declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization. The social isolation and economic stress resulting from pandemic have the potential to exacerbate child abuse and neglect. Objective: This study examines the association of parents’ perceived social isolation and recent employment loss to risk for chil...

This study uses a risk and resilience framework to examine short-term self-reported changes in relationship conflict early in the COVID-19 pandemic (March and April 2020). Longitudinal data from U.S. adults in a romantic relationship (N = 291) were collected via three waves of an online survey. Participants self-reported anxiety, depression, increa...

Given the scope and adverse clinical consequences of child abuse, assessment of salient etiological factors can lend critical insights needed for abuse prevention. Increasingly, dual-processing models have been applied to aggression which postulate that parallel automatic and conscious processes can evoke aggressive behavior, implicating both affec...

This study reports on parent-child dynamics following COVID-19 related school closures, based on cross-sectional analyses of a survey that utilized a convenience sampling approach. Data were collected approximately five weeks after the World Health Organization declared that the Coronavirus was a pandemic. Participants (N = 405) were adults recruit...

Background Spanking is associated with detrimental outcomes for young children. Research shows that spanking is more commonly used in low-income households. Objective To examine whether economic hardship, measured by household income-to-poverty ratio at the time of the child’s birth, moderated the longitudinal associations between maternal spankin...

This study examines interparental conflict and associations with child behavior problems among a large, diverse sample of families with low income (N = 2,691) using path model analyses of mothers’ and fathers’ reports of constructive interparental conflict, destructive interparental conflict, and intimate partner violence (IPV) victimization at 15...

Robust research shows that parenting stress is associated with reduced parental sensitivity toward their children (i.e., parental responsiveness), thus negatively influencing child outcomes. While there is strong research supporting these associations, most studies utilize self-report measures of responsiveness and exclude fathers. This study exami...

The current study aims to replicate and extend previous research on father–child activation relationship theory, which suggests that fathers engage in stimulating, challenging, and directive parenting behaviors that are likely to benefit children’s development. A large and racially diverse sample of low-income, unmarried couples with young children...

Objective This qualitative study used Twitter to examine stay-at-home parents’ publicly available postings to Twitter about discipline and spanking. Many adults still support the use of spanking despite a substantial body of evidence demonstrating that spanking is linked to a range of negative child outcomes. Little is currently known about how par...

Background A large body of research has found that corporal punishment is associated with increases in children’s behavior problems. However, questions remain as to whether or not the relationship between corporal punishment and behavior problems is equally true across contexts. Objective To examine the degree to which the effects of corporal puni...

A robust research literature links parental spanking with negative behavioral outcomes for children, however, it remains unclear whether conditions in the community may moderate the associations between spanking and behavior problems in early childhood. In the current study, we examined whether community violence exposure moderated the associations...

Background: Research has shown that problematic behaviors, such as violence and drug use, may spread through shared physical space and social norms, lending rise to the notion of contagion theories of human behavior. Objective: This study examines whether physical child abuse spreads across time and space in a pattern reflective of a contagion m...

Coparenting relationship quality and father involvement are closely linked but few studies have investigated this relationship using samples of socioeconomically disadvantaged families. The current study used family systems theory to examine the longitudinal and bidirectional relations between coparenting relationship quality and father engagement...

The purpose of this brief is to describe the shortcomings of Michigan’s EM system and inform policymakers on potential improvements for its eventual replacement. We first frame the EM system within the logic and practice of urban austerity politics. Next, we demonstrate how emergency manager policies are not race-neutral approaches to solving urban...

Class action lawsuits have become an increasingly common way to facilitate institutional reform. The purpose of this article is to provide an introduction to social workers of child welfare reform by class action lawsuits and subsequent consent decrees. The authors provide an overview of class action lawsuits, with a focus on their role in implemen...

This study examined if, compared to White and African American children, maternal spanking of American Indian children was associated with child externalizing behavior problems. Using a community-based sample of 3,632 children (1,183 White, 2,183 African American, 266 American Indian), multiple-group autoregressive cross-lagged models examined the...

Objective: To examine whether the longitudinal associations between maternal spanking and child externalizing behavior are moderated by attachment style. Methods: This study used data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study (n = 2211), a large cohort sample of low-income urban families. Multiple-group autoregressive cross-lagged models...

A father’s involvement in prenatal care engenders health benefits for both mothers and children. While this information can help practitioners improve family health, low paternal involvement in prenatal care remains a challenge. The present study tested a simple, easily scalable intervention to promote father involvement by increasing men’s feeling...

Interparental conflict is a well-established precursor to child maladjustment. However, little is understood of the role of different interparental conflict in shaping the developmental outcomes of young children, especially those from socioeconomically disadvantaged backgrounds. This study uses data from a large and racially diverse sample of low-...

Spanking is one of the most common forms of child discipline used by parents around the world. Research on children in high-income countries has shown that parental spanking is associated with adverse child outcomes, yet less is known about how spanking is related to child well-being in low- and middle-income countries. This study uses data from 21...

Objective: Unmarried mothers have high rates of smoking, including during late pregnancy and after pregnancy, thus increasing their children's risk for negative health outcomes associated with maternal tobacco use. Few studies have examined whether partners' smoking exacerbates or attenuates maternal smoking risk. The current study examines how fa...

While corporal punishment is widely understood to have undesirable associations with children's behavior problems, there remains controversy as to whether such effects are consistent across different racial or ethnic groups. We employed a Bayesian regression analysis, which allows for the estimation of both similarities and differences across group...

Objective To examine the association of father early engagement behaviors and infant low birth weight (LBW) among unmarried, urban couples. Methods Participants were from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study, a birth-cohort study of urban families. We conducted cross-sectional analyses of data from interviews with unmarried mothers and fa...

Context: Fathers contribute to their children's health starting at the beginning of life. Few parent education programs include fathers. Among those that do, there is little effort to report program effects on father outcomes. Objective: In this systematic review, we examined father-inclusive perinatal parent education programs in the United Sta...

This study examines whether fathers’ parental warmth and parenting stress were associated with behavior problems when children were approximately 36-months of age, beyond the influence of maternal behaviors. Study participants were 3342 low-income fathers and mothers who participated in the Building Strong Families (BSF) study. Cross-sectional regr...

This study employed fixed effects regression that controls for selection bias, omitted variables bias, and all time-invariant aspects of parent and child characteristics to examine the simultaneous associations between neighborhood disorganization, maternal spanking, and aggressive behavior in early childhood using data from the Fragile Families an...

The strong and ever-growing evidence base demonstrating that physical punishment places children at risk for a range of negative outcomes, coupled with global recognition of chil-dren's inherent rights to protection and dignity, has led to the emergence of programs specifically designed to prevent physical punishment by parents. This paper describe...

Statement of Purpose No studies have assessed prevalence and compared correlates of both physical intimate partner violence (IPV) perpetration and technology-delivered aggression (TDA) among a nationally-representative sample of fathers. The purpose of this study is to determine the prevalence and correlates of physical IPV perpetration and TDA amo...

This study examines the generalizability of Reformulated Emotional Security Theory (EST-R) among a large and diverse sample of low-income, unmarried parents with young children (n=5,100). Path analysis indicated that child emotional insecurity mediated the relation between destructive conflict (i.e., moderate negative conflict between parents) and...

Hitting children for disciplinary purposes (i.e., spanking or corporal punishment [CP]) is a strong risk factor for child physical abuse and is highly prevalent in the U.S. Yet, little is currently known about the relevant attitudes, beliefs, or training needs of key professionals who often advise parents regarding child discipline strategies. A su...

Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) such as child abuse are related to poor health outcomes. Spanking has indicated a similar association with health outcomes, but to date has not been considered an ACE. Physical and emotional abuse have been shown in previous research to correlate highly and may be similar in nature to spanking. To determine if s...

This qualitative study examined 25 stay-at-home fathers (SAHFs) in the United States and their lived experiences through the perspective of the theory of caring masculinities. Results from semistructured telephone interviews demonstrated that the majority of SAHFs voluntarily opted to be full-time caregivers, named financial reasons for becoming a...

This study examines the use of emergency management laws as a policy response to fiscal emergencies in urban areas. Focusing on one Midwestern Rust Belt state, we use a mixed methods approach – integrating chronology of legislative history, analysis of Census data, and an ethnographic case study – to examine the dynamics of emergency management law...

This study employs a novel strategy for identifying points of resistance to education efforts aimed at reducing rates of child physical abuse and use of corporal punishment (CP). We analyzed online comments (n = 581) generated in response to media coverage of a study linking CP with increased child aggression. Most comments (71%) reflected approval...

The 2010 repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell (DADT) is one example of how U.S. public policy has shifted toward greater inclusion of lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) individuals. The repeal of DADT reversed the practice of discharging LGB service members on the basis of sexual identity. LGB service members may now serve their country without fear of di...

This study reports the results of a Community-Based Participatory Research (CBPR) needs assessment of programs, services, and support systems for fathers in the City of Detroit, Michigan. The goal of this needs assessment was to assess the availability of parenting support services to men through multiple perspectives. To enact a CBPR approach, the...

Many parents believe that spanking is an effective way to promote children's positive behavior, yet few studies have examined spanking and the development of social competence. Using information from 3,279 families with young children who participated in a longitudinal study of urban families, this study tested competing hypotheses regarding whethe...

Mobile technology presents an exciting opportunity for social workers to reach populations that are typically underserved by interventions and services. We present one application of technology that is particularly relevant to social work practice. The mDad (Mobile Device Assisted Dad) smartphone application (app) was developed to augment existing...

Statement of purpose Few studies assess men who perpetrate intimate partner violence (IPV) and no studies have addressed male technology-delivered aggression (TDA), or their correlates. The purpose of this study is to determine the prevalence and correlates of male physical IPV perpetration and TDA. Methods/approach A national sample of U.S. men (1...

This study examined whether fathers’ and mothers’ spanking contributed to development of child aggression in the first 5 years of life. We selected parents (N = 1,298) who were married or cohabiting across all waves of data collection. Cross-lagged path models examined fathers’, mothers’, and both parents’ within-time and longitudinal associations...

Building on prior research showing fewer parenting risk behaviors and lower levels of harsh punishment among less acculturated Hispanic parents, we tested the hypothesis that foreign-born (FB; immigrant) Hispanic parents use less spanking toward children at 3 years and 5 years of age than U.S.-born Hispanic parents. We also examined whether other i...

The majority of U.S. parents spank their children, often beginning when their children are very young. We examined families (N = 2,788) who participated in a longitudinal community-based study of new births in urban areas. Prospective analyses examined whether spanking by the child's mother, father, or mother's current partner when the child was 1-...

Using data from couples (N = 1,195) who participated in a large community-based study of families, we used maternal reports of parental discipline to examine mothers' and fathers' use of and patterns related to aggressive and nonviolent discipline of their 3-year-old child. First, we separately examined mothers' and fathers' patterns, or classes, o...

(from the chapter) North Americans generally view self-esteem as an unmitigated good, integral to a meaningful, satisfying, and fulfilling life. Underlying this cultural concern with self-esteem is the belief that feelings of worthlessness and low self-esteem lead people to do things that are harmful and destructive to themselves and to others; in...

Background and Purpose: Few parenting studies with the corrections population have utilized randomized clinical trials and, of those, none reported on parenting behaviors as outcome variables nor were the effects of the intervention tracked across time. We address these gaps. Does a parenting program that targets community corrections-involved pa...

BACKGROUND: 44% of U.S. military personnel have children, and 37% of these parents have at least one child ≤ age 5. Military fathers face multiple separations from and reunions with their families, while fathers whose partners serve in the military experience increased parenting responsibility when their partner deploys. Yet there is little parenti...

This study examined separate and combined maternal and paternal use of spanking with children at age 3 and children's subsequent aggressive behavior at age 5. The sample was derived from a birth cohort study and included families (n = 923) in which both parents lived with the child at age 3. In this sample, 44% of 3-year-olds were spanked 2 times o...

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This study examines whether maternal warmth moderates the association between maternal use of spanking and increased child aggression between ages 1 and 5. Participants were 3,279 pairs of mothers and their children from a cohort study of urban families from 20 U.S. cities. Maternal spanking was assessed when the child was 1 year, 3 years, and 5 ye...

Background: Parents use a range of practices to elicit positive behaviors from children. Specifically, parents may model positive behaviors in interactions with their child, thus eliciting a positive reciprocal response from the child. Alternatively, parents may use punishment, including spanking, to change a child’s negative behaviors with the hop...

Objectives: This study examined mothers' and fathers' reporting congruency using the Parent-Child Conflict Tactics Scales. We asked if the mother's report of the father's parenting aggression was consistent with the father's self-report of parenting aggression and if the father's report of the mother's parenting aggression was consistent with the...

This invited commentary highlights how this special issue provides multiple perspectives from which to understand the nature and consequences of paternal depression. Articles herein examine paternal depression in the context of the family environment and identify specific mechanisms that link paternal depression and child well-being. This commentar...

To examine the association of paternal depression with risk for parental neglect of young children. The sample was derived from a birth cohort study of 1,089 families in which both biological parents resided in the home when the target child was 3- and 5-years old. Prospective analyses examined the contribution of paternal and maternal parenting ri...

Introduction: This study examined whether spanking of children at one year of age constitutes a discrete risk factor for Child Protective Services (CPS) involvement. Method: Data were from 2,020 mothers who participated in the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study, a longitudinal, community-based study of urban families. Logistic regression...

Background and Purpose: The family coercion model (Patterson, 1982) proposes that children's externalizing behaviors are developed and maintained through coercive parent-child interactions that include the use of physical discipline. However, the vast majority of research supporting this model has been restricted to mothers. The goal of this presen...

Purpose: This study examined several related research questions: Does maternal physical discipline contribute to the development of child aggression, beginning in early childhood at age 1, after accounting for the strong within time correlation between maternal physical discipline and child aggression and the across-time transactional influence of...

Purpose. Research has demonstrated a strong relationship between unskilled parental discipline practices among at-risk families and negative outcomes such as child maltreatment and child welfare system involvement (Bank & Burraston, 2001; Greenwald et al., 1997). Little research, however, has examined whether parent training reduces the risk of chi...

Background and Purpose: Evidence-based parent training (PT) models improve parenting skills and reduce child maltreatment risk, however fathers have been neglected in PT research and services. Their neglect is troubling given that research indicates that fathers who introduce risks to families compromise mothers' parenting and reduce the potency...

Changes to the Ontario child welfare system in 2006 were based on the premise that expanding kinship placement options for children in the care of the Society would improve permanency outcomes and minimize placement disruptions. This study examined whether foster care or kinship care were associated with permanency outcomes and continuity of care o...

This exploratory study used semi-structured focus groups to examine: 1) where and from whom fathers obtain information about parenting; 2) the types of parenting services men are aware of, and their attitudes about participating in such services; and 3) fathers’ perceived norms about the acceptability and utility of various parenting practices. Low...

This study used data from 845 foreign-born (n ?? 328) and native-U.S. born (n ?? 517) Hispanic mothers who participated in the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study (FFCWS) to examine four indicators of acculturation???nativity, years lived in the United States, religious attendance, and endorsement of traditional gender norms???as predictors...