Expert to Discuss Contributing Factors to Teenage Risk and Resilience
Published: Apr. 4, 2007
URBANA - How can you help your teenager thrive in today's challenging world? For ideas, attend "Pathways of Adolescent Risk and Resilience," The Pampered Chef Family Resiliency Program's spring lecture to be given by Rand D. Conger, Distinguished Professor of Human Development and Family Studies at the University of California, Davis.
Conger, an expert on the ways social and economic stress affect families, will speak in the Knight Auditorium at the Spurlock Museum, 600 S. Gregory St., at the University of Illinois on Thursday, April 26, at 7 p.m. The lecture is free and open to the public.
"Dr. Conger's research has identified individual and family strengths that increase resilience in adolescents even in the face of significant stress and life change," said Laurie Kramer, director of The Pampered Chef Family Resiliency Program at the U of I.
In his work with over 500 families in rural Iowa, Conger found that financial pressures caused by the economic downturn in rural areas in the past 20 years have placed severe strains on family relationships which, in turn, increased emotional and behavioral problems for both parents and children.
His careful studies of these families have revealed the ways in which youth are affected by these stressors, leading them on paths toward either continued risk or resilience.
A more recent study of over 800 African American families suggests that economic stress creates the same sorts of problems for families in urban areas. He is extending this research through a study of over 600 families of Mexican heritage in California.
"What's exciting is that Dr. Conger has been able to pinpoint which social, cultural, and individual characteristics increase or reduce problem behavior and psychological disorder in youth over time," Kramer said.
The scientist's findings have been published in the leading journals of sociology, psychology, and psychiatry.
Conger is a fellow in the American Psychological Association and the National Council on Family Relations. He has received many awards, including the William J. Goode Book Award from the American Sociological Association and the New Contributions to Research Award from the International Association for Relationship Research.
The lecture is sponsored by The Pampered Chef Family Resiliency Program, a partnership between The Pampered Chef and the Department of Human and Community Development at the U of I. Doris Kelley Christopher, a U of I alum, is the Founder and Chairman of The Pampered Chef, the largest direct seller of high-quality kitchen tools and part of the Berkshire-Hathaway family of businesses.
The Pampered Chef Family Resiliency Program supports faculty research, graduate student fellowships, and public engagement activities directed toward strengthening families.
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