FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE -- March 22, 2011
CONTACT: Pamela Anne Quiroz, pamelaquiroz@comcast.net, 708 386-2625     

Journalists Covering Family Diversity Honored by Council on Contemporary Families:
9^th Annual Media Awards to be Presented at April 8^th Conference in Chicago

CHICAGO, IL--The Council on Contemporary Families (CCF) is pleased to present its Ninth Annual Media Awards on Friday, April 8, at the CCF Annual Conference in Chicago, IL. The awards honor outstanding journalism that contributes to the public understanding of contemporary family issues. Awards will be presented at the CCF luncheon on Friday, April 8, at the University of Illinois-Chicago. Award recipients will speak briefly about their work and the ways in which scholars and practitioners can help them advance the conversation about the needs of American families today.

For Immediate Release
Contact: Stephanie Coontz
360 556-9223; coontzs@msn.com

LOOKING FOR LOVE BEFORE THE INTERNET

19th Century Personals Have Much In Common With Today's High-Tech Versions - And Some Interesting Differences

A Valentine's Day Information Sheet Prepared for the Council on Contemporary Families
by Pam Epstein, Rutgers University

On Valentine's Day, it is only natural that our thoughts turn to love. Those who think they have found it use the occasion to celebrate their relationship, making Valentine's Day the busiest day of the year for candy sales and romantic restaurant dinners. Those still looking for love often feel lonelier than ever, so that web dating sites see their numbers spike in February.

Much attention has been paid to the explosion of on-line dating and the posting of personal profiles, but Americans have been advertising for partners for more than 150 years. I have collected thousands of personal ads from the 19^th-century, and it's worth reading what men and women said they were looking for then, and how they went about it, to see what has and has not changed.

CONTACT: Stephanie Coontz, coontzs@msn.com

360 352-8117; 360 556-9223

MASS INCARCERATION AND AMERICA'S FAMILIES

A Best-Practice Briefing Prepared for the Council on Contemporary Families by Carol Shapiro, Institute for Social and Economic Research and Policy, Columbia University, October 12, 2010

October 16 is the 37^th anniversary of congressional approval of the Drug Enforcement Administration, whose purpose, in the words of then-President Richard Nixon, was to coordinate an "all-out war" on drugs. Before the 1970's, drug abuse had been seen by policy makers primarily as a disease that could be addressed by treatment. During the 1970s, however, drug abuse - even in the absence of any violent or other criminal behavior - came to be seen as a law enforcement problem to be solved through aggressive arrest and incarceration policies.

Since then, the United States has increased its rates of imprisonment by nearly 500 percent. We now incarcerate a far higher proportion of our citizens than any other nation -- 2.3 million adults and an additional eight hundred thousand youths.  This is a higher proportion than in either China or Russia, and higher than the top 35 European countries combined, per recent reports. As an absolute number it represents more than the combined populations of Boston, San Francisco, and Washington, DC.

On any given day, at least one in 100 adults is in our nation's jails and prisons, while more than one in 30 adults is under some form of correctional custody, including probation and parole supervision in the community. More than half of all inmates are parents of minor children. Almost 3 million minor children have a parent behind bars-that is one in 28--and about one million juveniles are themselves under some form of correctional supervision, creating complex relationships between parents, schools, probation officers, and other agencies.

Low-income communities are disproportionately affected by America's mass incarceration practices. Residents are more likely to be arrested, prosecuted, and sent to jail for the same offenses that lead to warnings, probation, or treatment programs in more affluent neighborhoods.  Most convictions in low-income communities, contrary to popular impression, are for nonviolent acts, with drug users and the mentally ill heavily overrepresented in the prison population.  Two-thirds of incarcerated parents of minor children are in jail for non-violent acts. Many non-violent offenders cycle in and out of jail simply because of technical violations of probation or parole rules, not because they have committed new crimes.

WHY SHOULD WE CARE?

The 100th Anniversary of Father's Day: A Council on Contemporary Families Media Advisory

CHICAGO, June 16 (AScribe Newswire) -- One hundred years ago, on June 19, 1910, the first Father's Day was celebrated in Spokane, Washington, after Sonora Dodd convinced the mayor that fathers such as hers, a widowed farmer who raised his six children, deserved their own day of recognition.


Unlike Mother's Day, politicians didn't immediately jump on the bandwagon. In fact, the holiday was met with mockery in its early years. Not until 1972 did President Richard M. Nixon sign the holiday into law. It has since become a day when Americans celebrate their fathers and father-like figures, including uncles, grandfathers, and even older brothers.  Father's Day is also observed world-wide, with at least 52 countries setting aside a day to honor "dear old dad."


Fatherhood has changed dramatically since 1910, and even since 1972. While a father's job was once primarily to "bring home the bacon," dads are increasingly involved in all aspects of family life - reading to their kids, shuttling car pools, and offering a shoulder for the kids to cry on. Between 1965 and 2003, men tripled the amount of time they spent in child care.


But involved fatherhood remains a challenge, both because of the large numbers of children whose fathers are not in the home and because employers, government, and many members of the public still think that a dad's only real job is to provide economic support to his children and leave the nurturing to others.


In honor of Father's Day, here are some surprising and thought-provoking facts and figures about fatherhood today.

Back in 1963, when 17 million Americans aged 65 and older represented just 9 percent of the population, President John F. Kennedy designated May as Senior Citizens Month. Today there are almost 40 million Americans aged 65 and older, a number that is projected to increase to 88.5 million by 2050. By then they will make up 20 percent of the total population, and nearly 1 in 4 will be over 85. (By comparison, in 1900 only 4 percent of women and 3 percent of men lived to be 90.)

We now know that they hate being called "senior citizens." (President Carter changed the name to Older Americans Month in 1980.) Their numbers are swelling. What else do we know about older Americans? Follow this link to read some surprising facts from researchers at the Council on Contemporary Families.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE -- April 14, 2010

CONTACT: Virginia Rutter/Framingham State College Sociology; 508-626-4863; vrutter@gmail.com

CCF Advice: How Do We Teach Children the Most Important Life Skills? from Ellen Galinsky 

Chicago, IL: How do we use what we know? That is the theme of the Council on Contemporary Families' 13th annual conference this year. In connection with the conference, CCF is releasing a list of research-tested tips for building the seven life skills that children really need-and that parents can teach simply. The tip sheet is based on a preview of Work and Family Institute's Ellen Galinsky's new book, to be released April 20, which summarize her eight years-long review of research on child development and interviews with 75 of the leading researchers in this field.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE -- January 26, 2010

CONTACT: Stephanie Coontz; coontzs@msn.com; 360.556.9223; 360.352.8117

Click here to download the complete report as a PDF.

The marriage prospects of educated women have been hotly debated in the media in recent weeks. Are highly educated women more likely to wind up single than their less-educated counterparts? Would they do better to settle for a "good enough" man before they miss their chance altogether? Or are educated women now MORE likely to marry then their less-educated counterparts? But if so, do higher expectations make them more discontented with marriage?

In a briefing paper prepared for the Council on Contemporary Families, economists Betsey Stevenson and Adam Isen crunch the data from 1950 to 2008 and come up with some surprising findings. Yes, college-educated white women (unlike college-educated black women) are less likely to marry than their less-educated counterparts. But when they do marry, they are less likely to divorce, so that by age 40, they are MORE likely to be married than other women, many of whom have already divorced.

In addition, college-educated women who are unmarried at age 40 are twice as likely to marry in the next 10 years as unmarried 40-year-olds with just a high school degree. Educated women are also more likely to report themselves happy in their marriages than less-educated women.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE -- September 20, 2009

CONTACT: Bella DePaulo; depaulo@psych.usb.edu; 805.565.9582

Check out the numbers from a Council on Contemporary Families Fact Sheet out this week: Single Americans are 43% of the population-up from 28% 40 years ago. Single Americans are healthier and happier than ever before-and they are more likely than married Americans to help, encourage, and socialize with friends and neighbors, and to visit, contact, and help out their parents and siblings.

In preparation for national Unmarried and Single Americans Week, psychologist and CCF Fellow Bella DePaulo explores myths and realities about the diverse lives of unmarried Americans. DePaulo, who researches the changing roles and status of the unmarried, argues that the persistent belief that single people are lonely and miserable just isn't supported by the facts. In her CCF Fact Sheet, DePaulo provides data that shows that singles are not only happier and healthier than many other Americans but also make important contributions to our society.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE -- September 15, 2009

CONTACT: Ruth E. Zambrana; rzambran@umd.edu; 301.405.3447; AND Laura A. Logie; llogie@umd.edu; 301.405.1651

Over the last 30 years the Latino/Hispanic population in the United States has grown seven times faster than the population of the nation as a whole. Hispanics currently represent almost 15 percent of the U.S. population and within the next two decades are expected to constitute a full quarter of Americans. Although often treated as a monolithic ethnic group, Latina/os differ in their racial and ethnic identities, religious beliefs, health status, socioeconomic status, and language patterns. Lumping ALL these groups under the rubric of "Latino" or "Hispanic" masks important demographic and socioeconomic differences and perpetuates negative stereotypes.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE -- August 2, 2009

CONTACT: Isabelle Cherney; cherneyi@creighton.edu; 402.280.1228

It is the time of summer when plenty of parents of small children are all "played out" and ready for the kids to be back in school. But for the kids, playing -- and how they play -- is extremely important for growing up healthy and smart. In "'Child's Play': It's Serious Business" (appended below), a fact sheet prepared for the Council on Contemporary Families, Creighton University psychologist Isabel Cherney explains findings from her laboratory observations of children's play.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE -- April 4, 2009

CONTACT: Stephanie Coontz; coontzs@msn.com; 360.556.9223

One of the foremost authorities on American family life will speak about the contradictions and dilemmas in American marital values and behaviors at the Council on Contemporary Families' 12th Annual Conference, Saturday, April 18, at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Andrew Cherlin, Griswold Professor of Sociology and Public Policy at Johns Hopkins University, will report on his new book, The Marriage-Go-Round: The State of Marriage and the Family in America Today (Knopf; release date April 14).

In his conference remarks, Cherlin will report that Americans marry more often and live with more partners than people in any other Western country, including the supposedly less "pro-family" Scandinavian countries. These patterns of recurrent divorce, remarriage, and short-term cohabitation, Cherlin argues, reveal that Americans have come to simultaneously embrace two contradictory models of family life: a commitment to a shared life in a sanctified marriage and an individualistic emphasis on personal growth and development.

What do you plan to give your valentine this February 14: a bouquet of flowers, a heart-shaped box of chocolates, a candlelit dinner?  Have you considered the gift that keeps on giving: a sexually transmitted infection?  Sexually transmitted infections (STIs) are infections that result from the transmission of certain bacteria or viruses during physically intimate acts.  An STI may or may not result in a sexually transmitted disease (STD) that has noticeable symptoms.

Just in time for this romantic holiday, CCF's Adina Nack, a sociology professor at California Lutheran University, dispels STI/STD myths, updates us on the facts, and gives practical advice for how to avoid STIs 365 days a year.  The idea is that for Valentines Day you can give love and keep your sexual well-being.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE -- January 9, 2009

CONTACT: Philip Cowan and Carolyn Cowan; pcowan@berkeley.edu; ccowan@berkeley.edu

• Old News: Having a Baby Will Save Your Marriage
• New News: No, After Having a Baby, Satisfaction With Marriage Goes Down for Most Couples
• New New News: Having a Baby Won't Improve a Poor Marriage, but Couples Who Plan the Conception Jointly Are Much Less Likely to Experience a Serious Marital Decline
• And Really Good News: Couples Who Establish a Collaborative Parenting Relationship After the Child Is Born not Only Have Happier Marriages but Better-Adjusted Children

CHICAGO, IL, April 24 - In a discussion paper prepared for a panel to be held at the 11th annual conference of the Council On Contemporary Families, on April 25 and 26, 2008, University of Illinois, Chicago, Allen Li presents a new approach to researching the impact of divorce on children. Li argues that it is methodologically unsound to compare the outcomes of children of divorced parents with those of continuously-married parents. Instead, the proper comparison is between the behavior of children years before a divorce occurs and their behavior after the divorce. Only this can tell us whether children's problems after a divorce were a result of the divorce or were a continuation of prior problems attributable to pre-existing conditions of the child's environment. Arguing that previous studies have over-stated the impact of divorce by failing to control for both "observable" and "unobservable" differences in families prior to divorce, Li used longitudinal research and novel statistical methods to revisit the question. He found that the average effect of divorce was neither to increase nor decrease children's behavior problems. "It is possible that the dissolution of some marriages decreases some children's behavior problems and the dissolution of others increases children's behavior problems," Li writes, "so that they cancel each other out, creating the zero effect that I found when I totaled the average effect of divorce. However, for this to be true, one must admit that while certain divorces harm children, others benefit them. My findings contradict the widely-accepted claim that MOST divorces increase children's behavior problems and that only a tiny minority of divorces do NOT."

This discussion paper summarizes the findings of a more technical, unpublished paper that won the 2007 Graduate Student Paper Award in Social Demography from the Section on Population of the American Sociological Association. Li describes his methods and findings below. Following the appendix, several other scholars offer differing perspectives on his work and on the debate over the impact of divorce.

Read The Impact of Divorce on Children's Behavior Problems here.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE -- September 1, 2008

CONTACT: Janet Gornick; jgornick@gc.cuny.edu; 212.817.1872

When it comes to giving fathers and mothers equal access to time off from work to care for new babies, the United States gets a "gentleman's C," ranking in the middle of 21 wealthy countries, according to a Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR) report presented to the Council on Contemporary Families in time for Labor Day. But when it comes to the amount of time parents are entitled to take and the provision of subsidies that make it affordable for workers to take the time to which they are entitled, the United States lags far behind most countries with comparable levels of income. In "Parental Leave Policies in 21 Countries: Assessing Generosity and Gender Equality," the CEPR researchers found that the U.S. and Australia were the only high-income countries to offer no paid parental leave.