Center for Families

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

January 20, 2022

Strengths of the heart: Stressors, gratitude, and mental health in single mothers during the COVID-19 pandemic

The Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic has created significant economic, social, and mental health challenges for many parents. However, single mothers (who are typically both primary caregivers and wage earners for their families) may be especially vulnerable to stress and mental...

January 3, 2022

Why kids are losing interest in playing team sports

Travis Dorsch, Utah State University Families in Sport Lab, joins The News with Shepard Smith to discuss why young people are less interested in playing team sports. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pbGgaxhYgAg

January 3, 2022

What Is Engaged Scholarship and How Can It Improve Your Research?

Community-engaged scholarship is increasingly viewed as a valuable strategy for strengthening the quality and impact of academic research. This approach involves partnering with relevant groups or communities—those who are the focus of a research study or who may be directly...

December 25, 2021

Examining transactional relations between behavioral self-regulation and social-emotional functioning during the transition to kindergarten.

The present study examined longitudinal associations between behavioral self-regulation and social-emotional functioning across four waves of measurement during the transition from preschool to kindergarten in a low-income sample. Participants included two cohorts of children. Children in both cohorts were 4...

December 6, 2021

Kids are losing interest in organized sports. Why that matters

For more than a century, team sports have been a mainstay of American childhood. What began as a way to keep boys in cities occupied and out of trouble has evolved into a $19-billion industry, with much of that revenue...

December 1, 2021

Pushing the boundaries: A qualitative study of how stem women adapted to disrupted work–nonwork boundaries during the COVID-19 pandemic.

National reports widely publicized that the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic’s disruption of work–nonwork boundaries impacted women’s careers negatively, as many exited their jobs to manage nonwork demands. We know less about the adaptations made by highly career-invested women to remain...

December 1, 2021

Interactions between Genetic, Prenatal, Cortisol, and Parenting Influences on Adolescent Substance Use and Frequency: A TRAILS Study

Dynamic relations between genetic, hormone, and pre- and postnatal environments are theorized as critically important for adolescent substance use but are rarely tested in multifactorial models. This study assessed the impact of interactions of genetic risk and cortisol reactivity with...

November 27, 2021

Parental Deployment and Military Children: A Century of Research

In this chapter, we place current research about parental deployments and military children into historical context. Policies regarding military families have evolved from ignoring or excluding families to a more systematic and intentional configuration of formal supports. Our review of...

November 22, 2021

Positive Parenting and Adolescent Adjustment in Black, Hispanic, and White Families Facing Socioeconomic Adversity: A Resilience-Based, Two-Generation Approach

Adversity stemming from socioeconomic risks poses a considerable threat to the wellbeing of parents and youth. Research has shown that children’s exposure to cumulative(consisting of multiple co-occurring risks), chronic(experienced across more than one timepoint), and early(experienced during the birth-to-three-year period)...

November 20, 2021

Engaging Rural Community Members with Food Policy Councils to Improve Food Access: Facilitators and Barriers

This study is a secondary assessment of data from a multi-state project called Voices for Food. The purpose was to determine facilitators and barriers to community stakeholders’ and food pantry clients’ engagement with food policy councils (FPCs) among rural Midwestern...