PARENTAL WELL-BEING IN CONTEMPORARY FAMILIES

Left to right:  Annette Mahoney, Mary Ellen Mazey, Maureen Perry-Jenkins, Kevin Roy, 
Kristi Williams, Wendy Manning, Kara Joyner, Kei Nomaguchi, and Karen Benjamin Guzzo

Monday, March 26, 2012
8:30 am - 2:45 pm
Room 201 Bowen-Thompson Student Union

While most Americans become parents and parenthood remains one of the most challenging and rewarding roles, the social and cultural contexts surrounding parents have changed in the past decades. The economy has increasingly become less secure. More mothers are in the labor force, while workplace continues to be structured around the breadwinner-homemaker model. More parents are raising children as cohabiting parents, single parents, stepparents, or nonresident parents. Cultural standards of parental involvement in childrearing have increased. Although much research has investigated implications of these social and cultural changes for the well-being of children, relatively less is known about their implications for parenting experience and the well-being of parents.

The goal of the symposium is to move forward our understanding of the impact of parenthood on adult well-being in the contemporary context. The Center for Demographic and Family Research and the National Center for Family & Marriage Research at Bowling Green State University have invited three leading scholars who will discuss growing diversity in parenthood and how the experience of parenting affects adults’ economic, psychological, and relationship well-being.  The speakers will share and discuss their research findings as well as reflect on the theoretical, empirical, methodological, and measurement challenges and opportunities related to new research on parental well-being.

Agenda

Provost's Remarks

President's Remarks

Guest Speakers:

"New Parents' Mental Health in Socio-cultural Context”

Maureen Perry-Jenkins, PhD
Professor of Psychology
Department of Psychology
University of Massachusetts Amherst

“Early and Nonmarital Childbearing, Union History, and Women’s Health at Midlife”

Kristi Williams, PhD
Associate Professor of Sociology
Department of Sociology
The Ohio State University

“Taking Care of My Own:  Consequences of Fathering for Young Men on the Margins of Families and Work”

Kevin Roy, PhD
Associate Professor of Family Science
School of Public Health
University of Maryland College Park