Duration: 10/01/2005 to 09/30/2010

Administrative Advisor(s):

NIFA Reps:

Non-Technical Summary

Statement of Issues and Justification

Family economists uniquely recognize the importance of the family as an economic institution that interacts with a broader community system to acquire, develop, and utilize human and material resources. Research of family economists provides policymakers and program administrators with information critical to developing and implementing sound, cost-effective policies and practices to promote family well-being. Consequently, family economists are well positioned to address the two North Central cross-cutting research areas, namely, (a) Economic Development and Policy and (b) Social Change and Development.

Several emerging family economics issues exist. Communities and families today face critical economic issues in increasingly complex and diverse environments. Rural and urban families struggle to maintain economic stability in a changing economy. The population is aging and becoming more racially and ethnically diverse. Financial concerns exist across the lifespan. Young adults face escalating costs of higher education, increasing indebtedness, and a rising number of bankruptcies. Midlife adults and elders are concerned with retirement income adequacy, rising health care costs, and management of elder care.

To confront these critical issues, family economists have the expertise to investigate financial socialization of children in a demographically diverse culture and explore the implications of cultural differences in the perception and management of money. They can identify ways to improve financial literacy of youth and to influence credit management and saving behavior early in life. With their view of family as a system in the broader economy, family economists are well positioned to investigate the interrelationship of health status, health related costs, caregiving, and acquisition and maintenance of financial security across the lifespan.

A major purpose of this committee is facilitating collaboration among family economics researchers nationally and internationally. The committee provides a forum to examine research methodology and family economic issues in depth from a multidisciplinary perspective. The committee fosters development of research related to the economic well-being of individuals and families that is of interest to multiple institutions around the nation. For example, this committee recently served as a catalyst to launch two major regional research projects, NC 1011: Rural Low-Income Families: Tracking their Well-being and Function in an Era of Welfare Reform, and NC 1013: The Economic and Psychological Determinants of Household Savings.

Over the next five years, the committee will continue to promote rigorous and relevant research in family economics and expand efforts to link its work with researchers in other disciplines and other states and with personnel in resident instruction and outreach positions. The committee will also strive to increase the overall quality, quantity, and competitiveness of family economics research by strengthening the research infrastructure of the profession. It will endeavor to generate additional multi-state, multidiscipline research projects on emerging family economics issues. The NCCC 52 committee is unique in its scope (as determined by a CRIS search) and does not duplicate the efforts of other NC/NCCC/NCERA projects.

Objectives

Procedures and Activities

August 2005

Members will volunteer to serve on one or more workgroups.

a. Topic focused workgroups will identify specific research needs related to topic areas previously delineated in the statement of issues and justification

b. Research infrastructure focused workgroups will identify specific ways to build infrastructure to support family economics research efforts



Oct. 2005

• Full committee meets face-to-face. Workgroups will report results of their efforts to the full committee.
  
  
• Following discussion of work group reports, full committee will set research priorities for the next five years.
  
  
• Schedule online meetings for each work group to occur every 4 months over the next five years.
  

February/June 2006

• Topic focused work groups will determine the emphasis and scope of research that needs to be done and decide on the specific research deliverables to produce.
  
  
• Research infrastructure focused work groups will
  
  
  • Establish baseline measures of NCCC 52 objectives to assess progress in family economics research
    
    
  • Identify major deficits in existing family economics research methodology
    
  • Identify restraints to success in obtaining research funding

Oct. 2006

Face-to-face full committee meets to:

Finalize decisions regarding which end products will be produced by which work group and establish timelines for completion

Discuss strategies to counter major deficits in research methodology and overcome restraints to success in obtaining funding

Oct. 2007 - Oct. 2008

Face-to-face full committee meets to

• Hear and discuss progress reports from workgroups
  
  
• Formulate project committees, as appropriate

Oct. 2009

Face-to-face full committee meets to schedule dissemination of results of work group efforts though:

• Development of manuscripts for journal publication
  
  
• Sessions on family economic topics and family economic research at major conferences and symposiums

Oct. 2010

Face-to-face full committee meets to

• Produce policy briefs to report accomplishments of workgroups to relevant audiences
  
  
• Produce accomplishment report
  
  
• Outline direction for next planning period

Expected Outcomes and Impacts

• Increase the number of multi-state, multidisciplinary research projects on emerging issues significant to families such as health and financial well-being, youth and credit, costs of elder care, cultural perspectives on money, and other issues.
• Increase the number and quality of proposals initiated and submitted by family economics scholars for competitive grants, thereby increasing external dollar amounts received by family economics scholars.
• Increase the number and quality of manuscripts submitted to and subsequently published in top-tier research journals by family economics scholars and their academic units. Increase number of citations of work of family economics scholars in leading research abstract indices. .
• Disseminate research by organizing NCCC52 research sessions at major conferences related to family and consumer economics and at outside forums (e.g., annual meeting of the American Council on Consumer Interests or ACCI) and at public policy meetings (e.g., the annual meeting of the Association for Public Policy, Analysis, and Management or APPAM). One specific topic would emphasize the latest research methodology and empirical techniques being used in the profession.
• Develop research briefs from family economics research conducted at participating universities. Included in these research briefs would be summaries of manuscripts published in research journals and, in particular, top-tier research journals. Relevant policy issues would warrant a specific legislative briefing.

Projected Participation

View Appendix E: Participation

Educational Plan

1. An invitation to participate in NCCC 52 activities/projects will be sent to all State Experiment Stations and included in the online CSREES-sponsored Family Economics Newsletter readership (open to any educator).
   
2. NCCC 52 members will be asked to consult with colleagues actively conducting research on the emerging issues identified to bring the group up to date.
   
3. Interpretative reports and news briefs will be written to disseminate significant research findings of NCCC 52 membership through NIMSS Website, Extension and University colleagues, professionals assigned to serve low-income audiences, county and community leaders, and popular press and other appropriate news media. Presentations of research findings and impacts will be shared at national and regional professional meetings and locally by committee members.
   
4. Members of the U.S. Congress assigned to committees pertinent to the chosen emerging issue contacted by selected NCCC 52 committee members to apprise them of the research findings and to suggest needed actions or considerations in light of those findings.
   
5. Impacts of the findings of the NCCC 52 committee will be shared at all levels using methods and audiences prescribed previously.

Organization/Governance

The committee has a Chair and a Secretary. All officers are to be elected for two-year terms to provide continuity. Administrative guidance will be provided by an assigned Administrative Advisor and a CSREES Representative.

Literature Cited

Jump$tart Financial Literacy Coalition. (2004). 2004 Personal Financial Survey of High School Seniors Executive Summary. Retrieved November 5, 2004, from http://www.jumpstart.org.

Moskowitz, S. (2004). Still part of the clan: Representing elders in the family law practice. Family Law Review, 38(2), 213-246.

Attachments

Land Grant Participating States/Institutions

AL, IA, IL, LA, MI, MN, MO, ND, NE, NJ, OH, PA, SD, VA, WI

Non Land Grant Participating States/Institutions

Emeritus Collaborator