Dr. Hillary Fouts

Assistant Professor

Prior to joining the faculty in Child and Family Studies at UT, I spent four years in a post-doctoral fellowship at the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. I completed my Ph.D. at Washington State University in anthropology in 2002. My doctoral research was focused on cross-cultural child development and specifically parent-child interactions during the transition from breastfeeding to being weaned among the Bofi forager and farmer people of Central Africa. During my post-doctoral fellowship I continued my research in the Central African rainforest as well as becoming involved in research on infant care patterns in underrepresented populations in the US.

My central research interest continues to be cross-cultural social and emotional development in infancy and early childhood as well as children’s interactions and relationships with various caregivers such as mothers, fathers, grandparents, and siblings. My research approach is both inter-disciplinary and integrative. These aspects are illustrated in my consideration of cultural, ecological, biological and psychological contexts of behavior and development as well as in my use of both quantitative and qualitative methodologies. I am currently involved in a research project designed to elucidate the cultural, biological and ecological contexts of early child development among hunter-gatherers, and to understand the nature of parent-child conflicts especially during transitions in the compositions of families. I am also involved in a research project aimed at understanding the effects of socioeconomic status on early infant care and development, by disentangling socioeconomic status from ethnicity.

Within my central research interests I have written about many different specific topics including: caregiver sensitivity to fussing and crying, ethical issues of cross-cultural research, family dynamics among Central Africans, infant crying among hunter-gatherers, juvenile peer interactions, parent-infant interactions in African American families, parent-offspring conflicts during weaning, and styles of infant-feeding and weaning among tropical forest foraging and farming populations.

The majority of my research has taken place in the rainforests of Central Africa. Additionally, I continue to pursue research among underrepresented populations both internationally and within the US. This is important research because most of what we know about normative aspects of early social and emotional development has been obtained in studies of white, middle-class North Americans, who are unlikely to be representative of the majority of infants and children worldwide.

Selected publications:

Roopnarine, J. L., Fouts, H. N., Lamb, M. E. & Lewis, T. E. (2005). Mothers’ and fathers’ behaviors toward their 3- to 4-month-old infants in lower, middle and upper socioeconomic African American families. Developmental Psychology, 41, 723-732.

Fouts, H. N., Hewlett, B. S. & Lamb, M. E. (2005). Parent-offspring weaning conflicts among the Bofi Farmers and Foragers of Central Africa . Current Anthropology, 46, 29-50.

Fouts, H. N. & Lamb, M. E. (2005). Weanling emotional patterns among the Bofi Foragers of Central Africa: The role of maternal availability and sensitivity. In B. S. Hewlett & M. E. Lamb (Eds.), Hunter-Gatherer Childhoods (pp. 309-321). New York: Aldine De Gruyter.

Fouts, H. N. & Lamb, M. E. (2005). Ethical issues in cross-cultural research. In C. B. Fisher & R. M. Lerner (Eds.), Encyclopedia ofApplied Developmental Science: Vol. 1 (pp. 409-412). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Fouts, H. N. (2005). Central African families: A comparison of Bofi Farmer and Forager Families. In J. L. Roopnarine & U. P. Gielen (Eds.), Families in Global Perspective (pp. 347-362). Boston : Allyn & Bacon.

Fouts, H. N. (2004). Social and emotional contexts of weaning among Bofi Farmers and Foragers. Ethnology, 43, 65-81.

Fouts, H. N., Hewlett, B. S. & Lamb, M. E. (2001). Weaning and the nature of early childhood interactions among the Bofi Foragers in Central Africa. Human Nature, 12, 27-46.

 

 

Contact Information

1215 W. Cumberland Ave
422 Jessie Harris Building
Knoxville, TN 37996-1912

Phone: 865-974-6271
Email: hfouts@utk.edu

Contact CEHHS

335 Claxton Complex 1122 Volunteer Boulevard
Knoxville, Tennessee 37996

Phone: 865-974-2201
Fax: 865-974-8718