Center for Families

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

February 14, 2024

New year brought increased consumer interest in food and nutrition resolutions

Heather Eicher-Miller

Food or nutrition-related New Year’s resolutions were more popular among consumers going into 2024 compared to last year, according to the January Consumer Food Insights Report. This year 25% of consumers responded “yes” when asked if they had any food...

February 14, 2024

The role of the community café in addressing food security: Perceptions of managers and directors

Heather Eicher-Miller

In the United States, the pay-what-you-can restaurant model (community cafes) is an increasingly popular approach to addressing food insecurity in local communities. We conducted semi-structured interviews with community café executive managers and directors to assess their perceptions of the role...

February 12, 2024

Retrieval Practice and Word Learning by Children With Developmental Language Disorder: Does Expanding Retrieval Provide Additional Benefit?

Sharon Christ

The word learning of preschool-age children with developmental language disorder (DLD) is improved when spaced retrieval practice is incorporated into the learning sessions. In this preregistered study, we compared two types of spacing—an expanding retrieval practice schedule and an equally...

February 8, 2024

CFF welcomes Janine Duncan as a faculty partner!

Janine Duncan joins CFF as the Mary K. “Kitty” Decker Clinical Associate Professor of Family and Consumer Sciences Education. Research interests include family & consumer sciences (FCS)–broad field and education; professional literacy development; foundational perspectives; critical science framework; status of...

February 6, 2024

Verb Vocabulary Supports Event Probability Use in Developmental Language Disorder

Arielle Borovsky

Children with developmental language disorder (DLD) tend to interpret noncanonical sentences like passives using event probability (EP) information regardless of structure (e.g., by interpreting “The dog was chased by the squirrel” as “The dog chased the squirrel”).

February 1, 2024

Examining Mastery Orientation Among Youth in Latino/a Migrant Farmworker Families

Zoe Taylor

Latino/a children in migrant farmworker (LMFW) families are an underrepresented student subpopulation at high risk of school-dropout. To understand the factors that contribute to school competency in children in LMFW families, this mixed-method study examined academic mastery and explored perspectives...

January 29, 2024

Show the Love – Rosie Shrout and HHS faculty weigh in with tips for a healthy 2024

Telling your partner or loved one that you love them, hugging them or holding hands, complimenting them, and thanking them. Love can be expressed in small ways, even thanking them for doing a chore around the house, telling them that...

January 28, 2024

Child Care Providers’ Quality Improvement within QRIS

Jim Elicker, Sharon Christ

Child care quality rating and improvement systems exist to inform child care decisions and improve the quality of care. While previous research has shown QRIS have effects on quality, less is known about how child care providers vary in engagement...

January 28, 2024

Examining Cultural Comfort and Knowledge in Undergraduate Nursing Students After the Implementation of an Online Educational Animation on Providing Care for Muslim Patients

Libby Richards

With rapidly growing members of the Islamic faith, health care providers should expect to care for Muslim patients regardless of their chosen specialty. The quality of care provided hinges on their knowledge and understanding of Islam. This study aimed to...

January 24, 2024

Dyadic, biobehavioral, and socioculturalapproaches to romantic relationships and health:Implications for research, practice, and policy

Rosie Shrout

Romantic relationships are a key health determinant. Partners influence each other's psychological, behavioral, and biological trajectories in ways that can foster health and longevity or fuel disease risk and early mortality. A romantic relationship's health impact is considerable yet has...