Archive - Research & Outreach
The Department of Family Social Science (FSoS) is a multidisciplinary community where faculty and students use the knowledge and methods of the social sciences to examine families and their interactions within various environments and systems. Although no longer active, these projects provide insight into the breadth and depth of the department and faculty.
Adolescent & Young Adult Health-Related Behaviors & Family Development
Utilizing data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health to explore the experiences and family relationships of youth who describe themselves as risk-takers.
Faculty: Dr. Jodi Dworkin
Applying Critical Thinking
A tool demonstrating how critical thinking levels can be applied to reflect on, analyze, and compare information presented in any form of media and art.
Faculty: Dr. William Goodman
Bolivian Health & Well-Being
A community-based participatory evaluation research project is being developed and will be pilot tested and refined through field work in Bolivia.
Faculty: Dr. Catherine Solheim
Community-Based Participatory Research to Decrease Smoking Prevalence in a High Risk Young Adult Population
Students Against Nicotine and Tobacco Addiction (SANTA) is an action research project that engages local medical and mental health providers in partnership with students, teachers, and administrators in the Minneapolis/St. Paul Job Corps community to reduce on-campus smoking. A project in collaboration with the Citizen Professional Center.
Faculty: Dr. Tai Mendenhall
Families, Culture, Communities, & Environment
The impact of globalization on the Mekong River and the villagers' ways of living.
Faculty: Dr. Catherine Solheim
Family Assets for Independence Minnesota
This study seeks to understand savings behavior in low-wage working families.
Faculty: Dr. Catherine Solheim
Family Formation Project
This project sought effective strategies to support urban unmarried new parent couples who aspire to form families and who say that marriage is a goal for their relationship.
Faculty: Dr. Bill Doherty
Financial Education Evaluation
This resource is designed to provide assessment and evaluation resources for community professionals who are delivering financial capability education programs.
Faculty: Dr. Catherine Solheim
Financial Management and Savings Behavior
This multi-state research project explores the economic and psychological influences on family savings behavior, including preferences for savings strategies. Findings will potentially provide input to asset development policy and financial industry products.
Faculty: Dr. Catherine Solheim
Immigrant Family Resource Management
This research project examines financial management behavior of Minnesota's recent immigrant families in the context of cultural beliefs, gender roles, and environmental supports and constraints.
Faculty: Dr. Catherine Solheim
Invest Now: Money in Retirement
Invest NOW: Money in Retirement is an online course designed to help make sense of all of the jargon about investment and retirement.
Faculty: Dr. Sharon Danes (professor emeritus)
Mexican Agricultural Workers in Minnesota
This bi-national research project examines transnational work and family issues of Mexican agricultural workers in southern Minnesota and their families in Minnesota and Mexico.
Faculty: Dr. Catherine Solheim
Parenting Together Project
This study examined whether a group educational intervention during the transition to parenthood can enhance the quality of father-child interaction and increase father involvement with their children.
Faculty: Dr. Bill Doherty
Rural Minnesota Life
A website that helps address the far reaching effects that changes in Minnesota have on family farms, rural businesses, rural families and rural communities.
Faculty: Dr. Sharon Danes (professor emeritus)
Sibling Interaction and Behavior Study
An on-going, longitudinal study of 400 adoptive families and 200 non-adoptive (biological) families aimed at understanding family environment and genetic influences on adolescent adjustment.
Faculty: Dr. Martha Rueter
SoCS: Collaborative Research: Novel Algorithms and Interaction Mechanisms to Enhance Social Production
The design of social media to enhance family engagement in early learning.
Faculty: Dr. Susan Walker
STEEP Project
Efforts to change socio-cultural norms and practices through policy development and implementation to decrease tobacco use, promote healthy eating, and change active lifestyles in the four Southeast Asian communities in Minnesota.
Faculty: Dr. Zha Blong Xiong
Study of Healthy Youth Experimentation
This project includes collecting focus group data from teenagers and parents of teenagers from across Minnesota, to better understand youths' experiences exploring a variety of behaviors, and the experiences of parents raising youth who are exploring.
Faculty: Dr. Jodi Dworkin
Teen Link
The Extension has a variety of resources on teen development. Developed as a means for educators, parents, teachers, youth, and professionals working with adolescents to obtain quick access to books, journal articles, and web sites addressing teen issues.
Faculty: Dr. Jodi Dworkin
Teen Pregnancy Prevention and Intervention in the Hmong Community
The goal of this two year project is to test the effectiveness of the Making Proud Choices or Kev Xaiv Curriculum with Hmong American youth in middle school and the best practices identified by the National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy with Hmong second-generation young parents.
Faculty: Dr. Zha Blong Xiong
Youth for Change
The goal of this three year project is to engage youth and young adults to be leaders focusing on policy work while empowering positive changes within the Southeast Asian communities through policy, empowerment, and advocacy.
Faculty: Dr. Zha Blong Xiong