Suchergebnisse

Our purpose is to apply Aristotelian theory to family studies. We introduce Aristotle's work through his debate with Plato over the meaning of family and its role in society. We then explain key concepts in Aristotelian theory, including virtue, practical wisdom, telos, interpretation and evaluation, agency, and human development. We propose an Aristotelian conceptualization of family as a multigenerational institution of mutual responsibility, defined in part through narrative and oriented around developing virtue and helping members reach their potential. Finally, we identify family virtues and consider implications of Aristotelianism for social research, with particular attention to how Aristotle's work provides an epistemological basis for narrative research in general and for case study research in particular.

This project qualitatively analyzed the stories that 23 preadolescent foster children told about their lives. An ecological framework in conjunction with the social constructionist understanding of stories guided the ethnographic semistructured interviews. These stories contained both common and unique features and provided insight into the lives of foster children whose environments involved poverty, drugs, crime, violence, and racism. Research domains included confusion, social ambivalence, anger, loss, and aids to resiliency. This study highlights the importance of these stories for the children who create them and those who will work with them.

Couple and relationship education (CRE) has effectively improved communication and relationship satisfaction, but some question its effectiveness for couples who are at risk. Mixed findings may derive from focusing on aggregated sample results. This study explored the benefit of using a person‐oriented analysis for evaluating CRE program effectiveness with low‐income couples and individuals. Couple participants reported moderate improvement in communication and relationship satisfaction, but the magnitude of reported improvement varied for male participants from different ethnic groups. An outcomes‐focused cluster analysis showed that variance in reported improvement can be explained by pre‐workshop outcome measures, with couples starting in the middle range of scores reporting the most improvement. Similar patterns were found for individual participants. Researchers and practitioners should further investigate the use of person‐oriented methods in CRE program evaluation and the use of pre‐workshop assessments to adjust CRE interventions on the basis of the state of participants' relationships at intake.

This study explored university‐community collaborations by examining the workings of 1 healthy marriage initiative. An ethnographic case study research strategy was used to study the process of this initiative, specifically looking at how participants worked through and overcame traditional university‐community collaboration challenges. Data consist of qualitative interviews with key initiative collaborators. Findings are organized into a model that offers a new way of looking at university‐community collaborations in light of challenge points to be addressed and either resolved or unresolved. The model provides implications for other collaborative efforts and outreach scholarship.