Lela Rankin Williams is an associate professor in the School of Social Work at Arizona State University. Dr. Williams has interdisciplinary training in psychology and human development and family studies. She regards cultural and familial relationships as critical influences on development from infancy through adolescence. She has collected, analyzed, and published data from several long-term longitudinal studies, as well as some community-based intervention studies, in the areas of infant-temperament, mother-infant bonding, parenting and parenting interventions, adolescent substance use and prevention, dating violence, juvenile desistance, and sexual education across the lifespan.
