Welcome to the Family Science 5, helping you catch up on some of the Family Science research and researchers featured in the media during May 2023.

NCFR member journal subscribers can access full text of journal articles through the NCFR website; you may be prompted to log in.

1. NCFR member Rosie Shrout, Ph.D., assistant professor in Purdue University's Department of Human Development and Family Science, and her research were featured in the May 24 Discover magazine article "Do Relationships Affect Our Physical Health?" (free access available to a limited number of articles)
    
   The article highlights research findings indicating that the quality of relationships may affect short-term and long-term physical health, including Dr. Shrout's research article, "The health consequences of stress in couples: A review and new integrated Dyadic Biobehavioral Stress Model," which, according to the abstract, offers a model that "provides promising new directions to investigate mechanisms linking individuals' relationship behaviors to their own and their partners' health, which particular emphasis on biological pathways."
    
2. The work of NCFR member Stephanie Coontz, director of research and public education for the Council on Contemporary Families and emeritus faculty at The Evergreen State College, is referenced in a May 12 article from The Atlantic, "Parenting Déjà Vu," which discusses ways in which one's parents influence their own parenting (free signup may be required to read the article).
    
   The article references Ms. Coontz's comments in a past media interview that "the economically self-contained—and socially isolated—male-breadwinner family [was] a “historical fluke” that crystallized in the public imagination within a short window after World War II."
    
   Ms. Coontz is slated to be one of the plenary presenters at the 2023 NCFR Annual Conference.
    
3. Research from NCFR's Journal of Marriage and Family, "Explaining the Decline in Young Adult Sexual Activity in the United States," is featured in a May 27 article in Philly Voice, "Young people are having less sex than parents did at their age. Researchers explore why."
    
   In the Philly Voice piece, study co-author Lei Lei, Ph.D., commented that young adults may delay long-term relationships "due to their increasingly economically precarious status or stress related to completing education and looking for jobs."
    
4. NCFR member Corinna Jenkins Tucker, Ph.D., CFLE, associate professor in the Department of Human Development and Family Studies at the University of New Hampshire, co-authored a May 16 piece for the Psychology Today blog titled "The Importance of Siblings," highlighting three characteristics that make sibling relationships "crucial to personal well-being," including everyday contact, emotional intensity, and that the relationship is involuntary.
    
5. Family Scientist Mia Smith-Bynum, Ph.D., professor in the Department of Family Science at the University of Maryland, provided her expertise for the May 17 Vox article "From banning hugs to gentle parenting, how are you supposed to raise kids, anyway?"
    
   In the article, which addresses the challenges of navigating and making sense of different ideologies of parenting, Dr. Smith-Bynum was quoted throughout. She addresses how children may have some needs in common, but that "every family situation is unique," acknowledging how economic pressures in the U.S. may affect parents' patience and time.
    
   "Kids need to feel loved,” Dr. Smith-Bynum is quoted. “They need to feel valued and respected. They need clear guidance and direction. And you as the parent need to adapt to the demands on the ground.” She also commented on the idea of caring for children within broader communities: "Black folks have a long tradition of caregiving that goes back many generations, particularly when caring for what we might call play kin or fictive kin."