Amanda Harrist

editor of Authoritative parenting: Synthesizing nurturance and discipline for optimal child development

February 4, 2013

Amanda Harrist is an Associate Professor in the Department of Human Development and Family Science. She received her B.A. from the University of Texas in 1984 and her Ph.D. at University of Tennessee in 1991. She joined the OSU HDFS faculty in 1998, where she teaches large undergraduate classes and small graduate classes in child development, parenting, and research methods. Dr. Harrist's research centers on the development of children's social competence as it relates to family and peer groups. She is interested in interventions for children at risk in early social settings, and has pursued this most recently in a longitudinal interdisciplinary study of the family and rural school contexts of child obesity. She has received the OSU Regents Distinguished Teaching and Research Awards.

Psychologist Diana Baumrind's revolutionary prototype of optimal parenting, called authoritative parenting, has become the bedrock of parenting research. In contrast to other parenting styles emphasizing responsiveness alone (permissive parenting) or demandingness alone (authoritarian parenting), authoritative parenting combines high levels of both responsiveness and demandingness. The result is an effective mix of warm nurturance and firm discipline.

In this book, leading scholars update our thinking about authoritative parenting, demonstrating that it fosters high achievement, emotional adjustment, self-reliance, and social confidence in children and adolescents. The book will inform prevention and intervention efforts to help parents maximize their children's potential.

URL: https://library.okstate.edu/news/celebratingbooks/2013-honorees/amanda-harrist

Last Updated: 12 January 2022