News

Lesbian and bisexual girls at greater risk for school discipline
Feb. 21, 2018

Teen girls who are attracted to other girls are far more likely than other students to be suspended or expelled from school, according to a study by Joel Mittleman, a Ph.D. candidate in sociology at Princeton University.

Year 15 Data Now Available
Jan. 12, 2018

We are pleased to announce that the data from our sixth wave of data collection, the Year 15 follow-up wave, are now available for download through the OPR Data Archive!

Data collection for the Year 15 follow-up wave began in February 2014, around the focal…

Videos Now Available: FF Challenge Scientific Workshop
Dec. 19, 2017

The Fragile Families Challenge Scientific Workshop was a two-day event. On the first day, authors led small group discussions about their papers for the…

Fragile Families Challenge uses ‘big data’ to answer big questions
Nov. 13, 2017

What would happen if hundreds of social scientists and data scientists worked together on a scientific challenge to improve the lives of disadvantaged children in the United States? The Fragile Families Challenge, an ongoing mass research collaboration that uses “big data” collected as part…

Updated Future of Families Publication Search Now Available!
Oct. 2, 2017

The FFCWS Publication Archive has been redesigned and is now available with new search features and abstracts!

You can now search by: Keywords Author's last name Publication type Text search of the title and abstract

View forthcoming and published journal articles, working papers …

At the cellular level, a child’s loss of a father is associated with increased stress
Sept. 20, 2017

The absence of a father — due to incarceration, death, separation or divorce — has adverse physical and behavioral consequences for a growing child. But little is known about the biological processes that underlie this link between father loss and child well-being.

In a…

FF Challenge Prize Winners Announced
Sept. 18, 2017

The Fragile Families Challenge received over 3,000 submissions from more 150 teams between the pilot launch on March 3, 2017, and the close on August 1, 2017. Each team’s final submission score on the holdout set is provided at this link. We are excited to now announce the…

"Lower-income children Raised in Counties with High Upward Mobility Display Fewer Behavioral Issues, Perform Better on Cognitive Tests"
Aug. 16, 2017

The Woodrow Wilson School has published a press release, "Lower-Income Children Raised in Counties With High Upward Mobility Display Fewer Behavioral Issues, Perform Better on…

U.S. News & World Report Highlights FFCWS Work on Sleep and Telomere Length
Aug. 11, 2017

U.S. News & World Report recently published an article Are Late Nights, Little Exercise and a Lack of Veggies Aging Your Kids?, which presents recent…

New Scientist Highlights FFCWS Work on Sleep and Telomere Length
July 7, 2017

The New Scientist recently published an article "Children who sleep less may age faster at a cellular level", which covers recent findings from FFCWS research on youth sleep and telomere length. Using data from our Age…

Call for papers, special issue of Socius about the Fragile Families Challenge
June 19, 2017

Socius, an open access journal published by the American Sociological Association, will publish a special issue on the predictive modeling phase of the Fragile Families Challenge. All participants in the Fragile Families Challenge are invited to…

Louis Donnelly is a PAA 2017 Poster Session Winner
June 2, 2017

FFCWS Postdoctoral Associate, Louis Donnelly is a PAA 2017 Poster Session Winner.

He received this award for his poster, "The Protective Effects of Housing Assistance Programs on Eviction" co-authored by Sara McLanahan, Jeanne Brooks…

McLanahan, Edin, and Currie spoke at Opportunity & Inclusive Growth Institute Conference
May 23, 2017

The Opportunity & Inclusive Growth Institute is a new Federal Reserve initiative aimed at conducting world-class research to measure, analyze and make recommendations to improve the economic well-being of all Americans, with a particular focus on structural barriers that limit full…

FF Challenge Final Submission Deadline - Aug. 1
May 16, 2017

There is still lots of time to participate in the Fragile Families Challenge! Click here to register if you have not yet.

The final submission deadline for the Fragile Families Challenge will be 2pm Eastern…

Spotlight on the FF Challenge with Ian Lundberg
March 22, 2017

FFCWS just recently announced an exciting new project, the Fragile Families Challenge.  The Challenge is a mass collaboration combining predictive modeling, qualitative interviews, and causal inference to improve the lives of disadvantaged children in the US. We will give Challenge…

Announcing the Fragile Families Challenge
March 21, 2017

We are very excited to announce a new project using the Future of Families data: The Fragile Families Challenge.

The Challenge is a scientific mass collaboration that combines predictive modeling, causal inference, and in-depth interviews in order to learn more about the lives of disadvantaged children.  By…

Fragile Families Summer Data Workshop 2018
March 2, 2017
The Columbia Population Research Center will hold its next Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study Summer Data Workshop in 2018.   The workshop is targeted toward early-career scholars from social science disciplines. We particularly encourage applications from junior faculty, postdoctoral fellows, and graduate…
"Genomic Analysis for Social Behavioral Scientists" Workshop to be held at University of Michigan
Feb. 7, 2017

Researchers from the University of Michigan invite you to apply to the Genomic Analysis for Social Behavioral Scientists Workshop, held at the University of Michigan June 12-16, 2017. The purpose of the workshop is to familiarize researchers with genetic data and provide hands-on training on incorporating genetic information into social science…

Health Affairs special issue highlights FFCWS publication
Nov. 18, 2016

In 2014, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) announced a vision of working with others to build a Culture of Health that gives everyone in America an equal opportunity to live the healthiest life they can. Nearly two years later, a special issue of Health Affairs features early findings from research on key factors that contribute to a…

WT Grant Foundation awards 3-year grant for work with FFCWS data
Nov. 2, 2016

Congratulations to Daniel Miller (Boston U), Lenna Nepomnyaschy (Rutgers) and Maureen Waller (Cornell) on their newly awarded 3-year research grant from the WT Grant Foundation Research Program to Reduce Inequality!

This project will use FFCWS explore the role of fathers in reducing disparities in behavioral and academic outcomes…

"Tough on Crime, Tough on Families?"
Sept. 22, 2016

On Sept. 19 at 3 p.m., the American Academy of Political and Social Science, Right on Crime, and the Scholars Strategy Network hosted a Capitol Hill policy seminar on the effects of over-incarceration and criminal justice contact on the American family. The briefing capitalized on new research to give policymakers and advocates a clear and…

RSF Brief: Intimate Partner Violence in the Great Recession
Sept. 12, 2016

A new brief from the Russell Sage Foundation describes FFCWS research on Intimate Partner Violence in the Great Recession:

Authors: Antonina Pavlenko, Columbia University …
PRB Bulletin Highlights FFCWS
Aug. 18, 2016

A new bulletin from the Population Reference Bureau entitled Understanding the Dynamics of Family Change in the United States, discusses new family research, including many studies which use the FFCWS data. The…

"Children of the Great Recession" book released by RSF
Aug. 11, 2016

A new book using FFCWS data, Children of the Great Recession, has been released by the Russell Sage Foundation and is edited by Irwin Garfinkel, Sara McLanahan, and Christopher Wimer.

Description

Many working families continue to struggle in the aftermath of…

Sara McLanahan inducted into American Philosophical Society
July 5, 2016

FFCWS PI, Sara McLanahan was recently elected to the American Philosophical Society (APS), the nation's oldest scholarly organization.

Read the full story here.

 

The Rise of Intimate Partner Violence During the Great Recession
June 7, 2016

The Woodrow Wilson School recently highlighted FFCWS work from Sara McLanahan, FFCWS PI, Daniel Schneider from University of California, Berkeley, and…

What Do the Kids Say? Issues in Comparing Parental and Child Reports of Family Dynamics
May 25, 2016

On Monday, May 23rd, Sharon Bzostek of Rutgers University's Sociology department presented her work with FFCWS data at the Northwestern University Applied Quantitative Methods Workshop. 

What Do the Kids Say? Issues in Comparing…
Job Opening: Post-doctoral Research Associate
May 17, 2016

CRCW and the Department of Molecular Biology invite outstanding researchers to apply for a postdoctoral position to study the interplay between genetic characteristics, the social environment and children's health, education and social emotional development.

This position will support new research on genetic and epigenetic measures…

Key Findings for Policy Makers
May 16, 2016

The Future of Families and Child Wellbeing Study was originally designed to primarily address four questions of great interest to researchers and policy makers: (1) What are the conditions and capabilities of unmarried parents, especially fathers?; (2) What is the nature of the relationships between unmarried parents?; (3) How do children born…

Spotlight on FFCWS and Incarceration Research
May 13, 2016

Recent publications using the Future of Families and Child Wellbeing data provide a family-wide view of the effects of parental incarceration on family dynamics and child behavior, as well as potential predictors for paternal and maternal incarceration.

Recent publications

Turney and Wildeman published two articles titled, 

Spotlight on FFCWS and the Great Recession
May 12, 2016

The Future of Families and Child Wellbeing Study data are valuable for examinations of the effects of the Great Recession due to the timing of our follow-up waves (See “Data available” below for details). Recently, many researchers have approached the FFCWS data with a focus on the Great Recession and have studied its effects on a variety of…

Spotlight on FFCWS and Education Research
May 11, 2016

Future of Families & Child Wellbeing Study data users have recently published widely on the effects of early childhood exposures (ages 3-5) on school performance including skill development and test scores.

Recent published work
FFCWS Participates in 22nd Annual CNSF Exhibition on Capitol Hill
May 5, 2016

The Future of Families and Child Wellbeing Study exhibited at the 22nd Annual CNSF Capitol Hill Exhibition on Tuesday, April 26.

Louis Donnelly, FFCWS  Postdoctoral Research Associate, represented the Study as well as PAA and APC. The annual event showcases roughly three dozen different exhibits for the purpose of…

Bloomberg news interviews Schneider about FFCWS work
April 6, 2016

Karen Weise of Bloomberg recently interviewed Daniel Schneider about his paper in Demography, written with co-authors Kristen Harknett and Sara McLanahan, entitled "Intimate Partner Violence in the Great Recession."

Schneider spoke about the study's findings regarding the effects of unemployment and hardship on IPV as well…

FFCWS at PAA 2016
April 4, 2016

Future of Families and Child Wellbeing Study PIs, staff, and data users attended the Population Association of American 2016 Annual Meeting in Washington, D.C. from March 30-April 2. Thank you to all those who visited our staff in the exhibit hall to learn more about the…

McLanahan to receive honorary degree
Feb. 24, 2016

Sara McLanahan, Future of Families and Child Wellbeing Study PI, is among the five distinguished individuals who will be recognized with honorary degrees at Northwestern University's commencement ceremony on Friday, June 17.

For more information, you can read the…

Fifteen-Year National Survey of 'Future of Families' Fuels Wide Range of Research
Jan. 21, 2016

Sara McLanahan (PI), Christina Paxton (former co-PI), and Daniel Notterman (DNA Component Director) were interviewed for a Princeton University Featured Story on the past, present, and future of the Future of Families and Child Wellbeing Study.

"The FFCWS has inspired numerous new scholars - in sociology, demography, economics,…

Research Brief #50: Effects of Social Disadvantage & Genetic Sensitivity on Children's Telomere Length
Nov. 18, 2015

When focal children were 9 years old, we collected saliva samples, which we've used to extract biomarkers such as telomere length and polymorphisms. Telomeres are the region at the end of the chromosome, which deteriorate as a person ages. Polymorphisms are the natural variants in a person's genes.

In 2014, Colter Mitchell, John…

Sara McLanahan discusses FFCWS and the future of marriage in Princeton Alumni Weekly
Nov. 18, 2015

In a recent Princeton Alumni Weekly article on the future of marriage, Principal Investigator Sara McLanahan discusses FFCWS and the “diverging destinies” between between rich and poor Americans.

"More and more, Americans tread two paths. The well-educated and…