Dr. Long is a Professor of Pediatrics and the Director of Pediatric Psychology at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences and a licensed clinical psychologist. He is also the Director of the Center for Effective Parenting. Dr. Long has published extensively in the area of parenting and has been a frequently invited speaker on parenting at the national and international level. In addition, Dr. Long has also developed, evaluated, and disseminated various parenting programs.

Dr. Long and his colleagues of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)-funded “Parents Matter” study found that early prevention efforts with parents to reduce sexual intentions of adolescents can be effective. One-year follow-up data from the Parents Matter study indicates that parents participating in the prevention intervention, relative to the control intervention, demonstrated increased parent-pre-adolescent sexual communication and improved parent comfort with and responsiveness to sex-related questions. The CDC is currently replicating this study in Kenya. The CDC is also developing training materials for a national dissemination of this prevention program.

Dr. Long continues to be actively involved in conducting parenting classes, having taught an average of 600 parents per year in parenting classes over the past 15 years. Dr. Long has a leadership role in several regional and national organizations concerned with parenting and children.

Forehand R, Merchant MJ, Long N, Garai E. An examination of Parenting the Strong-Willed Child as bibliotherapy for parents. Behavior Modification 2010 34:57-76.

Forehand R, Armistead L, Long N, Wyckoff SC, Kotchick BA, Whitaker D, Shaffer A, Greenberg AE, Murry V, Jackson LC, Kelly A, McNair L, Dittus PJ, Lin CY, Miller KS. Efficacy of a parent-based sexual-risk prevention program for African American preadolescents: a randomized controlled trial. Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med 2007 Dec; 161(12):1123 - 1129.

Gound, M., Forehand, R., Long, N., Miller, K., Armistead, L., & McNair, L. (2007). Attitude mismatching: Discrepancies in the sexual attitudes of African-American mothers and their pre-adolescent children. AIDS and Behavior, 11, 113-122.

Butler, T., Miller, K., Holtgrave, D., Forehand, R., & Long, N. (2006). Stages of sexual readiness and six-month stage progression among African-American pre-teens. Journal of Sex Research, 43(4), 378-386.

Long, N., Miller, K., Jackson, L., Lindner, G., Hunt, R., Robinson, A.D., Goldsby, W. D., & Armistead, L. (2004). Lessons learned from the Parents Matter! Program. Journal of Child and Family Studies, 13(1), 101-112.

Long, N., Austin, B., Gound, M., Kelly, A., Gardner, A., Dunn, R., Blacknall, S., & Miller, K. (2004). The Parents Matter! Program Interventions: Content and the facilitation process. Journal of Child and Family Studies, 13(1), 47-66.

*To find additional publications by this author, please visit Pubmed Central, a National Institutes of Health-operated site for electronic distribution of life sciences research reports.

Long, N. (PI). Center for Effective Parenting – Parental Information and Resource Center Program. U.S. Department of Education. $3,574,233 awarded for 2006-2011.

Forehand, R. (PI), Long, N. (Co-PI) [PI for Arkansas Site], Lisa Armistead (Co-PI), Beth Kotchik (Co-PI). Parent communication training interventions. Centers for Disease Control. $5,146,088 awarded for 1999-2006.