CCF’s Dawn Braithwaite was on KFOR’s Lincoln Live radio show discussing children in families with same-sex parents. Listen to the interview on their website (after clicking, scroll down and select “Children in Gay Families”).
Topics of Expertise: Child Welfare / LGBTQ Partnering & Families
Joshua Coleman, CCF Co-Chair, was on NPR’s forum and on North Carolina’s KQED Radio discussing parenting and empty nests. It’s late August and flocks of future college freshmen have begun their migration to campuses around the country. For parents left at home, it can also be a stressful and sad time.
Topics of Expertise: Child Welfare
Today, almost 40 percent of all babies in the United States are born to women over 30, and almost 15 percent – 1 in 7 – are born to women 35 and over. As the chart below of historical trends in women’s fertility rates by age demonstrates, birth rates to women aged 15-24 have […]
Topics of Expertise: Child Welfare / Fertility,Reproduction & Sexual Health / Gender & Sexuality / Health & Illness / History & Trends on Gender, Marriage & Family Life
By Barbara Risman, Ph.D. Professor and Head of Sociology, University of Illinois at Chicago Phone: 919 349 0090 Email: brisman@uic.edu The gender revolution continues in many areas even if it has slowed down in others. The medical and legal professions are becoming feminized; women continue to outstrip men in educational attainment, recently surpassing them even […]
Topics of Expertise: Child Welfare
As colleges across the country begin the new school year, we hear a chorus of warnings about a generation of young adults unable or unwilling to “leave the nest.” Phrases are bandied about: “Failure to launch”; “the Peter Pan syndrome”; “boomerang kids” who can’t seem to leave home and establish an independent life. Undergirding these warnings is a fear that the younger generation is growing soft, losing the pioneer independence and rugged individualism that once built this nation.
But a glance at the past suggests it may not be the behavior of youths that has changed so much as the response by adults. Only over the past 90 years did American culture come to define young adults’ continued reliance on parental guidance and their longing to return home as a sign of psychological maladjustment.
Topics of Expertise: Child Welfare
ince 2009, 20 states and 11 cities have designated July as Sandwich Generation Month, to recognize the dedication of Americans who are caring for their children and their own aging parents at the same time. Currently about 7 percent of employed men and women, or about 9.8 million people out of the 139.3 million employed persons in June 2011, are official members of the sandwich generation, but a much higher proportion of Americans have already experienced or will eventually experience this stressful combination of care-giving responsibilities. With the number of Americans aged 65 and older projected to increase from 40 million in 2010 to 88.5 million by 2050, the ranks of sandwich generation caregivers are poised to expand significantly.
Topics of Expertise: Child Welfare / Family Caregiving (for Adults, Children, and Disabilities)
For the past two decades, parents have felt ever-increasing pressure to buy expensive, high-tech learning toys and enroll their children in special activities that will give them an edge in getting into a good college and embarking on a rewarding career. There’s nothing cuter than watching Kids Learning Songs and learning how to spell with […]
Topics of Expertise: Child Welfare
Isabelle Cherney, Ph.D. Michael W. Barry Professor Director, Honors Psychology Program Professor of Psychology Creighton University Have you ever asked yourself why children need so much time to play, not only during the summer but all through the school year? Play is a crucial aspect of healthy development. Children are active learners who acquire […]
Topics of Expertise: Child Welfare / Parenthood: Motherhood/Fatherhood
It’s hard to know just how many stepmothers there are, because census figures don’t count stepmothers who don’t live in the same house with their children. In addition, stepmothers are not always made by an official marriage. Today many divorced parents live together without getting re-married. And of course, many lesbian couples include a stepchild and stepmother: When women make commitments to other women they become stepmothers to other women’s children too.
Topics of Expertise: Child Welfare
In the mid-20th century, marital counselors often advised couples that parenthood would increase their marital satisfaction and adjustment, and polls showed that most Americans believed that true marital happiness depended on having a child. But over the past three decades, a series of studies, including two by Philip and Carolyn Cowan and another 25 studies in 10 industrialized countries, have discovered the opposite. On average, satisfaction with marriage for men and women goes down after the birth of a first child and continues to fall over the next 15 years.
Topics of Expertise: Child WelfareAssociate Research Scientist, University of Michigan Institute for Social Research
Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani Professor of Communication, Professor of Psychology, and Professor of Human Development and Social Policy, Professor of Medical Social Sciences Director, Center on Media and Human Development School of Communication Chair, Department of Communication Studies
