frame

<BODY BACKGROUND="Xmas.gif"> <FONT FACE="Arial, Helvetica, Sans Serif" SIZE=2> <IMG SRC="pic.jpg" Align=Right VSPACE=5 HSPACE=15> <P>Welcome to the Families through Time Study, a project dedicated to understanding the various ways that couples with infants and young children "parent together". Our study began in 1997, and was inspired by the need for accurate, current, and detailed information about the various ways that contemporary two parent families organize their lives. While the single earner/home-maker family arrangement often dismissed by family scholars as a thing of the past has actually been adopted by many of the families taking part in our study, we are also following over a hundred families who have arranged their lives in ways quite different from this form. Guiding our project is one major question:what are the factors that promote-or alternatively that interfere with-satisfying coparenting and family relationships? We pose this question in trying to understand the lives of all the families in our study, regardless of the particular family arrangements that characterize their lives.</P> <P>A second, equally important focus of our study is on the various factors within families that promote children's development, both in and outside the home. From the earliest months of new family life, when we study babies' reactions to different novel toys and challenges, through the toddler years, when we examine such things as children's early peer relationships, understanding of emotions, language skills and impulse control, we study in detail children's rapidly emerging capabilities and competencies. Ultimately, drawing upon the extensive information that parents share with us about the families they grew up in, their own personality and parenting styles, and their relationships as both a couple and as a coparenting team, we will be able to establish which features of families are the strongest predictors of various child skills in many different kinds of families.</P> <P> This website provides information that should be of interest to study participants, to parents who might be interested in joining the project, and to prospective graduate students who are contemplating coming to Clark University to pursue Ph.D. training in clinical or development psychology. Families considering taking part in the study are also encouraged to call us directly at <B><I>508 - 793 - 7105</B></I>. We are grateful for your interest!</P> <HR> <P>©2001 Copyright-Clark University-All Rights Reserved</P> </BODY>