The Center for Families

The Center for Families empowers all families to thrive in nurturing environments that meet their essential needs, reduce their exposures to risk, and enhance their individual and collective strength and resilience.

Our Approach…

black icon of light bulb with seven separate lines coming out of the top, to show it is illuminated, with book in the center

Discover

Promote the study of families from a multidisciplinary, life course perspective while also increasing the opportunity for new knowledge.

black icon of three people

Connect

Foster collaboration among academics, policymakers, and practitioners to identify where research about families is needed.

black icon of person standing, line image of what is supposed to represent a globe, on the outside line of the globe are five smaller circled individual shoulder and heads icons, with an arrow in between each of them in a clockwise direction

Empower

   Identify high-quality family research from around the world, used to inform decisions that impact families.

LATEST RESEARCH AND NEWS

  • Honoring a Visionary: The Life and Legacy of Lorene McCormick Burkhart
    Lorene McCormick Burkhart lived a life defined by purpose, generosity, and an unwavering belief in the power of families. When she passed away on February 13, 2026, at the age of 91, we not only lost a dynamic civic leader, we lost one of the Center for Families’ most visionary champions.
  • CFF Welcomes Meingold Chan as our Newest Faculty Partner!
    CFF welcomes Dr. Meingold Chan, Human Development and Family Science, as a faculty partner. Her research on children’s socioemotional development, family emotion socialization and sociocultural influences enriches the center’s mission to strengthen families across diverse contexts.
  • “Unlocking Childhood” HDFS Podcast Episode: “Bites and Tips: Feeding Children”
    In this episode of the HDFS Podcast, Unlocking Childhood, Purdue University expert Dr. Kameron Moding sits down with mothers Abby Morgan and Molly Childers to discuss children’s nutrition. They explore healthy feeding habits, mealtime challenges, picky eating, and how parents can model positive eating behaviors for young children.
valid rss feed icon

Some research and news links may lead to external websites not maintained by the Center for Families. These sites may not follow the same accessibility standards (such as WCAG 2.1) required by ADA Title II. If you experience difficulty accessing this content, please contact cff@purdue.edu for assistance or to request an alternative format.

CURRENT INITIATIVES

color icon image of three books underlined. Books are red, yellow, and blue. Line is blue.
nine by six squares of images of faces of the faculty partners of the center for families
Fellowship Lecture speaker Libby Richards at podium, the back's of two people's heads.
The Family Dinner Project dot Org logo
Text: the Center for Families Funding Recipients. With five photos of recipients
dad, mom, child. mom in military uniform holding child. family is interracial.

Families, in all their diverse forms, are the foundation of society. No culture has been able to provide anything better than the family for producing strong individuals for the journey of life.

—Dr. Donald Felker, Dean of School of Consumer and Family Science, 1987-1992

150+ Faculty Members

have engaged in projects that have added to the creation and dissemination of new knowledge

Who are our Faculty Partners?

$700 Thousand+

of funding provided directly to support over 150 students and faculty and their research

Read about funded research

30 Years

of harnessing the power of faculty, staff, students, alumni, and friends to improve our quality of life

Learn about Center milestones

YOUR SUPPORT MAKES AN IMPACT

Every gift, no matter how large or small, makes it possible for the center to be involved in innovative initiatives that impact individuals and families.

GIVE NOW