Flourishing Families Project
The Flourishing Families Project is a longitudinal study that is currently in its 4th wave of data collection. It assesses: HOW family provide, teach, regulate and connect; HOW family-level processes change over time; and HOW family interactions can buffer and mediate the experience of stress. Each year more than 650 families in Seattle, WA and Orem, UT are interviewed by a pair of undergraduate researchers. The families answer several questionnaires examining family life and also participate in video-taped discussions. Results from the study examine positive characteristics of families that perhaps are the key to helping families to overcome the challenges and stress associated with family life.
Student involvement is one of the highlights of the Flourishing Families Project. More than 500 students have been involved throughout the whole process. Students help prepare questionnaires, perform interviews to collect data, enter data, analyze videos of the family and use the data to present professional papers and posters. Students also have a chance to work directly with the 7 principle investigators- Dr. Randal Day, Dr. James Harper, Dr. Rick Miller, Dr. Laura Walker, Dr. Jeremy Yorgason, Dr. Roy Bean and Dr. Sarah Coyne.
SFL Course Highlight: SFL 210
SFL 210 (Human Devleopment) is designed to provide students a broad overview of the field of Human Development. The course serves as a required and foundational course for majors in the School of Family Life, Early Childhood Education, Education, and Nursing. It also fulfills a university General Education elective and is part of several Freshman Academy communities. Many students every semester take it just to benefit their own personal lives and the lives of children for whom they will have stewardship in various capacities including and most importantly as parents. Approximately 2000 students a year take this course.
Faculty Research: Raising Children with Disabilities or Chronic Conditions
The presence of a child with a chronic condition in the familiy has long been associated with potentially negative effects on family members; however, exisiting research indicates these families experience both positive and negative outcomes. Suzanne Olsen Roper is the principle investigator heading this ongoing research project with graduate and undergraduate students in which they learn to collect data from famlies who are adapting to raising children with disabilities or chronic conditions, analyze and interpret data, and disseminate results.