Professor Emeritus
George W. Holden, Ph.D. is a professor Emeritus in the Psychology Department at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas. He served as chair of the department from 2015 to 2020. Holden’s research interests are in the area of social development, with a focus on parent-child relationships. His work, into the determinants of parental social cognition and behavior, discipline and positive parenting, and the causes and consequences of family violence, has been supported by grants from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, National Institutes of Justice, Department of Health and Human Services, the Guggenheim Foundation, the Hogg Foundation for Mental Health, the Timberlawn Research Foundation, and the U.S. State Department.
He is the author of numerous scientific articles and chapters, as well as the author or editor of five books, including Parenting: A dynamic perspective, currently in its 3rd edition. He has been or is on the editorial boards of Child Development, Developmental Psychology, Journal of Emotional Abuse, Journal of Family Psychology, and Parenting: Science and Practice. Holden is a fellow of the American Psychological Society (APS) and a member of four other societies, including the Society for Research in Human Development (SRHD), where he served as president. Currently, he is President and a founding board member of the U.S. Alliance to End the Hitting of Children (www.endhitting.org). In addition, he is the past president of the board of Family Compass, an organization devoted to preventing child maltreatment in the Dallas community.
Dr. Holden received the Outstanding Mentor Award from the Society for Research in Human Development, the Lightner Sams Foundation Child Advocate Prism Award from Mental Health America of Greater Dallas, the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Center on the Human Rights of Children, Loyola University, Chicago, and the Distinguished Career Award from the International Society for the Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect. He is married to Anne Cameron. They are parents of three adult children and the proud grandparents of two delightful children. His Twitter handle is @DrNoSpank.
