Monitoring the Well-being of Families in Idaho

Through building collaborations and partnerships involving both researchers and community leaders, the Family Studies Initiative plays a critical role in monitoring the well-being of families in Idaho. Examples of Initiative activities in this area include the following:

  • Several members of the Advisory Board regularly participate in preparing publications and reports addressing specific factors relevant to monitoring the well-being of families and to maintaining healthy families in Idaho.
  • Second, the Family Studies Initiative maintains a listing of internet sites that can be useful in collecting up-to-date information about how children and families are faring in a diversity of areas.
  • Third, several Boise State instructors work with students to prepare brief reports on the well-being of Idaho families that can be submitted to Initiative representatives for inclusion in this web site.

Publications and Reports:

Operating within a "metropolitan research university of distinction," it is important for the Family Studies Initiative to use the research backgrounds and skills of Boise State researchers to contribute to assessments of the well-being of families in the surrounding metropolitan area, different regions of Idaho, and the state of Idaho. Often working with community partners, Boise State researchers have published important reports focusing on the well-being of Idaho families.

   

Dr. Cynthia Clark (Department of Nursing) has been regularly involved in monitoring threats to Idaho families that may come through such avenues as addictions experienced by nurses, teen suicide, and incivility on college campuses:

 

 

Dr. Linda Anooshian of the Department of Psychology (current Director of the Family Studies Initiative) was the author of four reports published by Idaho KIDS COUNT focusing on the diversity of ways in which poverty poses risks for Idaho families:

 

Several members of the Advisory Board for the Family Studies Initiative have been working with Idaho KIDS COUNT to produce brief reports on the well-being of Idaho families that will be released over the course of the 2004-2005 academic year:

  • Dr. Peter Wollheim (Department of Communication) on teen suicide in Idaho;
  • Dr. Linda Anooshian (Department of Psychology) on economic insecurity as a stressor for Idaho families and on nurturing father involvement;
  • Dr. Harriet Shaklee (Extension Family Development Specialist, University of Idaho) on tough transitions for Idaho teens.

Contact Idaho KIDS COUNT for copies of these reports.

Other research efforts relevant to assessing the well-being of Idaho families include the following:

Internet Sites:

Of course, any reports or analyses of the well-being of families in the Boise Metropolitan area or in other regions of Idaho are limited by the availability of current data. In many cases, the most current available data may reflect assessments from a few years ago. Hence, in an effort to encourage the continual updating of information from prepared reports, the Family Studies Initiative maintains a listing of internet sites with useful data relevant to monitoring the well-being of Idaho families. Each site is listed with a brief description and (in some cases) an example of the kinds of data summaries available from that site.

Children's Defense Fund
Click on Children in the States to get information about children specific to Idaho.
For example, for data summarized on that site in 2004: The high school completion rate in Idaho was 86.4%; The percent of children without health insurance was 13.6%; The percent of fourth graders reading below grade level was 70%.

Idaho KidsCount

This site provides summaries, graphs, and maps on various indicators of children’s well-being. 

Description:  Is the percentage of children living in families where neither resident parent has worked at least 35 hours per week for at least 50 weeks of the year.

Source:  US Census 2000

Children Living in One-parent Households

Description:  Is the percentage of all families with children under age 18 headed by a single person, male or female, without a spouse present in the home.  

Source:  US Census 2000    

Idaho Rural Community Resources Tool

Provides mapping tools for different data sources.  For example, one could easily produce a map that showed the prevalence of child abuse and neglect for different Idaho counties using the following definition: 

            Child Abuse and Neglect is the number of child abuse and protection referrals that were found to be substantiated or indicated. The measure is shown as a rate per 1,000 children under the age 18.

National Center for Children and Poverty
Provides data wizards on policies, demographics, and economic conditions for Idaho (and other states). For example, for Idaho, the following information was available on that web site (in September, 2004):

Number of Families and Children

  • - In Idaho, there are 176,544 families, with 355,098 children.
  • - Low-Income Families: 36% (64,234) of families with children are low-income (National: 34%).
  • - Families in Poverty: 13% (23,182) of families with children are poor (National: 14%).

 

Civic Engagement at BSU -- Brief Student Reports on the Well-Being of Idaho Families
 

The Family Studies Initiative oversees two programs focused on promoting civic engagement through student projects and reports. One program, described here, encourages student submissions of brief reports based on specific data relevant to assessing the well-being of Idaho families. These reports serve to demonstrate how family data can be used to derive recommendations for specific programs or policies that could benefit Idaho families. These opportunities for Boise State students are also an important component of another goal for the Family Studies Initiative - promoting civic engagement in areas relevant to supporting children and families.

Guidelines for Submission: Brief reports (2-4 text pages) should focus on the summary and analysis of data and/or trends relevant to evaluating the well-being of children and families in a specific area. Reports should include an analysis of the significance and meaning of the data being presented as well as recommendations for helpful programs and/or policies.

Two reports are listed below by student author and paper title:

·         Carrie Carmody:  Poverty and domestic violence (PDF)

·         Taryn Nenow:  A psychological analysis of high school dropouts in Idaho and America (PDF)

 

 

 

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