about

The Center for Child and Family Policy (CCFP) was established at Duke University on July 1, 1999, with Kenneth A. Dodge, William McDougall Professor of Public Policy and Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience, as its director.  We bring together faculty, researchers, staff, and students in an effort to achieve our mission:  to contribute to solutions to important problems affecting today’s children and families, through an integrated system of teaching, research, service, and policy engagement.  The Center emphasizes the bridge from basic research to policy and practice.

We hope that you will read and learn about our many projects and initiatives, including the largest violence-prevention study ever funded by the National Institute of Mental Health; the largest youth violence-prevention experiment for middle schools funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; a major effort to evaluate the effects of education reform on children across North Carolina, in an effort to promote healthy child development in the community of Durham, North Carolina, by focusing on parent-child relationships; and the Durham Family Initiative, which strives to prevent and reduce child maltreatment.

The Center for Child and Family Policy became an affiliate of the Social Science Research Institute (SSRI), one of seven university-wide interdisciplinary institutes at Duke University, on July 1, 2008.  We also are affiliated with Duke’s Sanford School of Public Policy.

The Center’s leadership currently includes seven Associate Directors:  Phillip Costanzo, Associate Director for Teaching and Mentoring; E. Jane Costello, Associate Director for Research; Rick Hoyle, Associate Director for Data Services; Jenni W. Owen, Associate Director of Policy and Translation; Barbara Black Pollock, Associate Director for Administration; David Rabiner, Associate Director for Program Evaluation, and Clara Muschkin, Director of Undergraduate Education and Children in Contemporary Society certificate program.

The Center is a founding member of the University-Based Child and Family Policy Consortium, a forum that fosters scientific collaboration around child and family policy issues.