Collection Guide
Collection Title:
Collection Number:
Get Items:
Guide to the Stanford Center for the Study of Families, Children, and Youth Records
SC0482
View entire collection guide
Search this collection
Table of contents
Call Number: SC0482
Creator:
Stanford Center for the Study of Families, Children, and Youth
Title: Stanford Center for the Study of Families, Children, and Youth records
Dates: 1972-1994
Physical Description:
5 Linear feet
Summary: Records pertaining to the administration of the center and its programs.
Language(s): The materials are in English.
Repository:
Department of Special Collections and University Archives
Green Library
557 Escondido Mall
Stanford, CA 94305-6064
Email: specialcollections@stanford.edu
Phone: (650) 725-1022
URL: http://library.stanford.edu/spc
Administrative transfer, 1994.
Collection is open for research; materials must be requested at least 24 hours in advance of intended use.
Property rights reside with the repository. Literary rights reside with the creators of the documents or their heirs. To obtain
permission to publish or reproduce, please contact the Public Services Librarian of the Dept. of Special Collections.
[Identification of item], Stanford Center for the Study of Families, Children, and Youth records, SC 482. Stanford University
Archives, Stanford, Calif.
Biography / Administrative History
The Stanford Center for the Study of Families, Children and Youth was established in 1974 with support from Father Flanagan's
Boys' Town. The Center, known then as the Boys' Town Center for the Study of Youth Development at Stanford, sponsored interdisciplinary
research on the effects of deprivation and neglect on the life chances of children. Professor Robert Sears was appointed interim
Director during the organization of the Center, with Professor Al Hastorf appointed its first Director. Subsequent directors
included Merrill Carlsmith, Michael Wald, and Sanford Dornbusch.
After the contract with Boys' Town was dissolved in 1986, the Center changed its name to the Stanford Center for the Study
of Families, Children and Youth and broadened its focus from children aged 7 to 19 to encompass families and childhood concerns.
Topics researched by its members have included the impact of daycare on a child's social development, effects of divorce and
custody arrangements, how family variables affect school performance, minorities in the schools, and homelessness. Due to
funding difficulties, the Center was dissolved in June 1994.
Scope and Content of Collection
These records, dating from 1972 to 1994, pertain largely to the administration of the Center and include correspondence of
the Directors, contracts and legal records from the agreement with Boys' Town, annual reports, financial records, sponsored
project files, and miscellaneous records.
Directors Albert Hastorf, 1975-80, and J. Merrill Carlsmith, 1980-84, are most heavily represented in the correspondence files.
There are significantly fewer files for directors Michael Wald, 1985, Sanford Dornbusch, 1987-88, Shirley Feldman, 1993, and
Susan Nolen-Hoeksema, 1994.
Projects headed by Sanford Dornbusch that are included in the sponsored project files include "Education for Parenting," "Homeless
Families, Children and Youth," "Family and Peer Influences on High School Performance," and "Barriers to Hispanic Participation
and Performance in High School Mathematics and Science Courses." Eleanor Maccoby's projects include "Adolescent Children of
Recently Divorced Families" and "Child Custody: Contact, Conflict and Continutity." Shirley Feldman's projects include "Family
Influences on Health" and "Normal Adolescent Development."
The collection is arranged in the following manner: Directors' correspondence - Box 1 through Box 5, folder 28 Contract files
- Box 5, folder 29, through Box 6 Miscellaneous records - Box 7, folder 1 through folder 8 Annual reports and financial records
- Box 7, folder 9 through Box 8 Sponsored project files - Box 9 and 10
Boys Town Center for the Study of Youth Development.
Boys Town Center.
Carlsmith, J. Merrill, 1936-
Dornbusch, Sanford M.
Feldman, S. Shirley.
Hastorf, Albert H., 1920-
Leiderman, P. Herbert
Maccoby, Eleanor E., 1917-
Child development.
Divorce.
Family.
Homelessness--California.
Mexican Americans--Education.
Parenting.