About

Our Mission

The Strengthening Families Research Initiative advances rigorous, policy-relevant research on the forces shaping family formation, family stability, and the well-being of parents and children in the United States. We seek to build and disseminate evidence about how economic conditions, public policies, and social forces affect families and what can be done to help parents and children thrive.

Who We Are

The Strengthening Families Research Initiative is a nonpartisan research initiative based in the Department of Economics at the University of Notre Dame. We bring together leading scholars from across the social sciences to study consequential issues affecting American families.

Our work starts from the premise that families play a central role in the well-being of adults and children, and as such, identifying policies and institutions that strengthen families should be a research and policy priority. Understanding the forces that shape family life and uncovering effective ways to support families requires careful empirical research. Our team and network of affiliated scholars work to build that evidence base.

What We Do

We study the economic, policy, and social forces shaping whether and when people marry and have children, the stability and circumstances of the families they form, and the well-being of parents and children. Using high-quality data and rigorous empirical methods, our researchers investigate questions at the intersection of family life and public policy: How do economic conditions affect marriage and fertility? What contributes to family stability? How do housing, work, taxes, and the safety net shape the choices and constraints facing parents and prospective parents? Which policies and programs meaningfully improve outcomes for children and families?

Our goal is to produce credible evidence on these questions and bring that evidence into academic and policy conversations. By connecting rigorous scholarship with pressing public-policy challenges, SFRI aims to improve our understanding of American families and inform efforts to help them flourish.

Learn more about the Strengthening Families Research Initiative

Contact Us

For technical assistance, media inquiries, and general inquiries, contact strengtheningfamilies@nd.edu