RELEASE ON RECEIPT


Media Notice: A conference schedule is attached.

Should Government Support Single-Parent Families?
CONFERENCE WILL PROBE LAWMAKERS' ROLES IN FAMILY LIFE

       CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va., Nov. 6 -- About 100 participants, including 
attorneys, psychologists, policy-makers, social workers and lay people, are 
expected at a University of Virginia conference that will examine the role 
lawmakers should have in dictating family structure.
        Experts in law, public policy and sociology will consider "The Future 
of Families: Should Families Shape Policy or Should Policy Shape Families?" 
Nov. 12-14 at U.Va.'s School of Law.  Held in Caplin Auditorium, the 
conference will focus on three key topics: marriage, divorce, remarriage and 
cohabitation; poverty and welfare reform; and family law.
        "With such proposals as covenant marriages and tougher divorce laws, 
states are actively pursuing ways to make and keep families intact," said 
Robert E. Emery, psychology professor and director of U.Va.'s Center for 
Children, Families and the Law, the conference sponsor. "But should policies 
support families in trouble due to non-marital childbirth, divorce and 
poverty?  Or does such support only encourage parents to abandon their 
responsibilities to children?"
        William Galston, director of the University of Maryland's Institute 
for Philosophy and Public Policy and former deputy assistant to President 
Clinton for domestic policy, will give the opening address on Wednesday, 
Nov. 12, at 7 p.m. in Caplin Auditorium. In a speech that is free and open to 
the public, Galston will describe the needs of the American family.
        During the remainder of the conference, speakers will present two 
contrasting points of view: those who believe government should support 
single-parent families and those who don't.  
        On Thursday morning, Andrew Cherlin, the Griswold Professor of Public 
Policy at Johns Hopkins University, and David Popenoe, a sociology professor 
at Rutgers University, will discuss the consequences of marriage, divorce, 
remarriage, and cohabitation on children. Cherlin, author or co-author of 
five books and numerous articles on American families, is a firm believer 
that government should support policies that aid single-parent families, and 
Popenoe, executive director of the National Marriage Project at Rutgers and 
author of "Life Without Father," does not hold that view.
        In the afternoon Sara McLanahan, a professor of sociology and public 
affairs at Princeton University who directs the Bendheim-Thoman Center for 
Research on Child Wellbeing, and June O'Neill, an economist and director of 
the Congressional Budget Office, will address families, poverty and welfare 
reform. McLanahan, author of "Growing Up With a Single Parent:  What Helps, 
What Hurts," believes in legislative support for single-parent families.
        In the concluding session on Friday morning, Katherine Bartlett, a 
law professor at Duke University, and Amitai Etzioni, a  professor at George 
Washington University, where he founded the Center for Policy Research, will 
address divorce and family law.  Etzioni does not believe in governmental 
support for single-parent families.
        "Recent legislative actions suggest a basic shift in social policy 
from reacting to and supporting the needs of changing families to attempting 
to proactively shape families in the hopes of lowering their need for public 
support,"  Emery said.
        Emery directs a center that is a multi-disciplinary group of more 
than 25 faculty whose work focuses on children and families.  The group 
includes faculty in psychology, sociology and economics in the College of Arts 
and Sciences as well as faculty in the law, medicine and education schools.
        Registration for Thursday and Friday sessions costs $50 and can be 
completed at the door.  To register or gain more information about the 
conference, contact the center at (804) 982-4991 or via ccfl@minerva.acc.
virginia.edu.  Conference information can also be obtained on the Web at 
http://www.virginia.edu/~ccfl.

                                       ###

                                                           November 5, 1997


For more information, Robert Emery is at (804) 924-0671 or ree@virginia.edu.









The Future of Families: Should Families Shape
 Policy or Should Policy Shape Families?

November 12-14 Conference
Sponsored by the University of Virginia's
Center for Children, Families and the Law
U.Va. Law School, Caplin Auditorium


Wednesday Evening, Nov. 12, 7 p.m.
The Needs of the American Family
	William Galston; Professor of Public Policy, University of Maryland; Former
	Deputy Assistant to President Clinton for Domestic Policy

Thursday Morning, Nov. 13, 9 a.m.-noon
Marriage, Divorce, Remarriage, and Cohabitation
	Andrew Cherlin                                          David Popenoe
	Griswold Professor of Public Policy          Associate Dean of the Faculty of Arts
	Johns Hopkins University                          and Sciences, Rutgers University


Thursday Afternoon, 1:30-4:30 p.m.
Families, Poverty and Welfare Reform
	Sara McLanahan                                               June O'Neill
	Professor of Sociology & Public Affairs	  Economist & Director of the
	Princeton University                           		  Congressional Budget Office


Friday Morning, Nov. 14,  9 a.m.-noon
Divorce and Family Law
	Katherine Bartlett                                                  Amitai Etzioni
	Professor of Law                                                 University Professor
	Duke University                                                   George Washington University