It was six years ago that the Foundation funded development of the Sloan Work and Family Research Network. Since that time, this network has come to be recognized within the United States and Europe as the only one of its kind providing needed resources, research, and teaching tools for scholars engaged in work-family research. The Network has produced an extensive database with over 5,000 annotated citations, as well as a series of teaching resources for faculty members teaching in the area of work and family. These teaching resources include the Work-Family Encyclopedia and the Work-Family Glossary. The Network produces three Newsletters a year on Sloan-funded research and convenes research forums on specific themes. A resource volume, Work-Family Handbook: Multidisciplinary Perspectives and Methods, is expected to be published in 2006 by Erlbaum Publishers. Nearly 900 scholars are currently affiliated with the Network, of whom 250 have actively contributed to the Network’s website. There have been 24,000 unique visitors to the home page, with evidence showing that many users pass on information to others. This grant renews support for the Network, which will continue its services to the academic community and extend its work by providing resources to state legislators and managers in human resources. Project Director: Assistant Professor Marcie Pitt-Catsouphes, Graduate School of Social Work.

Established as a result of a Foundation grant in 2000, the Center on Myth and Ritual in American Life (MARIAL) at Emory University is unique in contemporary American anthropology for its examination of myth and ritual in American mainstream middle-class families. The MARIAL Center has produced a new and distinctive understanding of middle-class working families by examining the role of myth and ritual in their lives. It appears that the developmental course of such families is unusual in that it aims to self-destruct by sending adult children out from the family to make their own family units rather than continuing their families of origin. As the family gets older, it becomes increasingly dependent on ritual events to maintain the continuity of the old family in the face of its progressive dissolution. This fact underlies the importance of rituals in family life, especially homecoming rituals, and explains many of the tensions that such occasions produce among family members. Two psychologists associated with MARIAL are studying how families develop story-telling skills and practices, as well as the consequences of family storytelling on children’s development and well-being. The more the child knows about his or her family and is encouraged to listen to and tell stories about the family, the higher the child’s self-esteem and the more resilient the child. It appears that the telling of family stories and the instillation of a family history into children are associated with better emotional adjustment and increased ability to bounce back emotionally from disappointments and setbacks. In addition to its research, MARIAL has sought creative ways to communicate issues about middle-class families to a broader public. Collaborating with Theater Emory, MARIAL selected an American play from each decade of the 20th century that exemplified how family was being represented in its time. Weaving a key scene from each play into a new composite play, the new drama depicted the unfolding of the American idea of family over the years. The production was considered a highlight of Atlanta’s 2002 theater season. MARIAL also produced a documentary on religious reunions for broadcast on public television. This renewal grant will enable MARIAL to continue its research program and to communicate its findings to the general public. Project Director: Professor Bradd Shore, Department of Anthropology.

UCLA houses the Center on the Ethnography of Everyday Life of Families (CELF). Established in 2001, the Center’s primary purpose is to document in fine-grained detail the lives of working families. CELF’s research makes extensive use of video cameras to capture in detail how people actually live their lives. The cameras stay on the families from early in the morning to late at night, during the week and also weekends, documenting them getting kids off to school, making meals, commuting to and from work, doing homework, etc. Data have been collected on 22 of the intended 30 families. There are 1000 hours of video, 12,400 digital photographs of home spaces and artifacts, 500 hours of tracking movements of family members throughout the home, and 200 hours of audio data. All data have been digitized and entered into CELF’s Working Family Digital Archive Server. Full analyses will be completed when data on all 30 families have been collected. Research topics to be explored include the following: identifying the kinds of family and household activities carried out by members of the family; determining how family members collaborate and communicate with one another in the course of carrying out these activities; identifying how parents manage employment obligations while at home; determining how families reunite at the end of the day and act as “restorative” environments for children and adults; studying how homework and other learning activities take place in the home; and interpreting how the everyday activities of the families are rooted in working middle-class family and community practices, beliefs, and values. This renewal grant will see the Center complete data collection and make complete analyses of what will prove to be the richest available data set on working families. Project Director: Elinor Ochs, Professor of Anthropology; Director, Center on Everyday Lives of Families.

For study of best practices for part-time workers. Project Director: Ellen Bravo, National Director.

For study of the impact of work in later life on the psychological health and well-being of older workers. Project Director: Jacquelyn B. James, Director, Research, Center for Work and Family.

To complete a book on how working parents form their work and parenting identities through their talk. Project Director: University Professor Deborah Tannen, Department of Linguistics.

Support for a conference on carework. Project Director: Mary K. Zimmerman, Professor of Sociology and Professor of Health Policy and Management.