Last Update: 10/19/2006 Printer Friendly Printer Friendly   Email This Page Email This Page  

The Explaining Family Change Project

The Explaining Family Change project is a substantive, interdisciplinary research-based planning process to develop innovative models for research and data collection that will address the question: what drives family change and variation in the United States?

Funded by the NICHD Demographic and Behavioral Sciences Branch through a contract to Duke University, the project seeks to contribute to the development of theory, methods, and research designs that could significantly advance understanding of the factors and processes that drive family change at both the individual and societal levels.

Under the leadership of Dr. S. Philip Morgan, an interdisciplinary group of investigators has been assembled from Duke, Columbia University, Northwestern University, the University of California, Los Angeles, and the University of Maryland. In addition, the project has involved a large number of consultants in the activities of its Executive Committee, Working Groups, and workshops.

NICHD program staff is also substantively involved. Information about project participants and consultants is available at the project Web site, http://www.soc.duke.edu/~efc/. Three working groups are developing recommendations about future directions in the areas of family relationships within and between generations, union formation, and parenthood.

Further information on the activities of these groups is available in The Explaining Family Change Project: Interim Report, March 17, 2006, available on the Web site. The project will produce a final report summarizing overall findings and recommendations in September 2007.

For more information on the project, please contact Christine Bachrach.