Research Briefs
These briefs summarize the state of the art research information on topics such as children cared for by grandparents, welfare reform and families, and others that are important to the field of parenting and family relations.
Strengthening Families Program: Statewide Outcomes (.pdf file). This research brief doucments outcomes from 8 sessions of the Strengthening Families Program offered by Cornell Cooperative Extension educators across several counties and New York City during 2007.
Parenting Styles and Adolescents (.pdf file). This research brief provides an overview of research on parenting styles and their impact on adolescent development.
Sleep and Children's Weight (.pdf file). This short brief highlights a recent study on the connection between sleep and children's weight.
The Hudson Valley Regional Relatives as Caregivers Program (.pdf file). This research brief addresses an issue of growing importance: the increasing prevalence of children being cared for by relatives in the absence of parents; and highlights a the New York RAPP program.
Designing an Effective Questionnaire (.pdf file). This research brief provides some basic ideas on how to best write a questionnaire and capture the information needed to assess program impact.
The Impact of Couples-Based Interventions on Families (.pdf file). As part of the Evolving Family Project , Drs. Phil and Carolyn Cowan, Professors of Psychology at the University of California at Berkeley, presented a series of papers on the influence of the couple relationship on parenting behavior. This briief provides a general summary of their key papers and presentations.
What's the Difference? "Post then Pre" and "Pre then Post" (.pdf file). This brief highlights the strengths and weaknesses of two popular evaluation designs, lists possible criteria to choose a design, as well as the importance of reducing threats to validity when conducting an evaluation.
Measuring Evaluation Results with Microsoft Excel (.pdf file). This brief illustrates one method for calculating mean scores among responses to evaluation instruments, and provides educators with a tutorial on how to perform basic functions using Microsoft Excel.
An Educator's Guide to Family Literacy (.pdf file). provides educators with a list of organizations involved in family literacy, print rescources such as fact sheets, newsletters and other publications, as well as guides to choosing books for children.
How to Read A Research Article (.pdf file). This brief provides information on how to navigate through academic research articles, and also emphasizes the importance of staying up to date on the research in your chosen field of work.
Resources for Doing Web Research (.pdf file). This brief is designed to provide educators with the tools needed to conduct web based research effectively. Instructions on how to obtain scholarly research via the web are provided, in addition to links to longer resource guides on assessing the value of information on the web.
Characteristics of Cohabiting Families (.pdf file). The purpose of this brief is to highlight recent trends in cohabitation and to describe characteristics of parents who enter into cohabiting relationships. Differences between cohabiting and married parents are also identified, both in demographic traits and risk factors experienced by their children. Finally, some key differences between households with two biological parents and those with step parents are also discussed in terms of children's experiences by family composition.
Characteristics of Relative Caregivers and Children in Their Care (.pdf file) This brief summarizes data from a survey of relative caregivers in New York and highlights possible interventions to benefit these families.
Effective Parent Education Programs (.pdf file). This brief summarizes features of successful parenting programs and describes criteria researchers use to determine the effectiveness of such programs. The goal of this brief is to provide parent educators with information about components of successful parent education programs, and to highlight the ways in which researchers evaluate the effects of such programs.
Grandparents as Caregivers (.pdf file). This research brief focuses on an important, understudied group of children: those not living with parents, who are cared for by relatives. It provides findings on the number of children who are cared for by relatives in New York, the difficult economic circumstances and behavioral and health problems that these children face, the level of involvement that relative caregivers demonstrate with the children in their care, and the wide range of services needed by caregivers.