Research on Families
Impact of Public Policymaking on Families — Professor Karen Bogenschneider
Executive Function Development Among Toddlers — Professor Janean Dilworth-Bart
Infancy: Self-Regulation in Preterm Infants – Professor Julie Poehlmann
Parent Education – Professor David Riley
Family Voices Project — Professor Boyd Rossing
Adolescence: Juvenile Delinquency – Professor Stephen Small
Bicultural Parenting Project – Professor Lynet Uttal
Impact of Public Policymaking on Families — Professor Karen Bogenschneider
Karen Bogenschneider has been named a 2006 Fellow by the National Council on Family Relations. This award recognizes enduring contributions to the field of family studies through a career of teaching, scholarship, outreach, professional service and leadership. The Policy Institute for Family Impact Seminars, which Professor Bogenschneider directs, is supported by the Kellogg Foundation and provides technical assistance to 22 states conducting Family Impact Seminars in their state capitals. The Wisconsin Family Impact Seminars staff (Professor Bogenschneider, Heidi Normandin, and Mark Lederer) received a 2006 School of Human Ecology Outreach Award. The second edition of Professor Bogenschneider’s book, Family Policy Matters: How Policymaking Affects Families and What Professional Can Do, was published. With doctoral student Maureen Ittig, Professor Bogenschneider also published an instructor’s manual (with accompanying CD), which includes family policy syllabi, classroom activities, daily lesson plans, discussion questions, and assignments from several family policy instructors from across the country.
Executive Function Development Among Toddlers — Professor Janean Dilworth-Bart
Janean Dilworth-Bart wrote and presented several papers and received a grant from the Center for the Study of Cultural Diversity in Healthcare at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health. The grant supports a study of maternal influences on early executive function development among toddlers born preterm, which is linked to research being completed by Professor Julie Poehlmann. In addition, she was initiated as an honorary member of the student chapter of Phi Upsilon Omicron, a national honorary professional organization that promotes scholarship and leadership.
Infancy: Self-Regulation in Preterm Infants – Professor Julie Poehlmann
Julie Poehlmann is principal investigator on a $1.4 million National Institutes of Health grant investigating individual and family predictors of emerging self-regulation in preterm infants. The study follows infants until they are 2 years of age, beginning at the neonatal intensive care units at Meriter and St. Marys Hospitals in Madison and St. Joseph Hospital in Milwaukee. She received an administrative supplement to her NIH grant to fund the additional participation of Professor Janean Dilworth-Bart. Professor Poehlmann brought Jumpstart to the UW-Madison campus. Jumpstart for Young Children is an Americorps program that pairs college student volunteers with economically disadvantaged preschoolers to help them build literacy skills and get ready for school.
Parent Education – Professor David Riley
David Riley continued his parenting education program. A collaborative project with UW-Extension, the program is delivered in English and Spanish versions to half of all parents giving birth in Wisconsin every year and has been adopted by many other states and two other countries.
Family Voices Project — Professor Boyd Rossing
Boyd Rossing continued to direct of the Family Voices project in South Madison. The builds supportive relationships with African American families, leading to family-to-family networking, a greater community voice, university-community partnerships, and other benefits. The project now focuses on family-school relationships promoting enhanced academic achievement. Family Voices was featured in the Wisconsin Alumni Magazine (Winter 2005). Professor Rossing co-chairs a statewide Family Living team in Cooperative Extension and served as lead author for a draft monograph on family-centered community connections programming. The publication synthesizes strategies of projects representing several facets of this work, including neighbor-to-neighbor connections, parent involvement in early care and education, and family-school-community connections.
Adolescence: Juvenile Delinquency – Professor Stephen Small
Stephen Small completed a project for the Governor's Commission on Juvenile Justice and the Wisconsin Office of Justice Assistance, and he co-authored a report, “What Works, Wisconsin: What Science Tells Us About Cost-Effective Programs for Juvenile Delinquency Programs.” He was selected to deliver the inaugural "Family Strengthening Distinguished Lecture" at the Jefferson Auditorium of the U.S. Department of Agriculture in Washington D.C. in 2006. The title of his presentation was "Good Intentions Aren't Enough: Toward More Effective Youth and Family Programs, Policies, and Practices." The annual newly inaugurated lecture series was sponsored by the National 4-H Council, through a grant from the Annie E. Casey Foundation.
Bicultural Parenting Project – Professor Lynet Uttal
Lynet Uttal is an active member of Women’s Studies, Chicana and Latina Studies Program, and Asian American Studies Program, as well as a member of the Department of Human Development and Family Studies. Lynet Uttal wrote several successful proposals to fund the continuation of community workshops for Latino immigrant parents to develop strategies to biculturally parent and to establish a community co-director position. The project was renamed Formando Lazos Bicultural Parenting Project to reflect the links that are developed between immigrant parents and childcare providers, between parents from different Latino countries, and between the university and Latino community in Madison. Two papers were published based on data from the early years of this project: “Community Caregiving and Community Consciousness: Immigrant Latinas Developing Communities Through Social Service Programs,” Journal of Community Development, and “Organizational Cultural Competency: Shifting Programs for Latino Immigrants from a Client-Centered to a Community-Based Orientation.” Grants were received from the Oscar and Elsa Mayer Foundation ($62,000), the Evjue Foundation ($15,000), the Meta Schroeder Beckner Homemaker Endowment ($15,000), and U.S. Cellular Community grant (three cellular phones for one year). Lynet Uttal organized a group of graduate students and community partners to present a symposium, “Latino Immigrant Families and Childcare Providers in the Midwest: A Research and Education Project,” on their project, Formando Lazos, at the National Association of Chicana and Chicano Scholars 2006 International Conference. Formando Lazos has expanded to include a component of children’s programming to help immigrant children have pride in their cultures of origin.
