Barbara Brown, Program Director
(801) 581-7111 phone
brown@fcs.utah.edu e-mail
(801) 581-5156 fax

For application materials contact:
Irene Johnson
(801) 581-7712 phone
johnson@fcs.utah.edu e-mail
(801) 581-5156 fax

The uniqueness and special appeal of this program in its multidisciplinary and policy-focused research training. Family ecology investigates individuals, families and communities in the context of social, physical, and economic/political environments. The two-year master's program in Family Ecology in the Department of Family and Consumer Studies educates students in the theory and methods of community and other ecological research. Specialization tracks include Environment-Behavior and Community Studies (one of the only such programs in the world), Early Childhood, Family and Social Policy, Family Economics and Consumer Studies, and Gerontology. Faculty include community, environmental, social, and developmental psychologists as well as sociologists, demographers, and economists.

Graduates of the program are prepared to pursue careers in industry, government, and education as planners, administrators, and evaluators of community services (e.g., housing, health care, human service, community development, and educational programs). Many graduates continue their studies in other departments for PhDs in psychology, human development, family studies, and related programs.

Part of this program's appeal is its setting in a state capital city (many students do research or gain employment in state government) and one of the major cultural and recreational centers of the Western United States. The University of Utah is and equal opportunity employer and the Department of Family and Consumer Studies actively seeks and appreciates diversity among its students, faculty, staff, and research and consultation partners. Women make up the majority of graduate and undergraduate students and approximately half the faculty. Many of the graduate students and undergraduate students are older "nontraditional" students preparing for second careers. The graduate program has been especially successful at attracting international students. Most graduate students receive a teaching or research assistantship, including a stipend and tuition remission, or other financial assistance. Both the curriculum and applied research conducted by students and faculty focuses heavily on diversity issues of age, gender, race, ethnicity, income, disability, sexuality, and family composition.

Curriculum

Note: The requirements are changing as the University moves in 1998-99 from quarters to semesters.

Families and Social Policy: The relationship between the family and social environments, emphasizing the life course and the ecology of the family, kin, school, neighborhood, work, class and ethnic environments.

Physical Environments and Human Behavior: Reviews and connects research, policies, and physical designs for a variety of physical settings (homes, workplaces, communities), sociophysical processes (stress, fear of crime, privacy, recreation, place attachment), and vulnerable populations (women, children, elders, minorities).

Families and Economic Policy: The relationships between the family and the economic, political, legal and regulatory environments, including child care, marriage, divorce, welfare, and retirement.
Graduate Research Methods: survey, qualitative and experimental

Multivariate Statistics: multiple and logistic regression, repeated measures.

Thesis Development Seminar: Development, presentation, critique and refinement of thesis proposals by graduate students under faculty supervision.

Electives for the Environment-Behavior/Community Studies track include community project courses such as Methods of Environmental Analysis and Community and Environmental Change.

Special features: The M.S. in Family Ecology prepares graduate students for potential employment with the public (state and local government) and private sector (early childhood program administration, family policy analysis/advocacy) and provides a foundation for doctoral work in human development, family studies, community psychology, environment and behavior, and related programs.

Specialization Tracks: (A) Environment-Behavior/Community Studies (B) Early Childhood Emphasis (C) Family Policy (Family Studies) (D) Family Economics/Consumer Studies (E) Gerontology (coordinate with Gerontology Center).