Contemporary families live in a world that is complex, increasingly interconnected, and culturally diverse. Families are affected by continuously evolving economic, technological, ideological, cultural, and political changes. In many areas, a decreasing fertility rate, the decline in household size, the aging population, and the sharp increase in the proportion of women entering the labor force have led to new and diverse family arrangements.

Despite these changes, families remain a central arena for promoting the well-being and resiliency of their members. The 2018 NCFR Annual Conference will focus on innovative approaches, theories, research, policies, and programs that support and strengthen families in all types of Western and non-Western settings. Of particular interest are proposals that focus on new lines of research and prevention and intervention approaches, programs, and policies that support vulnerable families. 

The theme allows for a wide variety of topics, debates, and policy analyses, including these examples:

• The current state of empirical research on families of difference races and ethnicities
• The intersection of social class, gender, ethnicity, and race from a global perspective
• Reproductive technologies and new conceptualizations of motherhood and fatherhood
• How families are responding to increasing racial and cultural diversity around the world
• Families’ increasing use of technology to maintain connections globally
• The effect of immigration issues on families in Western and non-Western societies
• Multiple-partner fertility and parenting
• Evaluating family support programs and their utility from the lens of complex families
• Incorporating family complexity into quantitative and qualitative research
• Changing demographics in the European Union, Asia, Latin and South America, and Africa, and policy responses to those changes
• Gender–work balance in the Asian context, in Canada, in the European Union, as well as how gender-work balance compares in the United States

Sustainable Conference Goals

• To highlight research on families in Western and non-Western contexts, culturally and socially marginalized families, and families that live at or embody cultural intersections.
• To feature innovative evidence-based best practices, programs, and pedagogies that promote family resiliency and well-being in varying settings.
• To draw attention to and critically analyze policies that support and strengthen all types of families, including the most vulnerable.