FACULTY

Anne Fletcher, Ph.D. : Research Interests

Parent–child relationships
Dr. Fletcher is interested in the manner in which parenting styles and a variety of parenting practices shape family relationships and child and adolescent well-being. Of particular interest to Dr. Fletcher is the manner in which parents engage in deliberate strategies intended to manage their children’s relationships with peers. Dr. Fletcher utilizes quantitative and qualitative methods to consider how parents’ efforts in this arena emerge and their impact on the nature of children’s relationships with peers.

Youth and adolescent development and risk
Dr. Fletcher is currently pursuing two lines of research that relate to development during the child and adolescent years. First, she is interested in the nature of and influences on children’s friendships as they are maintained across the multiple contexts of children’s lives including school, after-school care, neighborhood, extracurricular activities, church, friendships with children of parents own friends, and friendships with same-age relatives. Within this line of research, Dr. Fletcher utilizes hierarchical linear modeling techniques to consider the manner in which friendships emerge across different contexts and ways in which characteristics of friendships differ across contexts. Second, Dr. Fletcher is utilizing qualitative methods to consider the manner in which early adolescents utilize technology to negotiate autonomy and connectedness with respect to relationships with parents and peers.

Human development and family diversity in cultural context
Dr. Fletcher is studying the nature of elementary-aged children's relationships with their friends' parents, as well as the extent to which parents of children who are friends form meaningful relationships themselves. This project focuses on children's friendships both within schools and within the broader context of the community and is particularly focused on the manner in which such relationships may differ within Black versus White families.

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