The National Council on Family Relations (NCFR) is proud to recognize Weiman Xu, M.A., as the 2024 recipient of the Ruth Hathaway Jewson Award, which funds the best dissertation proposal submitted by a doctoral candidate in Family Science. Her research is titled “Intergenerational Family Dynamics among Caregivers and Children’s Social-Emotional Development in China,” funded by a graduate scholars grant from the Buffett Early Childhood Institute.

Weiman Xu is a third-year doctoral student in the global family health and wellbeing program at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, with a minor in quantitative, qualitative, and psychometric methods. She has developed expertise in intergenerational family dynamics. Her research interests include intergenerational coparenting, children’s social-emotional development, longitudinal data analysis and mixed method research. Weiman is a graduate student at the Nebraska Academy for Methodology, Analytics & Psychometrics (MAP Academy) at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

In terms of her NCFR membership, Weiman has led and co-authored presentations, as well as facilitated sessions, at NCFR annual conferences. She has published work in the Journal of Family Theory & Review (JFTR). Weiman currently serves as the co-chair elect for the Asian/Asian American Families Focus Group.

Ruth Hathaway Jewson, the namesake of this award, was NCFR's second executive director. While working full-time at NCFR, she earned her master's and doctorate degrees, writing her dissertation in the 1970s on what was at the time a small group: “The Retired Professional Woman.”

Weiman Xu will be recognized for her achievements during a plenary at the 2024 NCFR Annual Conference.

The National Council on Family Relations is the premier professional association for the multidisciplinary understanding of families. NCFR has a membership of nearly 3,000 family researchers, practitioners and educators. For more information on the National Council on Family Relations or its scholarly publications, visit the NCFR website at ncfr.org.