Dr. Tim Killian’s research interests are generally focused on social connectedness of older adults and how social and community contexts are related to health and well-being. Tim’s doctoral studies examined perceptions of normative obligations for adult children to provide resources and caregiving to their aging parents and step-parents. Dr. Killian was able to transfer that focus on research into secondary analyses of nationally representative data to develop typologies of both upstream and downstream transfers of monetary and caregiving resources between older adults and their adult children. As his career has continued at the University of Arkansas, his focus has shifted to the community context of aging and, in particular, how aging and social connections vary across the spectrum of rurality. Dr. Killian has published a paper with a recent Masters graduate on the relationship between ill-being and its association to engagement in leisure activities within long-term care using data that were mostly collected in rural long-term care facilities. In collaboration with colleagues including nursing faculty at the University of Arkansas, Dr. Killian has also used secondary analyses of data from the nationally representative Health and Retirement Study to examine emergency preparedness of older adults to increase their resilience and recovery outcomes during and subsequent to disasters. His research in progress continues to focus on emergency preparedness and post-disaster recovery among older adults, as well as on the formation of romantic relationships of older adults.

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The workings of admiration and adoration within individuals and the family as attitudes against self-interest were investigated. Interviews with American families in two New England states from ten Christian denominations (n = 20) were analyzed qualitatively. As a result, admiration was observed among almost all the families. Three means-end structures emerged in regard to spouses' configuration of the components of adoration, and these three groups of families indicated different features of family. The spouses of the Holistic Devotion (HD) group devoted all resources to God, rejecting the quest for self-interest, defining marriage/family as a coherent unit to serve God. The children participated in this attitude, expressing a similar devotion to God and rejection of self-interest. The spouses of the Personal God (PG) group perceived God as a meaning-maker and a benefactor who was involved in marriage, having multiple goals including spiritual growth and marital care and togetherness. The children expressed similar goals, including family togetherness and affirmation of satisfaction of self-interest. The spouses of the God-as-Benefactor (GB) group mentioned only admiration, and perceived that God was less involved in marriage; they valued marital care that functioned as mutual satisfaction of self-interest. The children similarly sought family togetherness, were centered in self-interest, and religion was instrumental to their self-interest. Six functions working in the family relationships of the HD group were elaborated, and the unique ontology behind these functions was analyzed.

This study investigates the transactional relationship between father involvement and adolescent self-disclosure from early to midadolescence. Four hundred and ninety-six adolescents reported on their general self-disclosure to fathers, and mothers reported on father involvement behaviors and maternal involvement behaviors at ages 11, 13, and 15. Results from a longitudinal cross-lagged model indicated a unidirectional relationship from father involvement to child self-disclosure in both early and midadolescence, and a transactional relationship from adolescent self-disclosure to father involvement in early adolescence. A multiple group analysis by gender revealed that both unidirectional and transactional relationships were significant for boys only. Future research efforts should be sensitive to developmental changes and gender differences within father-child communication processes across adolescence.

This was a descriptive study of 140 volunteer therapists in the Richmond, Virginia metropolitan area who identified themselves as either "brief" or "time-unlimited" in their practice of marital therapy. The sample, predominantly female and highly educated, had a mean age of 46.9 years.;For the purpose of this study, brief marital therapy was defined as eight or fewer therapeutic sessions within a 3-month period, and time-unlimited marital therapy was designated as therapy lasting longer than eight sessions or over 3 months. There were 60 self-identified brief marital therapists (BMTs) and 73 self-identified time-unlimited marital therapists (TUMTs). Subjects completed four instruments, including the "style" questionnaire, the active-directiveness subscale, and two instruments developed by the researcher. The specific variables under consideration were active-directiveness of the therapist, therapeutic goals, and duration of treatment.;Results revealed a high degree of similarity between BMTs and TUMTs regarding theoretical orientation, style, interventions, aim of therapy, and length and scheduling of sessions. Despite their similarities, therapists endorsed items consistent with their identification as either a BMT or TUMT. Thus BMTs, compared to TUMTs, were more active-directive, employed more limited, modest goals, and utilized fewer sessions. Therefore, it was concluded from the present findings that there was a significant difference between BMTs and TUMTs on the variables under scrutiny.

The purpose of this study was to validate a model of Structural Family Therapy promulgated by M. S. Sale and Thomas Hendren and in use by many public agencies in the Commonwealths of Virginia and North Carolina since 1981.;The Newport News Department of Social Services was chosen as the main site for the investigation as this author had learned the model while working there; and at the time the research began, all social workers at the agency were being trained in the model. Many middle to lower class SES clients were receiving SFT at the time for a variety of referral reasons--child abuse/neglect, marital or family issues, divorce mediation, etc.;Since the model's authors believed that changes in the control/nurture dimension was the most important for clients to demonstrate success in therapy, measuring changes in that dimension was chosen as a way to validate the model. It was hypothesized that after 10 therapy sessions (1) pretest and posttest measures of control and nurture using the Firo-B and FES would not agree with the therapist's predictions of where the clients were functioning along that dimension and (2) pretest and posttest measures of control and nurture by each instrument would not show any significant differences.;It was concluded that there was no significant agreement between the test predictions and the therapist predictions. Also concluded was that there were no significant differences between the pretest and posttest measures of control and nurture for either test.;Further study is needed to pre-validate the instruments, to increase the sample size and to test the effect of increasing the number of sessions that clients receive between pretest and posttest.

The purpose of this study was to determine what, if any, impact families have on the academic achievement of African American gifted learners from low income environments. This grounded theory study was designed to explore family and student perceptions of a complex set of variables related to families and home environments. The variables explored were based on a conceptual framework developed from previous research related to social capital and its uses within families with limited economic resources. Study participants were junior and senior level high school students and their parents.;Instruments included a demographic questionnaire with open-ended questions, a researcher-developed interview protocol and the Moos Family Environment Scale. Based on the findings, certain 'social capital' resources were revealed: family cohesion; strong relationships with mothers; family to student discussions related to education and positive achievement; the role of the extended family (particularly aunts and cousins); emphasis on religious identity development; and the role of fathers are noted as having impact on school achievement. Another notable source of capital revealed was the intrinsic motivation and resilience of each of the students based on parent and student responses to interview questions.;The most pronounced findings were the role of the mother as nurturer and encourager; the flexible role of extended family members who provide additional support; the emphasis within the households on positive achievement orientation, and certain family traditions which taken together form a cohesive, supportive family environment, even in the midst of challenging life circumstances. In addition to the social capital provided by families, this study also revealed other sources of positive impact including special school-based programs and internal traits. Implications for future research include the design of a controlled study of African American families of gifted students utilizing the Moos & Moos Family Environment Scale (FES), a study of the support structure provided by mothers of gifted learners across a variety of cultural contexts, and study of the intrinsic motivation and resilience of at-risk African American gifted learners. Implications for educational practice include improving professional development for educators, family and parent education programs, and enhancing guidance and counseling programs for African American and other culturally diverse gifted learners.

This study builds on previous research regarding parent-child religious conversations to explore the elements and bidirectional processes of parent-adolescent religious conversations. It employs qualitative analyses of interviews with highly religious parents and adolescents representing the major Abrahamic faiths (Christianity, Judaism, Islam) from New England and Northern California. Variations in content, structure, conversational processes, and bidirectional influence are summarized in a conceptual model. Findings suggest that the quality of conversations is greater for parents and adolescents when they are youth-centered than when they are parent-centered.