Tova Walsh

Credentials: Associate Professor, Social Work

Email: tbwalsh@wisc.edu

Address:
311 School of Social Work Bldg
1350 University Ave
Madison, WI 53706

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School of Social Work
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Curriculum Vitae

Tova Walsh’s research focuses on understanding and improving health and wellbeing in multi-stressed families, with an emphasis on pregnancy and early parenting in contexts of risk. She examines the parenting support needs of underserved groups including new fathers and military-connected parents, and collaborates to develop and test parenting interventions to meet their needs. In her intervention work, she seeks to capitalize on existing technology or create new technology to more effectively reach the target population and address their specific needs.

In her current research, Dr. Walsh aims to identify effective strategies to support emerging competencies in early parenthood and promote nurturing parent-child relationships among parents who face barriers to initiating or maintaining positive involvement with their children. In one line of current research, Dr. Walsh is examining men’s health behavior and relationships across the transition to fatherhood, with the aim of informing efforts to promote healthy pregnancies and positive partnering and parenting. In another line of research, she aims to better understand the special challenges of parenting across the deployment cycle for service members who are mothers of young children, with the goal of informing the provision of support to military service members, veterans and their families.

CDE Research Area Affiliations:

Fertility, Families, and Households; Health and the Life Course

Selected Publications:

Fisher, Sheehan D., Tova Walsh, and Clare Wongwai. “The Importance of Perinatal Non-birthing Parents’ Mental Health and Involvement for Family Health.” In Seminars in Perinatology, p. 151950. WB Saunders, 2024.

Walsh, Tova B., Michael Hoffmeister, Laura Zimmerman, David Pate, and Darryl Davidson. ““I found the power of my presence”: Low income and noncustodial fathers’ experiences and insights from parenting young children through the COVID-19 pandemic.” Children and Youth Services Review 160 (2024): 107568.

Walsh, Tova B., and Craig F. Garfield. “Perinatal Mental Health: Father Inclusion At The Local, State, And National Levels: Commentary examines inclusion of fathers in perinatal mental health.” Health Affairs 43, no. 4 (2024): 590-596.