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Natasha J. Cabrera is a scientist known for her focuses on father involvement and children’s social development, as well as ethnic and cultural variations in fathering/mothering behaviors; family processes in a social and cultural context; and the mechanisms that link early experiences to children’s school readiness. She holds the position of director of the Family Involvement Laboratory at the University of Maryland, as well as a professor in their Department of Human Development and Quantitive Methodology. Before working at the University of Maryland, she had several years of experience as an SRCD Executive Branch Fellow with the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD).

Cabrera was also a recipient of the National Council and Family Relations award for "Best Research Article" regarding men in families in 2009. She was also a recipient for the DHHS Secretary's Award for Distinguished Service, the Fatherhood Initiative Team, for a book; Demographic and Behavioral Sciences Branch, NICHD with many other co-editors like Christine Bachrach, Lynne Casper, and Jeffrey Evans.

Based off her findings and research she has written multiple books, one being the "Handbook of Father Involvement: Multidisciplinary Perspectives" (two editions) each being about the studies of father's involvement and it's affect on a child's mentality. She has also written "Latina and Latino Children's Mental Health" which is about her cultural studies of developmental science in children.

Biography
Cabrera studied at the University of Denver and received a Ph. D in educational psychology in 1994. Cabrera has also earned her Masters in Psychology and Education at the University of Toronto in 1989 and Bachelors in Science Psychology at the University of Toronto in 1985.

Cabrera's career consisted of being a study director for the Roundtable on Head Start Research in 1996. She was also part of the Executive Branch for the Society for Research on Child Development (SRCD) under the auspices of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) at NICHD in 1998. She was named an expert in Child Development in 2002 by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), and the Demographic and Behavioral Sciences Branch (DBSB). She soon became part of the faculty and became a professor at the University of Maryland in 2002 and is currently working there.

Research
Dr. Cabrera's main focus of study is the connections between low-income fathers’ earnings and financial support and their children’s cognitive and behavioral outcomes. She explores the associations between a fathers’ earnings and their children’s skills and what is affected by factors such as their race, maternal stress, parental engagement, and the child's care quality.

Her study consisted of father–child and mother–child engagements. The participants were recorded for 10 minutes in their homes during what was called "semistructured free play". The children's language and cognitive status were being assessed at both ages. Fathers' and mothers' supportive parenting independently predicted the children's outcomes after varying significant demographic factors. These factors could be race, income, financial stability, etc. All in all the fathers' education along with their income were uniquely connected with the child measures. The fathers' educational level consistently predicted the quality of mother–child engagements. The findings suggest direct effects of father involvement in child development. For example, it was show that father engagement has significant effects on children's cognition and language at ages 24-36 months and on their social and emotional development at 24-36 months, and pre-Kindergarten.

Representative Publications
Cabrera, N. J., & Tamis-LeMonda, C. S. (2014). Handbook of father involvement: multidisciplinary perspectives. London: Routledge.

Cabrera, N. J., Villarruel, F., & Fitzgerald, H. E. (2011). Latina and Latino childrens mental health. Santa Barbara, CA: Praeger/ABC-CLIO.

Cabrera, N. J., Tamis-LeMonda, C. S., Lamb, M. E., & Boller, K. (1999). Measuring Father Involvement in the Early Head Start Evaluation A Multidimensional Conceptualization. Place of publication not identified: Distributed by ERIC Clearinghouse.