Research and News from the Center for Families at Purdue University

July 25, 2024

Sibling relational aggression: Developmental change and associations with family relationships across adolescence

Kim Updegraff

Sibling relational aggression is an understudied social and family process that is of developmental significance in adolescence, a period of interpersonal relationship development.

July 23, 2024

Understanding Rewarding and Challenging Nursing Experiences During the Pandemic in Five Countries: Toward Strengthening the Workforce

Vicki Simpson

Nurses are now more likely to leave their current role in direct patient care than they were before the COVID-19 pandemic. Country culture and the organization of health care systems drive nurses’ decisions to leave or stay in the profession.

July 23, 2024

Illness-related partner communication predicts better health, COVID, and social-contextual outcomes amid the COVID-19 pandemic: A longitudinal study of students with concealable chronic health conditions

Rosie Shrout

In this longitudinal study of students with concealable chronic health conditions (CCHCs), we applied components of interpersonal disclosure process models to investigate how illness disclosures and perceived partner responsiveness conferred health and social benefits during the COVID-19 pandemic.

July 22, 2024

Secondary Analysis of Sweetness Liking from Pilot Study Replacing Sugar Sweetened Soda with Flavored, Unsweetened Sparkling Water

Cordelia Running

This study aimed to evaluate changes in sensory ratings (liking, sweetness intensity, “just about right” (JAR) level of sweetness) of 0–10.7% w/w sugar in soda after 1 and 2 wk of replacing sugar-sweetened soda consumption with unsweetened, flavored, sparkling water.

July 22, 2024

What We Can All Learn About Parenting From the Parents of Olympic Athletes

Travis Dorsch

Accepting the gold medal as part of the freestyle relay team at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, the 18-year-old swimmer recognized that her dreams were coming true. At the same time, she was roiling with self-criticism about the parts of her...

July 20, 2024

A qualitative study of Asian American adolescents’ experiences of support during the COVID-19 and racism syndemic

Annabelle Atkin

The present study’s goal was to understand Asian American adolescents’ experiences with discussing anti-Asian racism with their parents during the COVID-19 pandemic and their perceptions of the support they received from their parents and other sources.

July 16, 2024

Capturing Math Language Use During Block Play: Creation of the Spatial and Quantitative Mathematical Language Coding System

David Purpura

The goals of the current study were: 1) to modify and expand an existing spatial mathematical language coding system to include quantitative mathematical language terms and 2) to examine the extent to which preschool-aged children used spatial and quantitative mathematical...

July 12, 2024

Relationship commitment regulation: Influencing a partner’s commitment to achieve one’s commitment goals

Chris Agnew

We introduce a model of relationship commitment regulation, which describes how romantic partners might use empirically-validated antecedents of commitment level strategically to influence a partner's commitment toward their relationship based on certain commitment goals they have for the relationship.

July 11, 2024

Community members as design partners: Codesign workshops of the families tackling tough times together program

Kristine Marceau; Shelley MacDermid Wadsworth

This community-engaged codesign project identified the changes needed to tailor a family resilience-building program, the Families Tackling Tough Times Together (FT), into a community setting

July 10, 2024

Are Asian Americans BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color)? Internalization of the model minority stereotype and COVID-19 racial bias on interracial solidarity toward Black Americans

Annabelle Atkin

Collective minoritized identities such as Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) may promote cross-racial solidarity. However, Asian Americans occupy a racially triangulated position as the “buffer minority” stereotyped as both the model minority and perpetual foreigner, complicating their inclusion...