| ||||||||
| ||||||||
|
Philip Cowan Emeritus
Philip A. Cowan's research and clinical interests center on family systems and children's development. He has been exploring the links among: (1) families of origin; (2) family members' individual personality characteristics; (3) the parents' marital relationship; (4) the way in which parents interact with their children; (5) parents' outside-the-family work lives; and (6) the children's cognitive, social & personality development, and mental health, particularly in terms of their adaptation to school. Along with Carolyn Pape Cowan, he has been involved in two longitudinal studies of families. The first, the Becoming a Family Project - a longitudinal study of partners becoming parents for the first time - followed families from late pregnancy until their child completed the first year of elementary school, and addressed three basic questions: What happens to couple relationships after the birth of a first child? Can a preventive intervention designed to strengthen couple relationships during this major life transition positively affect marital satisfaction and marital stability? How does the quality of the couple relationship affect the nature and quality of the child's development and his or her coping with the transition to elementary school? The Cowans found that despite many changes in individual and couple functioning after childbirth, there is a great deal of continuity and predictability from before the baby arrives; it was possible to identify individuals and couples at risk for distress in the early family years from data obtained in pregnancy. The intervention they designed had positive effects on individuals and family relationships during the first three postpartum years. Family data obtained in the preschool years were highly predictive of teacher ratings of the child's academic and social competence in kindergarten. A large-scale replication of this study is now taking place throughout Germany. Based on the results of this study, the Cowans received an NIMH grant to follow 100 new families from their first child's pre-kindergarten year through the end of grade 1. This study - the Schoolchildren and Their Families Project - examines the impact of maritally focused and parenting-focused couples groups on the family. Results indicate strong intervention effects on parents, and when parents who participate in the interventions change in positive ways, their children show more positive cognitive and social adaptation to kindergarten and first grade. The effects are maintained at the fourth grade follow-up. The study attempts to understand the interconnections among marital, parent-child, and three-generation relationships in fostering the well being of children. A follow-up study of these families when the pre-adolescent children enter fourth grade has been completed. A new research phase is underway following the same families as the children make their transition to high school, with a final follow-up when they complete grade 11. A new intervention study, funded by the California Office of Child Abuse Protection, focuses on encouraging low income fathers to become and stay involved with their young children. This project, now underway in five California counties, contrasts the impact of a 16-week couples group, with a fathers' group, with a one-session information meeting. The study tests two policy-relevant approaches to fathers' involvement with their children, and helps to extend the Cowans' intervention model to low-income Hispanic, African-American, and European-American families. The Cowans are concerned about "getting the word out" about the findings of family research and intervention to those engaged in discussions of government and workplace policies regarding families. Graduate students and postdocs working on the Schoolchildren and their Families Project are currently working on: the development of a Family Photo Narrative to assess children's perspectives on self and family (Johnson); narrative perspectives on the marital relationship and marital interaction (Dergicz); the development of shame and guilt (Rasco); the impact of unresolved loss in adult women on their family relationships (Busch); adult attachment, marital attachment, and children's adaptation (Alexandrov). Students working with Dr. Cowan learn to assess normal and dysfunctional development in children, to use self-report instruments and interviews to understand individual adaptation and attachment in couple relationships, and to use global and microanalytic coding systems to describe and evaluate husband-wife, mother-child, father-child, and couple-child interactions. In addition to their core clinical course work, students working with Dr. Cowan are encouraged to take courses in developmental psychology and in family theory and research. Because Dr. Cowan will retire at the end of the 2004-2005 academic year, he is no longer taking new graduate students; he will not be available to mentor them through to the PhD dissertation. However, graduate students interested in the topics above have an opportunity to work with the Cowans on aspects of the research described above. Selected Publications Cowan, P. A., & Cowan, C. P. (2002). Strengthening couples to improve children's well-being. Poverty Research News, 3, 18-20. Cowan, P. A., & Cowan, C. P. (2002). What an intervention design reveals about how parents affect their children's academic achievement and behavior problems. In J. G. Borkowski, S. Ramey, & M. Bristol-Powers, (Eds.), Parenting and the child's world: Influences on intellectual, academic, and social-emotional development (pp. 75-98). Mahwah, N.J.: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Cowan, C. P., & Cowan, P. A. (1992). When partners become parents: The big life change for couples. New York: Basic Books. Republished by Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Fall, 1999. Measelle, J. R., Ablow, J. C., Cowan, P. A., & Cowan, C. P. (1998). Assessing young children's views of their academic, social, and emotional lives: An evaluation of the self-perception scales of the Berkeley Puppet Interview. Child Development, 69, 1556-1576. Cowan, P. A., Powell, D., & Cowan, C. P. (1997). Parenting interventions: A family systems perspective. In I. E. Sigel & K. A. Renninger (Eds.), Handbook of child psychology: Vol 4. Child psychology in practice (5th ed., pp. 3-72). New York: Wiley. Cowan, P. A., Cohn, D., Cowan, C. P., & Pearson, J. L. (1996). Parents' attachment histories and children's internalizing and externalizing behavior: Exploring family systems models of linkage. Special section: Attachment and psychopathology, Part I. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 64, 53-63. Cowan, P. A., & Cowan, C. P. (2002). Interventions as tests of family systems theories: Marital and family relationships in children's development, and psychopathology. Development and Psychopathology. Special issue on Interventions as tests of theories. 14, 731-760. Cowan, P. A., & Cowan, C. P. (2003). Normative family transitions, Normal family processes, and healthy child development. In Froma Walsh (Ed.). Normal family processes (3rd. ed.). (pp. 424-459). New York: Guilford press. Johnson, V., Cowan, P. A., & Cowan, C. P. (2003) Linking changes in whole family functioning and children's externalizing behavior across the elementary school years. Journal of Family Psychology, 17, 499-509. Wood, J. L., Emmerson, N., & Cowan, P. A. (2004). Is early attachment security carried forward into relationships with preschool peers? British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 22, 245-253. Schulz, M.S. , Cowan, P. A., Cowan, C.P, & Brennan, R. T. (2004). Coming home upset: Gender, Marital satisfaction, and the daily spillover of workday experience into couple interactions. Journal of Family Psychology, 18, 250-263. October 2004
|
