ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, October 6, 1996 TAG: 9610070081
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-5 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: CHARLOTTESVILLE
SOURCE: REX BOWMAN THE WASHINGTON TIMES
Operating on the theory that moms and dads and their kids are under stress, the University of Virginia has opened a research center to study "real-life problems of real-life families."
The Center for Children, Family and the Law will bring together experts from diverse fields to identify the problems that plague American families, said Robert Emery Jr., a psychologist at the university and co-founder of the center.
Researchers will investigate the causes and effects of single-parent child-rearing, juvenile delinquency, illegitimate births, divorce, wife-beating and other thorny issues confronting U.S. households.
``We're not here to advocate anything more than an informed policy,'' Emery said.
He and other organizers also insist their goal is not to produce arcane papers on abstract theories to be read only by other scholars. They want to ``deal with the real-life problems of real-life families,'' said UVa sociologist Steven Nock.
State Sen. Stephen Martin, R-Chesterfield County, applauded the center. ``Right now, there really isn't a clearinghouse to do this kind of thing.''
Emery said he hopes the research center can give policy-makers the ability to fashion policies that support the traditional two-parent family, without ``stigmatizing'' one-parent families.
Professors had considered creating the center for the past four years. But the idea did not take flight until UVa's Board of Visitors bestowed a grant of more than $300,000 in July.
The money will pay for visiting scholars and graduate fellowships, independent studies and an annual conference on ``families in the 21st century'' over the next three years.
About 25 UVa professors - psychologists, sociologists, economists, lawyers and other experts - will meet next month, Emery said. Most of them already are studying related issues, he said, but the center will help coordinate efforts.
Nock, who studies such ``transition'' events in families' lives as marriages, divorces, births and deaths, said the center will give scholars the wherewithal to study issues that some say have largely been ignored.
``For example, I don't think we've been paying much attention to fathers,'' said Nock, 47. ``I don't think we really understand the problems of those divorced dads and dads of children born to unwed mothers. We don't know anything about these guys. Do they have jobs? Do they have income? What do they do?''
Nock, one of the center's founders, said the forces pushing and changing the American family today are as dramatic as those that altered life a century ago, when the nation headed into the 20th century and families that once worked together in agrarian settings saw the father leave home to work in a factory.
``Today, it's the women who are leaving for work, and it's going to take another 30 to 50 years for us to get adjusted to the consequences of that,'' Nock said. ``The family is changing dramatically, and the changes that are happening are happening more rapidly than ever before.''
LENGTH: Medium: 64 linesby CNB