Research and News from the Center for Families at Purdue University

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...

November 20, 2021

Trajectories of early alcohol use milestones: Interrelations among initiation and progression

Alcohol use shows age-graded patterning, with normative use progressing through characteristic milestones of escalating use or severity. Despite some knowledge about the timing of milestone attainment and sequencing across milestones, there is a gap in our understanding of the earliest...

October 27, 2021

2022 Funding Program accepting applications

The Center for Families’ annual funding program supports family research across campus. Faculty and students from all departments and colleges are encouraged to apply.

October 20, 2021

Do Early-Life Social, Behavioral, and Health Exposures Increase Later-Life Arthritis Incidence?

This study investigates direct and indirect influences of childhood social, behavioral, and health exposures on later-life osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis development. Methods: Drawing from cumulative inequality theory and six waves of the Health and Retirement Study (2004–2014), we estimate structural...

October 8, 2021

Purdue’s Military Family Research Institute partners with Hamilton Center to promote high standards of care for military families

The Military Family Research Institute at Purdue University (MFRI) has reached a milestone in its goal of promoting high-quality care for veterans, current service members and their families. Hamilton Center in Terre Haute has become the first three-star center in...

September 28, 2021

Associations among African American Parents’ Beliefs, Involvement, and Measures of School Readiness

Parents’ beliefs about school readiness have been linked to their involvement practices and children’s achievement. However, there is some evidence to suggest associations among parental beliefs, practices, and children’s outcomes may vary by families’ racial and ethnic background. This study...

August 30, 2021

Parenting amidst COVID-19: Pandemic-related stressors, inequities, and treatment utilization and perceptions

Many parents of children under age 18 are faced with additional COVID-19 parenting-related stressors and may be experiencing increases in psychological difficulties; however, we have yet to investigate parent’s levels of posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSS) and adjustment disorder. Further, COVID-19...

August 30, 2021

Variability in Preschool CLASS Scores and Children’s School Readiness

Income disparities in children’s school readiness skills are key contributors to pervasive achievement gaps. Policy efforts concerning early childhood education (ECE), such as increasing access to state-funded prekindergarten programs implemented within Quality Rating and Improvement Systems (QRIS), have been initiated...

August 21, 2021

Adolescent and Maternal Anxiety Symptoms Decreased but Depressive Symptoms Increased before to during COVID-19 Lockdown

The tragedy of the COVID-19 pandemic and ensuing public health responses of social distancing, school closures, and staying home as much as possible “introduced a complex worldwide stressor” (Gruber et al., 2020, p. 6). Within weeks of the onset of the...