Faculty Research
The Family and Consumer Studies Department has an interdisciplinary orientation with research conducted by the faculty focusing on expanding the understanding of how the welfare of individuals and the families in which they live are affected by internal and external forces. As such, the Department emphasizes applied social science research with a strong emphasis on a public policy orientation. Listed below are general categories of faculty research interests.
Family Policy--Social
- Promoting literacy in low-income families (Diener, Wright)
- Middle aged and older persons relationships to informal family based based networks. (Salari)
- Relationships between family functioning/structure and the health status of individuals from a demographic and epidemiologic perspective, including risks associated with genetically linked cancers (K. Smith)
- Minority families and race relations (Solorzano)
- Consequences of marital instability (Wolfinger).
- Economics of consumer behavior--consumption, savings, and borrowing behavior (Fan)
- Economics consequences of widowhood (Zick)
- Mothers' employment, parent-child time and the implications for children's well-being (Zick)
Community Policy
- New Urbanism, community growth policies, housing and neighborhood design and effects (Brown, Bartholomew)
- Home, school, and community partnerships (P. Smith)
- Community resources, perceptions of collective efficacy, and dimensions of youth competence (Kowaleski-Jones)
- Processes of territoriality, privacy regulation, and place attachment across a variety of settings (Brown)
- Observational research in senior centers and assisted living facilities regarding infantilization and socioenvironmental aspects of quality care (Salari)
- Consumer protection on the internet and in electronic commerce (Mayer)
- Sources of credit for low income consumers and the implications of this type of credit (Burton)
- Adverse selection, genetic testing, and the market for life insurance (Zick, Smith, Mayer)
- Consumer movements around the world (Mayer) and consumer policy evaluation (Mayer, Burton, Zick).
- Parent-child relationships and the socio-emotional development of young children (Diener, Isabella)
- Parent-child interaction, development of representational models in children, consequences of infant-mother attachment; adolescent pregnancy and parenting (Isabella)
- Family's influence on young children's creative and cognitive development (Wright, Kowaleski-Jones)
- Adolescent and adult development in the family focusing on the relationship of the quality of experience to growth (Rathunde)
- Adolescent violence prevention; delaying adolescent sexual debut; adolescent health (P. Smith)
- Processes of territoriality, privacy regulation, and place attachment across a variety of settings (Brown)
- Social uses of the front porch (Brown, Burton)
- Physical and social environments of the home as a context (Herrin)
- Home, school and community partnerships
- Home processes and children's academic achievement (Kowaleski-Jones).
- Scenario Planning Processes (Bartholomew).
- Site Design Regulations and Policy (Bartholomew).
- Americanization of medicine in Latin America (Solorzano)
- Service Learning and Non-Profit Organizations (Bartholomew).