The National Center for Family & Marriage Research at Bowling Green State University, in consultation with the African American Healthy Marriage Initiative at the Administration for Children and Families within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, seeks to fund at least four proposals ($10,000-$20,000 per award) to support innovative research that contributes to theoretical, conceptual, methodological, or empirical developments about African American marriage and families. Our aim is to support new work on African American families that can be translated to a broad audience, including policymakers, practitioners, and educators.

African Americans have lower marriage rates and higher dissolution rates than Whites or Latinos, on average. High levels of nonmarital childbearing and single parenthood coupled with an increase in cohabitation means the pathways into marriage have become more complex.

Research often focuses on the challenges facing African American families, obscuring factors that promote resilience in African American family life. Close attention to new patterns of family formation and their consequences for well-being is warranted. Additionally, subgroup variation among African Americans in terms of family formation and stability may help researchers to identify risk and resilience factors in African American families. For instance, socioeconomic disadvantage, which disproportionately affects African Americans, is linked to complex family trajectories. Innovative data collections are desirable, including qualitative and quantitative approaches.

View and Print Full Request for Proposal (RFP) and Application Instructions (PDF File)

The deadline is April 6, 2009 (receipt date).