"Families and Health"

Leigh Leslie, University of Maryland, Program Chair

The World Health Organization defines health as "a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being."  As a discipline, we have long been focused on the mental and social foundations of health. The theme of the 2012 conference encourages us to also explore the multitude of ways in which the physical aspects of health are relevant to our understanding of well-being for children, families, and communities.

At the substantive level, the conference will address critical questions such as what is "family health" and how do we promote it through our research, interventions, and policy? At the discipline level, we will engage the question of how do we, as family scientists, interface with the health disciplines.

Major Sessions

• Brian D. Smedley, Vice President and Director of the Health Policy Institute of the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, Washington DC.
• Barbara Fiese, Professor of Human Development and Family Studies at the University of Illinois and Director of the Family Resiliency Center.
• Jackie Campbell, Chair and Professor, Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing and the Bloomberg School of Public Health.
• Sara Honn Qualls, Professor of Psychology and Director of the Gerontology Center at the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs.