Health concerns are central to family life across the developmental spectrum. Parents of young children often closely monitor their children's health. Youth gradually develop greater responsibility for managing their healthcare. Families become increasingly important as adults face health care changes in old age. Faculty who work in this area are guided by the bio psychosocial model. Particular areas of study are well-being and physical health in later-life, family functioning and coping with cancer.

The Center for Families serves as a catalyst for initiating and integrating activities that support families. It facilitates collaboration among professionals, policymakers, employers, and human service professionals regarding the vital roles of children and families in society.

The Military Family Research Institute was created in 2000 with funding from the Department of Defense. The institute conducts basic and applied research on the quality of life of military families and its implications for job satisfaction, performance, and retention.

Faculty Research

• Karen Fingerman
  The longest period of the parent/child relationship is the two decades when both parties are adults and in relatively good health. Dr. Fingerman's research examines the effects of intergenerational exchanges and emotional patterns on parents' and offspring's well-being from young adulthood to late old age.
• Melissa Franks
  Dr. Franks' research focuses on the ways in which a spouse's involvement in the day-to-day management of her or his partner's chronic illness affects the health and well-being of both married partners. In her research, Dr. Franks also investigates correspondence in health behaviors between married partners, and the influence of this correspondence on their marital interactions and on their individual health and well-being.
• Leah Hibel
  Dysregulation of stress physiology is thought to be an early indication of disease processes (e.g., cardiovascular disease). Dr. Hibel studies how stressful family contexts and relationships affect family physiology, and mental and physical well-being.
  
• Shelley MacDermid Wadsworth
  Stressful experiences at work have been linked to a variety of health-related behaviors. Dr. MacDermid is interested in connections between work stressors and psychological and physical well-being.
• Daniel Mroczek
  Dr. Mroczek's work looks at how family variables and family contextual variables interact with personality factors to predict physical health, mortality, and other health outcomes.
• Cleveland Shields
  Health concerns are central to family life across the developmental spectrum. Dr. Shields' research examines how couples and families manage the diagnosis and treatment of cancer. My students and I study family communication and its effect on adjustment. We also study how patients and family members communication with healthcare providers affects their mental health and quality of life.
• Shawn Whiteman
  One of Dr. Whiteman's emerging interests is how siblings influence one another's health risk behaviors in adolescence and early adulthood. Specific attention is paid processes by which older siblings influence their younger brothers' and sisters' alcohol and substance use.