Liliana Lengua, Ph.D. is UW’s Maritz Family Foundation Professor of Psychology and the founding director of CCFW since 2011. A child clinical psychologist, she studies the effects of adversity on children and families, and examines risk and protective factors that contribute to children’s resilience or vulnerability. Her research has focused on the contributions of children’s temperament, coping, parenting, and parent mental health in contributing to children’s responses to adversity.
Her recent research probes the effects of low income on the development of self-regulation in children, including studies of infants, preschool and preadolescent children. She investigates family adversity, parenting, and neurobiological factors that account for the effects of low income on children’s well-being. In addition, she has developed evidence-based parenting programs for parents with infants and young children. These programs are infused with mindfulness and emotion regulation practices to enhance parenting effectiveness and support parent well-being.
Based on her research on coping and emotion regulation, she has also developed well-being promotion programs for youth, young adults and professionals who work with children and families. These include cognitive-behavioral and mindfulness practices that support emotion regulation and mental health. These are currently being evaluated using a task-shifting approach to increase their access and acceptability.
Dr. Lengua has been the principal investigator of several federally-funded research projects and is the author of over 150 published papers. She is also the author of two books: Parenting with Temperament in Mind is for parents, and Temperament and Child Development in Context provides a deep dive into temperament research. She contributes to the Washington State Essentials for Childhood Initiative and previously served on the board of trustees for Neighborhood House, a private, nonprofit anti-poverty organization.