The National Council on Family Relations (NCFR) is the premier organization for family science, and this year’s annual meeting was held in Baltimore, Maryland in November. Several Mizzou HDFS students were honored with awards this year.
I Dewa Ayu Dwika Puspita Dewi, a Fulbright Scholar and PhD student working with Dr. Brenda Lohman, received the Family Policy Section Feldman Best Conference Proposal Award for a student. Honoring Harold Feldman and Margaret Feldman, pioneers in the field of family policy, this award is offered to the highest-ranked applications, and it serves as encouragement for advancing family policy research. Dwika Dewi’s proposal was titled “Father Perpetration of Intimate Partner Violence and Adolescents’ Behavior Problems. Do Father Resident Status and Father Involvement Matter?” This project highlights the significant role of fathers in adolescents’ mental health within the context of intimate partner violence and is co-authored by Dr. Brenda Lohman and Dr. Shinyoung Jeon.
Cristina Lopez, PhD Student working with Dr. Sarah Killoren, received multiple honors.First, she received theStudent and New Professional Best Student Paper Award from the Latino/a Focus Group of NCFR. This award honors outstanding student research that addresses issues relevant to Latino/a families. Cristina’s paper, “The Importance of Community Support on Latine Mental Health Outcomes,” examines how discrimination impacts mental health and the protective role of community support. Findings show that higher levels of community support are associated with reduced anxiety among Latine individuals. This paper included MU faculty and current or former students, Dawson Boron, Dr. Matthew Ogan, Dr. Sarah Killoren, and Dr. Kale Monk.
Cristina also received the Feldman Outstanding Research Proposal Award from the Family Policy Section. This award recognizes innovative research proposals that advance family policy scholarship. Cristina received the award for her project titled “Dear Internet, How Do I Talk to My Kid About Sex? Parents’ Advice-Seeking About ‘The Talk’ in Online Forums.” The study explores how parents use platforms like Reddit to seek advice on discussing sex-related topics with their children, highlighting strategies such as sharing experiences, normalizing conversations, and providing feedback. There is a long history of Mizzou HDFS students earning this award, with the last three Feldman Outstanding Research Proposal Award recipients being Mizzou affiliates. Dr.Matthew Ogan received the award in 2022 and Karen Talley received this Feldman award last year, which required her to present her award-winning project at the annual conference this year.
The consistent accolades earned by our students on their own highlight the quality of those studying at MU. However, our MU HDFS student body itself earned recognition at NCFR, this year! The students involved with the MU Council on Family Relations (the local NCFR affiliate organization) received the NCFR Affiliate Grant from the NCFR Affiliate Council. This grant supports projects that strengthen family engagement and promote developmental outcomes. The MU Council on Family Relations received the grant for the project “Encouraging Age-Appropriate Developmental Tasks through Family Engagement Activities.” The initiative focuses on creating family-based activities that foster developmental milestones and enhance parent-child interactions.