Discussion questions

What have you learned about “Diverse Families?”

1. Have an experience with a culture other than your own.  For example, you can attend a community event, visit a market, or dine at a restaurant.  Reflect on your experience.  What is something new you learned about the culture that you didn’t know prior to the experience?
2. Reflect on your family’s cultural history.  Interview family members to learn more about your cultural history.  What are some traditional values, attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors you practice?
3. Diversity is a term used to describe the variety of dynamics and evolving backgrounds and contexts that people experience, including ability and disability.  Higher education institutions have disability resource centers to offer a range of support services and accommodations for undergraduate and graduate students with disabilities.  Visit your institution’s disability resource center to learn about the available support services.

Discussion questions

No Questions

Discussion questions

No Questions

Discussion questions

What did you learn from “Introduction to Family Life Education and Its Applications?”

1. What is the difference between evidence-informed and evidence-based programs?
2. What are the similarities between family life education, family therapy, and family case management?
3. How would you describe the principles the principles of the Foundations of Family Life Education (FFLE) model
4. Get a copy of a book, such as Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff…and it’s all small stuff by Richard Carlson. Select a few chapters or ideas, such as “Make Peace with Imperfection”, “Develop your Compassion” or “Don’t Interrupt Others or Finish their Sentences.” Think about if any of the ideas apply to your professional live or how would you revise a chapter to make it applicable to core ethics and values of FLE.

Discussion questions

1. Parent identity formation is shaped by a parent's own history of child development, social standards and experiences, and intersecting identities and race.
• How do the attitudes and beliefs of parents during pregnancy play a substantial role in shaping the relationship between the parent and the child after birth?
• What role do intersecting identities like race, gender, and socio-economic status play in shaping parental identity during pregnancy?
• What are the implications of parental identity formation for the well-being of both the parent and the developing fetus?

Discussion questions

1. Physical development during early childhood includes the development of motor skills.  Visit a park or school to observe young children playing.  Make note of the motor skills you observe.  Classify the skills as gross motor or fine.  Are their noticeable differences between age levels or sex?
2. In the United States, the middle childhood years loosely correspond with elementary school.  Many parents send their children to the closest public school, but there are other options available.  Besides public schools, parents can choose to send their children to charter schools, private schools, online schools, or home school.  There are advantages and disadvantages to any of these elementary school options. 
   You are the parent of a 5-year-old child who is preparing to enter kindergarten.  Which elementary school option would you choose for your child?  Do some research online about the different options for elementary schools. Write a brief summary of the option you would choose for your child.  Based on what you have learned about physical, intellectual, and emotional development during childhood, why do you believe this would be the best option for your child? 
3. Parental self-efficacy is the parents’ beliefs about their own ability to parent effectively.  Research has determined that parental self-efficacy influences the quality of parenting behavior.  Talk to your parent, parents or caregivers who raised you as a child.  Ask them to reflect on their parental self-efficacy when you were a young child.  Did they have high/low self-efficacy?

Discussion questions

What did you learn from “Family and Adolescence?”

1. Adolescents strive for increasing autonomy, or independence.  This can create a paradox of increased closeness and conflict for many families.  Reflect on your adolescence.  Write about an instance when you strove for independence and share how your family responded.
2. The invincibility fable refers to seemingly reckless decisions made during adolescence, such as engaging in unsafe sex, driving too fast, or drinking too much.  The immaturity of the prefrontal cortex contributes to beliefs commonly held by adolescents that they are somehow invincible. How does the invincibility fable play a role in the behaviors? If a friend was behaving recklessly, how would you advise them to help support their safety?
3. Problems during adolescence include depression, substance abuse, and antisocial behavior/delinquency.  Choose one of the adolescent problem behaviors and conduct an online search regarding the prevalence of the adolescent problem.  Reflect on what you had thought about the problem prior to the search.  What new information did you learn?  How does the problem behavior impact the family system?

Discussion questions

What have you learned about “Family and Adulthood?”

1. Cohabitation and marriage are discussed in the chapter.  This is a current area of research and study in adulthood.  Reflect on your thoughts about cohabitation and marriage.  After reading the chapter, what are your thoughts about cohabitation and marriage?  Can you determine some pros and cons to both?
2. Intergenerational solidarity is used to explain the continued links between parents and adult children.  It is a multidimensional concept that examines emotional closeness, agreement in values, time spent together, exchange of emotional and practical support, expectations of support, and structural factors which facilitate interactions.  Reflect on the intergenerational solidarity of your own family.  What are ways that families can strengthen their intergenerational solidarity?
3. Work–life balance refers to the struggle to meet the demands of work and other life domains.  Write down the activities you perform from waking up until going to sleep throughout the week.  How much of your day is spent on work?  On school? How much time is spent on other life domains (e.g., sleep, spending time with friends, working on a hobby, etc.)?  Is there a balance or an imbalance?   How do you take care of your physical and mental health during the week?

Discussion questions

What did you learn about “Family and Late Adulthood?”

1. Do you have a grandparent or older adult in your life that you could talk to?  Arrange some time to ask them for words of wisdom.  What are some of the most important lessons they have learned in their lifetime?
2. A “bucket list” is a list of experiences a person hopes to accomplish during their lifetime.  Create your own bucket list.  Why are these experiences important to you? 
3. Economic insecurity is a challenge faced by millions of adults over age 60 with incomes below $29,425 per year.  This equates to $2,452.08 per month.  Create a budget of expenses necessary for survival each month.  Include items such as housing, transportation, food, insurance, medical expenses, etc.  How realistic is it for older adults to live well within this budget?  How does this economic insecurity challenge impact older adults’ quality of life?

Discussion questions

What did you learn about “Family Strengths?”

1. When you think of a “strong” family, what comes to mind?  Think about your own family.  What are the strengths your family has?  How can these strengths help you in times of adversity?
2. Family processes are the relationships and patterns of interactions families engage in as they go about their day-to-day routines.  Examine your day-to-day routines.  Identify some of your family’s processes.  If possible, examine a different family’s day-to-day routine.  Identify some of their family’s processes.  Are there any similarities or differences?  Why are family processes considered to be the heart of family strengths?
3. A strengths-based perspective does not mean that stress and challenges are ignored or minimized.  What are stresses and challenges that your family has?  How can recognizing stresses and challenges help to build family strengths?

Discussion questions

What did you learn from “Applied Experiences and Careers in HDFS?”

1. After reading about the different career options students have pursued discussed in the chapter, think about your future career goal.  Research your career goal to learn more about it.  How can an HDFS education help you to excel in your chosen field?  Does your future career goal require a Master’s or Doctorate degree?
2. Field experiences provide excellent opportunities for working hands-on with individuals and families.  They can be in the form of field observations, practica, or internships.  To get an idea of what this may be like, consider volunteering for one day at an organization that works with families, such as schools, shelters, nonprofits, etc.  Write a reflection about your experience, including your feelings about working hands-on with families.
3. Listen to one of the podcats featured on Dr. Erica Jordan’s website: https://www.hdfscareers.com/ How did the person prepare for their career? How does a HDFS degree fit into their career? What advice did the person offer to HDFS students?

Discussion questions

What did you learn from “Professional Development and Ethics?”

1. What experiences or challenges have contributed to shaping your professional identity as a student, and how do you envision this identity evolving as you progress through your academic journey?
2. Think about the profession you aspire to work in.  What professional dispositions do individuals in this profession possess?  If possible, ask a professional about their dispositions.  If not possible, you can learn about professionals through their biographies if available online.  Do your attitudes, values, beliefs, behaviors, and ethics align with the dispositions of individuals in this profession? 
3. Professional experiences include practica, internships, volunteer work, service learning, and/or paid work.  Write a one page summary of a professional experience you have had.  Include highlights from the experience, such as making new connections, learning new skills, etc.