University of Mary Washington Associate Professor of Psychology Miriam Liss will discuss the link between attachment parenting techniques and feminism in an interview scheduled to air on the “With Good Reason” public radio program. The show, “Humor Works,” will air beginning Saturday, Feb. 23.
The interview will focus on the 2012 study “Feminism and Attachment Parenting: Attitudes, Stereotypes, and Misperceptions” by Liss and her colleague Mindy Erchull. The study, based on a survey of hundreds of self-described feminists and non-feminists, shows that attachment parenting techniques, like co-sleeping, breastfeeding and carrying a child in a body sling, are more popular with feminists than non-feminists. The study also reveals that people hold stereotypes about the ‘typical feminist,’ when in fact those stereotypes aren’t true.
Liss, a licensed clinical psychologist, is an expert on gender issues and autism and developmental disorders. She received the UMW Outstanding Young Faculty Member Award in 2005 and was a finalist for the SCHEV state award in 2006 and 2009. Her research has appeared in numerous journals including the Journal of Personality and Individual Differences, the Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin and the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry and Allied Disciplines. The 2013 study “Helping or Hovering? The Effects of Helicopter Parenting on College Students’ Well-Being” and the 2012 study “Insight into the Parenthood Paradox: Mental Health Outcomes of Intensive Mothering,” both co-authored by Liss and her colleague Holly Schiffrin, garnered international media attention.
Liss earned a Ph.D. and M.A. from the University of Connecticut and a bachelor’s degree from Wesleyan University.
“With Good Reason” airs weekly in Fredericksburg on Sundays from 1-2 p.m. on Radio IQ 88.3 Digital. 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/.
“With Good Reason” is the only statewide public radio program in Virginia. It hosts scholars from Virginia’s public colleges and universities who discuss the latest in research, pressing social issues and the curious and whimsical. “With Good Reason” is produced for the Virginia Higher Education Broadcasting Consortium by the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities and is broadcast in partnership with public radio stations in Virginia and Washington, D.C.
