Dr. Heidi Stolz

Assistant Professor

I joined the faculty in the fall of 2004, moving from the Southern California desert and a faculty appointment at California State University San Bernardino. Prior to my two years at CSUSB, I completed my Ph.D. in Marriage, Family, and Human Development at Brigham Young University (2002), focusing on differential effects of mothers and fathers on youth outcomes.

I remain interested in and involved with issues concerning mother - father differences. Within this topic, I'm working on research that addresses whether specific parenting behaviors are more effective when enacted by a father or a mother, and whether identified differential effects of mothers and fathers generalize across diverse cultural/ethnic groups, across diverse family structures, and across different youth personalities. In addition to analyzing large, cross-national data sets, I'd also like to take an inductive approach to contribute to our understanding of differential effects of fathers and mothers. Thus, I plan to conduct a qualitative investigation, listening to what school-aged children and adolescents have to say about what it means to them when their dad/mom enacts a particular behavior.

As I have pursued this interest in "disentangling" the effects of mothers from those of fathers, I have developed a strong interest in research methods and statistics. I've become familiar with Dominance Analysis (DA), and I hope to work with others to advance DA as well as develop other methodological and statistical approaches that can be utilized to better understand mothering and fathering.

I am also involved in evaluation of parenting programs ranging from behavior modification based programs for parents of juvenile offenders to insight-oriented democratic parenting based programs. Overall, I am committed to research, teaching, and programming that ultimately a) encourage individuals, organizations and governments to consider the vast potential of parents to be a positive force in the world, and b) rigorously identify and evaluate what the most effective message is to communicate to those groups of people.

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Stolz, H. E., Barber, B. K., Olsen, J. A., Erickson, L. D., Bradford, K. P., Maughan, S. L., et al. (2004). Family and school socialization and adolescent academic achievement: A cross-national dominance analysis of achievement predictors. Marriage and Family Review, 36, 7-34.

Bradford, K. P., Barber, B. K., Olsen, J. A., Maughan, S. L., Erickson, L. D., Ward, D., & Stolz, H. E. (2004). When parents fight: A multi-national study of interparental conflict, parenting, and adolescent functioning. Marriage and Family Review, 35, 107-138.

Sweeney, D. P., Hoffman, C. D., Ashwal, S., & Stolz, H. E. (2003). Sleep problems in children with autism. Exceptional Parent, 33, 86-88.

Barrah, J. L., Shultz, K. S., Baltes, B., & Stolz, H. E. (in press). Men's elder care based work-family conflict: Antecedents and work-related outcomes. Fathering. 

Contact Information

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

Phone: 865-974-6273
Email: hstolz@utk.edu

Contact CEHHS

335 Claxton Complex 1122 Volunteer Boulevard
Knoxville, Tennessee 37996

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