Center for Families

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

January 6, 2023

Kanter Lecture to explore mechanisms contributing to inequality in academic careers in science and engineering

On February 24, Kanter Award Finalist Dr. Sarah Thébaud will explore her findings that offer novel insight into mechanisms contributing to inequality in academic careers.

January 5, 2023

25th Family Impact Seminar: Protecting New Hoosiers and their Parents

Family Impact Seminars share recent evidence and useful policy strategies in a nonpartisan setting to allow open dialogue to find common ground on policy and programs that affect Hoosier families for the upcoming legislative session.

January 2, 2023

Center for Families announces new leadership

Valerie Knopik, head of the Department of Human Development and Family Science, has announced the appointment of Melissa Franks as the Director of the Center for Families, effective Jan. 1, 2023. Robert Duncan will continue as Associate Director for Policy....

January 1, 2023

Marriage provides health benefits – and here’s why

It turns out that when it comes to health, married people have an edge, especially married men. But surely the act of walking down the aisle is not what provides this health advantage. So what exactly is at play?

December 30, 2022

A longitudinal study on disordered eating in transgender and non-binary adolescents

There are multiple factors that may contribute to a higher risk of disordered eating in TGNB youth. Disordered eating behaviors can be a coping behavior associated with stigma from transphobia, dysphoria with one's sex assigned at birth, societal beauty expectations...

December 20, 2022

Social Relationships and Cognitive Impairment In Later Life

With population aging and the growing population at-risk of cognitive impairment, Alzheimer’s disease, and related dementias, there is a need for a better understanding of how social factors may affect cognitive impairment.

December 20, 2022

Dual Functionality in Later Life

Longevity and quality of life are core interests in gerontology, but debate has ensued as scholars have sought to integrate the two.

December 16, 2022

MFRI Research award finalists contribute diverse solutions and innovations for military families’ mental, physical healthcare

The Military Family Research Institute at Purdue University (MFRI) has announced five finalists for its 2022 Barbara Thompson Excellence in Research on Military and Veteran Families Award. The finalists come from a variety of academic fields and a wide range...

December 13, 2022

Work-Life Flexibility Policies From a Boundary Control and Implementation Perspective: A Review and Research Framework

Although management research on work-life flexibility policies has occurred for over 40 years, it is underdeveloped with inconsistent results. We argue that this is due to theorizing that—but not measuring whether—policy use increases boundary control; a fragmented literature examining a...

December 8, 2022

Within- and between-person associations among internalizing and externalizing problems during middle childhood

Internalizing and externalizing problems are likely to co-occur in childhood and are related to concurrent and prospective mental health outcomes. We examined the longitudinal relations among internalizing and externalizing problems during middle childhood