May 5, 2024

Kicking Off Kindergarten (Rochester and Genesee Valley Parent)

HRBooks Review | ‘Balancing the Big Stuff’ (Daily Press)

UMW Psychology Faculty Receive IndieFab Book of the Year Award

University of Mary Washington faculty members Miriam Liss and Holly Schriffrin’s book Balancing the Big Stuff has recently been named the 2014 Silver Winner for Psychology in Foreword Reviews’ IndieFab Book of the Year Awards.   Miriam Liss and Holly Schiffrin Exemplifying the best work coming from today’s indie authors and publishers, the winners were selected from more than 1,500 entries in 63 categories from independent and university presses. Gold, silver, bronze and honorable mention awards were determined by a panel of librarians and booksellers and announced at a special program during the American Library Association Annual Conference in San Francisco on June 26, 2015. Liss, professor of psychology, and Schriffin, associate professor of psychology, wrote Balancing the Big Stuff to fill a gap they recognized in the conversation about work and family balance. Balancing-the-Big-Stuff“We noticed that there was not enough discussion about the actual psychological literature on what makes people happy and what is best for children,” said Liss, an internationally known expert on parenting, division of labor and work-family balance issues. “The book emphasizes that there are many right ways to parent. Parents should be less hard on themselves and focus more on whether they are meeting their own intrinsic needs as well as the needs of their children.” A licensed clinical psychologist, Liss had conducted extensive research on intensive and attachment parenting, sensory processing sensitivity, self-injurious behaviors, feminist identity and body image. Her articles have been published in numerous journals including the Sex Roles, Psychology of Women Quarterly, Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, Journal of Personality and Individual Differences, and Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry and Allied Disciplines. She is recipient of the 2015 Outstanding Faculty Award from the State Council of Higher Education of Virginia, and also has been named one of the Princeton Review’s Best 300 Professors. An expert on intensive and helicopter parenting and a clinical psychologist, Schiffrin also is the co-author of Intensive Mothering: The Cultural Contradictions of Modern Motherhood. Her research on helicopter parenting published in the Journal of Child and Family Studies–with colleagues at the University of Mary Washington–has garnered international media attention, including The Guardian, Real Simple and Time magazine. Schiffrin’s scholarly research has been published in the Journal of Happiness Studies, Food and Nutrition Bulletin, Research in Development Disabilities, the Journal of Positive Psychology, Cyberpsychology and Behavior, and the Journal of Development & Behavioral Pediatrics. For more information about the award and to view the complete list of Foreword Reviews’ 2014 IndieFab Book of the Year Award Winners, visit https://indiefab.forewordreviews.com/winners/2014/.

How to Be a Better Parent (Scientific American.Com)

Kids of ‘Helicopter’ Parents More Prone to Depression (Mother and Baby.Com)

Controversial Parenting Style Invites Debate (Voice of America)

With Good Reason (Wamu.com and other sources)

Mackintosh, Liss, and Schiffrin Publish Book Chapter on Intensive Parenting

Drs. Virginia Mackintosh, Miriam Liss, and Holly Schiffrin published a book chapter in the recently released Intensive Mothering: The Cultural Contradictions of Modern Motherhood from Demeter Press.  The chapter, “Using a Quantitative Measure to Explore Intensive Mothering Ideology,” outlines the development and use of the Intensive Parenting Attitudes Questionnaire designed by the authors.

UMW Psychologists to be Featured on “With Good Reason” (The Free Lance-Star)

UMW Psychologists Discuss Balance on Public Radio Show

University of Mary Washington psychologists Miriam Liss and Holly Schiffrin say that finding happiness in life doesn’t come from having more material possessions. Miriam Liss and Holly Schiffrin “There’s really no way to be all in at work, all in as a parent, all in as a partner or spouse and all in in other social roles like volunteering,” said Liss who coauthors the recently released book Balancing the Big Stuff: Finding Happiness in Work, Family and Lifewith her colleague. “You have to find out what works for you to give balance in life.” Liss and Schiffrin explore how to achieve this balance in an upcoming interview on Virginia’s Public Radio Program With Good Reason, which airs Jan. 24 through Jan. 30. In the radio show, they discuss how to avoid working or parenting in excess, how to focus on what is intrinsically motivating, and how to work toward gender equality in the home and workplace in order to give concrete steps toward reaching harmony among our roles in life. With Good Reason is a program of the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities. The show airs weekly in Fredericksburg on Sundays from 1-2 p.m. on Radio IQ 88.3 Digital. The show also airs broadcast on public radio stations in Alaska, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Indiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Mexico, New York, Ohio, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia and Washington D.C. To listen from outside of the Fredericksburg area, a complete list of air times and links to corresponding radio stations can be found at http://withgoodreasonradio.org/when-to-listen.  Audio files of the full program and its companion news feature are available online at http://withgoodreasonradio.org/2015/01/where-did-you-come-from. Liss and Schiffrin are international experts on the subjects of happiness, gender issues and intensive and helicopter parenting. Liss is the recipient of the prestigious 2015 Outstanding Faculty Award from the State Council of Higher Education of Virginia (SCHEV). Schiffrin is president of the Virginia Academic and Applied Psychologist Academy of the Virginia Psychological Association. Balancing work and family also is personal for Liss and Schiffrin. While maintaining full teaching and research loads, they also are raising young children.