Sociology and family and human development majors now have a new school to call home.
Students and faculty celebrated a merger between the two departments Thursday at the launch party for the new School of Social and Family Dynamics, held outside Coor Hall.
The school is part of a redesign of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, which has added seven new schools in the past five years, said CLAS Dean David Young.
"We believe that in this redesign we're setting a new standard for a major research university," Young said.
That new standard means creating communication and collaboration across disciplinary lines - a goal in tune with ASU's New American University theme, Young said.
"This is a really smart thing to do," said Provost Elizabeth Capaldi. "To make possible the interaction of faculty of those various disciplines on important problems is really what ASU is all about."
Both the sociology and family and human development baccalaureate degrees will remain as separate programs under the school.
Graduate programs will include master's and doctoral degrees in sociology or family and human development.
The merger allows the two departments to pool resources and offer more opportunities to students, said founding Director Richard Fabes.
More opportunities may also mean better research projects for graduate students like Sarah Killoren.
Killoren, a family and human development graduate student, presented her research at the launch event's poster contest Thursday.
The project investigates the link between Latino adolescent sexual behavior and parent-adolescent relationships.
After surveying more than 200 Mexico-origin teenagers, Killoren said she was able to map a direct relationship between the intimacy of parent-adolescent relationships and adolescent's intentions to have sex.
Students who felt higher levels of "warmth" or intimacy with their mothers were less likely to say they intended on having sex within the next year, Killoren said.
Students from lower income households and those at a more adult stage of physical sexual maturity were also more likely to plan on having sex.
The results show a need for culturally appropriate sexual health programs that promote awareness of sexually transmitted diseases and prevent unwanted pregnancies, Killoren said.
The merge with the sociology department may enable Killoren to work with sociology students on demographic studies, she said.
It may also mean student research will gain a larger audience, she added.
"We usually publish family and human development articles, Killoren said. "Working with sociologists and demographers will probably open our research to others."
Linda Manning, a sociology graduate student, is studying adolescent obesity and body image across racial lines. She hopes collaboration with family and human development students and faculty will be the next phase of her project.
"With us merging, it gives us a whole plethora of different faculty to work with, Manning said. "It gives us so many more resources. I'm very excited about the launch."
Reach the reporter at: annalyn.censky@asu.edu.
