In fact, years of research by scholars at the University of Notre Dame indicate that there can be constructive, positive conflict that allows children to experience problem-solving and good feelings about family life, something that the William J. Shaw Center for Children and Families Professor of Psychology says benefits their development. The new Happy Families Project, supported by a major four-year grant from the National Institute of Mental Health and led by Cummings, Research Assistant Professor and professor emeritus , is meant to arm as many families as possible in South Bend, Fort Wayne and Indianapolis with critical tools to help them communicate with one another effectively.

The Happy Families Project is designed to help any family work through conflict, no matter the makeup of the household. Cummings, Bergman and Borkowski, whose research is primarily done through Notre Dame’s , developed the program content based on the emotional security theory (EST). The theory is that conflict between two parental figures and the family unit affects how safe and secure a child feels within the family. EST builds upon attachment theory, which posits that for proper social and emotional development, a child must form a bond with at least one primary caregiver, with EST extending that idea to stress the importance of children’s emotional security across all family relationships.      

“Emotional security is a critical factor for children’s wellbeing and pro-social behavior. This stimulated us to form these programs,” said Cummings. “The way families choose to deal with conflict matters as well as the way parents are or are not able to adjust their behavior. There have been many studies done on this, with the science providing a very solid foundation for the recommendations for families made by our programs. Emotional security is not a vague notion; it can be measured. We wanted to take all of this information and make something useful for families. We’ve translated this into help for families, based on hard science.”

To reach as many families as possible and, importantly, to ensure the program will be sustainable, the researchers decided on a model that will allow for wide dissemination. They are working with community partners at churches, community centers and schools to recruit volunteer trainers. The initial trainers will go through 30 hours of training with materials compiled by Bergman, Cummings and Borkowski.

“After over 20 years of research by Mark and Katie in developing this intervention, I am happy to join the team in expanding the program to 600 families across the state of Indiana,” Borkowski said.

The materials include information about recognizing different types of communication strategies people use in their own conflicts with family members, the implications of the those behaviors for kids who witness them, and tips for handling conflicts in more productive ways so that families can put those conflicts behind them. Trainers will then be equipped to prepare secondary trainers, who will only need to dedicate about 15 hours to their coaching.

The professors ran successful trials with the program on campus before deciding to introduce the program to community partners in South Bend, Fort Wayne and Indianapolis.

As the team developed material, they ensured that coaches could be trained, regardless of their background, with the hope of making the program easy to implement.

“It’s a manualized, four-week program written in everyday language,” Cummings said. “People without advanced clinical training can learn it and reuse over and over; they don’t need a clinical degree. A coach is someone who is well intentioned, able to read and learn the manual and then train others.”

Bergman stressed that this is not therapy but a valuable source of highly reliable information about better ways to communicate in problem-solving situations for the sake of children, and that virtually everyone can get something out of the program to help them better navigate family conflict.

Families will be paid to participate. They will receive $150 over the course of a year, during which they complete the four-week online program and then two virtual follow-up interviews. To participate, families must have at least one child ages 4-17 who has two adult figures in their life (they do not have to live together) and they must read and speak English, although it need not be their first language.

“We think it’s pretty profound. If we can address communication and relationship problems, we can help with skyrocketing mental health issues,” Bergman said. “Of course, we didn’t know about the impending pandemic when we applied for the grant, but it’s very timely right now since stress and conflict are heightened.” 

Thomas Lange, a community organizer with Crooked Creek Northwest, a community development corporation in Indianapolis, is the site coordinator for Indianapolis, where two churches, a community center and a school district have already joined as partner organizations.

A former engineer with Eli Lilly and Co., Lange is the founder of Lion Catcher, a nonprofit that partners with schools and community organizations to lift children and families in northwest Indianapolis out of poverty. The name refers to an Ethiopian proverb about the power of collective action: “When spider webs unite, they can tie up a lion.”

“The idea is to bring together existing programs and providers and focus many programs on a single community,” Lange said.

The Happy Families Project is yet another thread in that web.

“There is a great need for effective communication and conflict resolution in the families we serve. And in any family anywhere, whether wealthy or impoverished,” Lange said.

As site coordinator, Lange is tasked with recruiting public, private and nonprofit partners to the project and with developing a competent pool of instructors who can teach the fundamentals of constructive conflict and conflict resolution to others.

To prepare for this, Lange underwent hours of training with Shaw Center faculty and staff. He expressed confidence in the project based on the available evidence of its effectiveness at the clinical level and the strength of the underlying design and materials.

“The program — the materials, the training, the process, the protocols — is really well designed,” Lange said, comparing it favorably to his experience with pharmaceutical studies at Eli Lilly. “I am highly confident that I can train others to deliver it to families. It’s an amazing process that Notre Dame has developed.”

He said he anticipates a positive impact on families in northwest Indianapolis, a socially, culturally and economically diverse area of the city with a high concentration of low-income households.

Patrice Smith is the recruitment and retention coordinator for the project in Indianapolis and a staff member at Northview Church, one of the partnering organizations in Indianapolis.

“This is more than just a research project. It is an opportunity to come alongside families in such a critical time post-COVID-19,” Smith said. “Many families across the nation have been stretched beyond reasonable limits in light of parenting through a pandemic. Oftentimes, the first thing to suffer during unforeseen circumstances is healthy communication and relational skills, especially when emotions are high.

“With that being said, my hope is that families in our church and community will seize this opportunity to sharpen and widen their communication and relational skills as we all strive to navigate this new normal and soon-to-be post-COVID-19 world.”      

Families interested in participating in the program can sign up at . Organizations in South Bend, Fort Wayne and Indianapolis interested in receiving training to offer the program to their clients can contact happyfam@nd.edu

“I tried to think about what I wanted when I was that age and what I wanted to learn. I wanted to combine that with what I have learned as a scientist to make the lab manual educationally valuable,” Ocobock said.

Ocobock pulled science experiments that were publicly available online that demonstrate the scientific method — some that Ruby can do herself, and some that will require adult supervision. She then gathered all the materials Ruby would need to conduct the experiments. Along with each experiment, Ocobock included a profile of a woman scientist.

“I wanted to represent women and women of color,” she said. “This was very much directed at my niece.”

After completing the manual that totals 28 experiments appropriate for ages 5 to 10, Ocobock posted it and on Twitter. The kit then went what she described as “low-key viral.” Her inbox was flooded with requests for manuals and her Twitter followers nearly tripled.

“I did not expect the response,” she said. “It never dawned on me that kids are at home. It never occurred to me the kind of need there is for this. I was sending the manual to people in places like Malaysia and Eastern Europe. I will never fully understand how far it went.”

About the same time, Ocobock told Morgan Munsen, a doctoral student in neuroscience, about the manual at a Science Cafe event, leading to a discussion about how to ensure access to the manual locally among students from disadvantaged backgrounds from two distinct perspectives: language and the materials needed to perform the experiments.

“It just snowballed from there,” said Munsen, who is also the community director with the (SPI), a student-run organization that engages Notre Dame students in issues at the intersection of science and public policy and promotes science and technology within the South Bend-Elkhart community.

In coordination with Ocobock and with support from the broader SPI community, Munsen successfully applied for two grants: a $5,500 Community Impact Grant from the at Notre Dame and a $1,000 grant from the National Science Policy Network. The , the sponsoring organization for SPI and source of faculty mentorship, also generously agreed to cover up to $2,500 in additional funding to cover any remaining costs associated with the project.

Grant money in hand, Sasha Padilla-Coley, a doctoral candidate in biochemistry at Notre Dame and co-president of SPI, hired a fellow graduate student, Colombian-born Sebastián Murgueitio Ramírez, to translate the manual from English to Spanish. A doctoral candidate in the history and philosophy of science, Murgueitio Ramirez previously created an online Spanish-language textbook aimed at the South American market. He also helped , a professor of at Notre Dame, devoted to the foundations of physics.

Meanwhile, Munsen coordinated with St. Adalbert Catholic 91��Ƶ, where her husband works as a middle school religion teacher, to supply students there with kits containing chemicals, petri dishes and other materials specific to the manual over winter break.

St. Adalbert is a PK-8 school serving mostly lower-income, Spanish-speaking households on South Bend’s west side. The school has an existing relationship with Fisher Hall, whose annual regatta benefits St. Adalbert. Both Fisher and McGlinn hall residents volunteer as tutors at St. Adalbert.

“While many of these materials can be found around the home, some are hard to source and some are more expensive,” said Munsen. “We wanted to make sure there was not a barrier to access for these materials, whether price or availability.”

At the same time, Munsen said, “During a pandemic, especially, parents are busy. Having all the materials there and the manual, and in a language they speak, not only enriches the student, but is something fun that kids and parents can do together.”

Led by Munsen, SPI purchased the materials individually and in bulk with support from Notre Dame Procurement Services. Science faculty from across campus, including , teaching professor of biological sciences; , associate teaching professor of biological sciences; and , assistant professor of psychology, donated items such as petri dishes and balloons. Headed by Dean , the College of Science donated several hundred dollars to print physical copies of the manual for the students. SPI took advantage of fast shipping via Amazon for bulk purchases.

Finally, SPI Co-President Robert Stanley negotiated with Hammes Notre Dame Bookstore for a discount on 150 Notre Dame-branded backpacks to gather and transport the lab materials.

Volunteers from both SPI and the assembled the kits and packed the backpacks over several days in early December. Following coronavirus protocols, SPI delivered the backpacks to St. Adalbert during off hours on Dec. 16 — one for every student in grades one through six. Teachers distributed the backpacks to the students before the start of winter break.

“I’m blown away by how hard our volunteers — especially the students — have worked and how detail-oriented they’ve been to prepare the kits for these kids,” said Ocobock.

Joe Miller, principal at St. Adalbert, said “We are overwhelmed by the generosity of these science experiment gifts. Our students love the prospect of doing science, and they happen to like the ND bags quite a bit too!”

He continued, “As an over 70 percent English learner school, we rightfully spend an extraordinary amount of time and energy in our school building on reading and language arts. An unintended consequence of our emphasis on language arts is that science at times gets short shrift. These science kits will go a long way in kindling an interest in science for our students.”

What’s more, Miller said, the kits “come at a perfect time as we anticipate spending some extended time in remote learning in the coming semester. Our teachers will now be able to say, ‘Go get your science lab backpack’ and then conduct live online science experiments from home — but together. There is no way we could have ever pulled off that quality of a lesson without this generous gift.”

He concluded, “Notre Dame has been and will continue to be a great partner at St. Adalbert 91��Ƶ — this gift is one more link strengthening our relationship.”

Looking ahead, Munsen said SPI hopes to provide materials to additional students and schools depending on financing, among other factors.

“It would be great if we could expand it further into the community,” said Padilla-Coley. “If we’re able to get more grants, it’s feasible.”

If you would like to support this effort, contact Assistant Professor Ocobock at cocobock@nd.edu.