TY - JOUR
T1 - Best Practices in Family Life Education Programming for Midlife and Older Adults
AU - Benson, Jacquelyn J.
AU - Donehower, Allison K.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 National Council on Family Relations
PY - 2020/7/1
Y1 - 2020/7/1
N2 - Due to dramatic changes in the U.S. population's aging demographic, family life educators have begun offering more programming for midlife and older adults. This shift began in the early 1990s, after several family scholars and practicing professionals urged the National Council of Family Relations to revise its Framework for Life Span Family Life Education to include “later adulthood” as a fourth age-group categorization. Since this revision, family life educators and family scholars alike have gradually expanded their programming and scholarship efforts to address the challenges and concerns associated with midlife and older adulthood. In this article, we review best practices in family life education (FLE) programming for midlife and older adults, including programming needs, program design preferences, and contextual variation. To conclude, we suggest future directions for research on best practices in FLE for midlife and older audiences and recommend using the life course perspective as a complement to the Framework when planning and designing FLE programming to meet the needs of the heterogeneous aging population.
AB - Due to dramatic changes in the U.S. population's aging demographic, family life educators have begun offering more programming for midlife and older adults. This shift began in the early 1990s, after several family scholars and practicing professionals urged the National Council of Family Relations to revise its Framework for Life Span Family Life Education to include “later adulthood” as a fourth age-group categorization. Since this revision, family life educators and family scholars alike have gradually expanded their programming and scholarship efforts to address the challenges and concerns associated with midlife and older adulthood. In this article, we review best practices in family life education (FLE) programming for midlife and older adults, including programming needs, program design preferences, and contextual variation. To conclude, we suggest future directions for research on best practices in FLE for midlife and older audiences and recommend using the life course perspective as a complement to the Framework when planning and designing FLE programming to meet the needs of the heterogeneous aging population.
KW - aging issues and families
KW - family life education
KW - gerontology
KW - life course perspective
KW - older adults
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85086019266&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1111/fare.12461
DO - 10.1111/fare.12461
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85086019266
SN - 0197-6664
VL - 69
SP - 577
EP - 594
JO - Family Relations
JF - Family Relations
IS - 3
ER -