Holly Brophy-Herb
Professor of Human Development and Family Studies | Michigan State University
East Lansing, MI, UNITED STATES
Early Childhood Development Expert
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Biography
Expert on parenting, early childhood development and how parents, caregivers and teachers socialize young children's emotions. Particularly interested in how emotion socialization practices vary across adult and child characteristics, such as family climate, gender culture, and mental health and reflective capacity. She also can discuss how children's regulatory skills relate to their health, including obesity risk, and to their social and school outcomes.
Industry Expertise (4)
Education/Learning
Writing and Editing
Mental Health Care
Women
Areas of Expertise (5)
Obesity Risk
Infant Mental Health
Parenting
Self-regulation and emotion regulation
Reflective functioning
Accomplishments (1)
University Extension Key Partner Award
2015 Michigan State University
Education (2)
Syracuse University: Ph.D., Child Development 1996
Syracuse University: M.S., Child Development and Family Studies 1992
Affiliations (1)
- Associate Editor, Infant Mental Health Journal, 2009- present
Links (1)
News (3)
Children with chores achieve better at school and at life
WLNS
2018-07-05
"Giving choices is a really great idea,” says MSU child development expert Holly Brophy-Herb. Ask your kids, ‘Would you like to be in charge of putting away the dishes or in charge of folding the socks?’ Whatever it might be, but choices are a really good way to involve children in daily responsibilities."...
MSU Leads $4.7 Million Project to Tackle Childhood Obesity
MSU Today
2015-04-26
Holly Brophy-Herb, professor in the Department of Human Development and Family Studies in MSU’s College of Social Science, will lead a multidisciplinary team to address obesity prevention among families with preschoolers...
Helping Toddlers Understand Emotion Key to Development
MSU Today
2015-04-01
“Our findings offer promise for a practical, cost-effective parenting strategy to support at-risk toddlers’ social and emotional development and reduce behavioral problems,” said Holly Brophy-Herb, MSU professor of child development and lead investigator on the study...
Journal Articles (3)
Family Mealtime Supports for Obesity Prevention in Head Start Preschoolers: Initial Results From the Simply Dinner Study
Journal of Nutrition Education and BehaviorHolly E Brophy-Herb, Mildred Horodynski, Jean M Kerver, Dawn Contreras, Laurie A Van Egeren, Niko Kaciroti, Sheilah Hebert, Erika Prine, Jessica Williams, Candace Gardiner, Julie Lumeng
2018 Test the feasibility and additive effects of six intervention components reflecting differing levels of supports for family mealtimes and identify components associated with improved family meals and dietary outcomes in the Screening Phase. Evaluate the identified components as a bundled intervention in a randomized controlled trial (RCT) in the Confirming Phase. The target audience is parents/children enrolled in Head Start (n= 499, Screening Phase; n= 250, Confirming Phase). While obesity prevention efforts emphasize the importance of healthy family meals, few studies have addressed instrumental barriers to family meals as an obesity prevention strategy.
Effects of maternal mentalization-related parenting on toddlers’ self-regulation
Early Childhood Research QuarterlyNeda Senehi, Holly E. Brophy-Herb, Claire D. Vallotton
2018 Little research has examined associations between multiple indicators of parental mentalization and children’s regulatory capacities. This study aimed (1) to examine the validity of a latent mentalization-related parenting construct and (2) to examine the relationship between the mentalization-related parenting construct and toddler’s self-regulation, controlling for maternal depression, emotion disapproving beliefs, warmth, cumulative demographic risk, and child's gender. Mentalization-related parenting behaviors (MRPBs) included maternal use of mental state words, use of emotion bridging (linking emotions and behaviors in child and others), and representational mind-mindedness. Self-regulation was indicated by toddlers’ coping behaviors, effortful control, and delay of gratification. Data were collected for 95 mother–child dyads from low-income families at two time points and included observation of a book share task (Time 1), Early Head Start home visitor assessments of toddlers’ coping behaviors (Time 2), parent ratings of toddlers’ effortful control (Time 2), and direct assessment of toddlers’ delay of gratification (Time 2). Results of confirmatory factor analyses provided evidence for latent mentalization-related parenting (Time 1) and self-regulation (Time 2) constructs. Structural equation models revealed that maternal mentalization-related parenting (Time 1) was related to toddlers’ self-regulation 6 months later (Time 2). Maternal depression and emotion disapproving beliefs were negatively related to mentalization-related parenting. The study’s findings suggest that toddlers’ self-regulatory skills may be supported by maternal efforts to mentalize.
Dyadic Relations Between Interparental Conflict and Parental Emotion Socialization
Journal of Family IssuesYoung-Eun Lee, Holly E Brophy-Herb
2018 This study examined the effects of destructive and constructive interparental conflict on unsupportive parental emotion socialization behaviors (N = 166 parents of toddlers). Both mothers and fathers completed measures of destructive and constructive interparental conflict and emotion dismissing beliefs and unsupportive responses to toddlers’ expressions of negative emotions such as anger, fear, and sadness. Multilevel modeling for the actor–partner interdependence model indicated spillover effect of destructive conflict and crossover effects of constructive conflict on unsupportive parental emotion socialization. In short, mothers’ and fathers’ perceptions of destructive interparental conflict were positively related to their own use of unsupportive emotional socialization behaviors. Mothers’ and fathers’ perceptions of constructive interparental conflict were (marginally/trend level) negatively related to the other parent’s use of unsupportive emotion socialization behaviors. These findings advance the literature on the associations between interparental conflict and parental emotion socialization, examining interdependence between mothers and fathers.
