THE AMERICAN FAMILY:
National Experts to Examine Its Emotional, Economic, Academic Health

	Increases in births to unmarried mothers, divorce and
remarriage, and women's changing roles: these are among the vast
changes influencing American homelife that the University of
Virginia's Center for Children, Families and the Law examines.  

	Center faculty, who are nationally recognized experts in
psychology, sociology, economics, education and law, are
investigating how such changes are affecting the emotional, economic
and academic well-being of the nation's children and their parents.
Faculty at the center, established through a $319,850 grant awarded
this month by U.Va.'s Board of Visitors, are studying the family
from many perspectives, including the individual, the unit, the
community and society.

	"A variety of risks, including increased psychological
distress, and problem behaviors, such as substance abuse, violence
and poor academic performance, are often associated with changes in
family structure and relationships.  The center's research is
relevant to issues of social policy, child development and family
functioning," said Robert E. Emery, a U.Va. psychology professor who
received the grant.  

	The center will hold an annual conference on family issues,
beginning in spring, 1997.  In the meantime, questions about changes
in the American family can be directed to Robert Emery at (804)
924-0671 or via ree@virginia.edu.

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July 22, 1996