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Family Transitions Project Click here to go to the Family Transitions Project participant web site The Family Transitions Project (FTP) is a longitudinal study of more than 550 original targets, their families of origin, and their families of procreation. The FTP represents an extension of two earlier studies: the Iowa Youth and Families Project (IYFP) and the Iowa Single Parent Project (ISPP). The IYFP began in response to the farm crisis that affected rural areas in the Midwest, particularly Iowa, in the 1980s. In 1989, IYFP recruited 451 families from rural counties in central Iowa, including a target seventh grade child, his or her two biological parents, and a sibling within four years of the target child's age. The purpose of the study was to assess the processes involved in the transition from childhood to adolescence, as well as to understand the broader socioeconomic stress created by economic hardship in the family of origin. Data were gathered through telephone interviews and in-home visits from multiple informants including each of the family members participating in the study, trained observers who studied videotapes of family discussions and interactions in the homes, and teachers of the target children. The ISPP began in 1991 as a study of 210 adolescents, their mothers and a close-aged sibling. The mothers in this study had experienced divorce within the two years prior to the beginning of the study. Most of the measures used in the ISPP were identical to the IYFP measure, and 108 of the adolescents were the same age as the target IYFP adolescents. In 1994, the families from IYFP and SPP were combined to form the Family Transitions Project, creating a group of 559 adolescents, all of whom were in the twelfth grade. Beginning in 1995, the study focus shifted from the family in which the youths were raised to the emerging families and relationships they were creating, including spouses, romantic partners, and, by 1997, children of the targets. In 2006, children of the targets ranged in age from 18 months to 16 years old. Age thirteen is the year that the target parent joined the study. Targets and their families are contacted each year, and nearly 90 percent of the original targets continue to participate in yearly assessments. Currently, the project is funded by three federal grants totaling nearly $10 million.
Research Team: Rand Conger, University of California-Davis, Principal Investigator and Project Director Fred Lorenz, Iowa State University, Principal Investigator Katherine Conger, University of California-Davis, Principal Investigator K.A.S. Wickrama, Iowa State University, Investigator Tricia Neppl, Institute for Social and Behavioral Research, Investigator and Associate Project Director Sarah Spilman, Institute for Social and Behavioral Research, Assistant Scientist Debra Bahr, Institute for Social and Behavioral Research, Project Manager Betty Davis, Institute for Social and Behavioral Research, Project Secretary
Affiliated Scholars Ming Cui, Florida State University Brent Donnellan, Michigan State University Katherine Masyn, University of California-Davis Monica Martin, University of California-Davis Janet Melby, Institute for Social and Behavioral Research Lenna Ontai, University of California-Davis Keith Widaman, University of California-Davis Laura Scaramella, University of New Orleans
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