BYU NewsNet - Conference strengthens families, highlights research

“If ye are prepared ye shall not fear” not only applies to food storage, but to strengthening families. With this theme and the charge from the Proclamation to the World, BYU professors from the School of Family Life extended their research to community members, faculty and students in the annual BYU Conference on Family Life.

“I just love the support that is coming for families,” said Joann Wadley, a mother from Spanish Fork who attended the conference. “I didn’t expect so strong of a focus, and I think it’s marvelous.”

Reta Tischner, an elementary school teacher from Salem, said she was impressed by the conference’s positive focus on families, after expecting to hear about temporal emergency preparedness.

“The purpose was to highlight research in ways that would help LDS families,” said Rick Miller, director of the School of Family Life and organizer of the conference.

From the “Flourishing Families” project, professor James Harper taught 10 principles of how families thrive, including the importance of helping and supporting each other. He said family rituals and traditions are also important, as well as how family members greet each other.

“If the family dog does it better, there needs to be a change,” he said.

Dean Barley, from the BYU Comprehensive Clinic, used principles from psychology to teach how to increase life satisfaction, such as the importance of showing gratitude and being optimistic.

Professor Stephen Duncan showed how the School of Family Life is actively working in the public sphere to help strengthen families through the research-based reality television series “Real Families, Real Answers.”

Professor Jeffrey Hill said “harmony” is a better metaphor for work and family than “balance.” He said work and family can complement each other by bundling together appropriate activities and other times focusing on them separately.

In a lecture about public efforts to strengthen marriage, professor Alan Hawkins said family is a legitimate government concern because failing marriages lead to poverty and increased government costs.

“Marriage remains more than a private relationship in our society,” Hawkins said. “It is the primary institution that supports the well-being of children, adults, communities and society.”

The conference also included a Q&A session, addresses by Ronald Bartholomew, professor of religious education, and released member of the Second Quorum of the Seventy, Elder Gordon Watts.