FFCWS at Notre Dame

Joining Princeton and Columbia universities, Notre Dame is poised to host FFCWS@ND, a Midwestern hub of The Future of Families and Child Wellbeing Study (FFCWS). Historically, the FFCWS has been led exclusively by researchers at these two Ivy League institutions. This changed in 2024 when Anna Haskins (Sociology) was named as a new co-Investigator. Haskins has spent nearly two decades utilizing FFCWS data to examine how the education system, family, and criminal legal system connect and interact in ways that both preserve and mitigate social inequality. This appointment presents a timely opportunity to develop a Midwestern research hub focused on the utilization of FFCWS data.

The FFCWS is the longest-running and only contemporary US birth cohort study of young adults, based on a national sample, that follows children from birth through young adulthood. It has become a crucial component of the country’s research infrastructure, enabling researchers, policymakers, and practitioners to understand the effects of poverty, family structure, education, employment, income, health, housing, and resource sharing on human development. For the past 25 years, the FFCWS has served as a vital public resource, with more than 8,700 researchers across disciplines using its data to generate insights that inform research agendas, public policy, and social programs.

In collaboration with Notre Dame Population Analytics, Haskins will grow FFCWS research at the University. This new effort will host data conferences to train faculty, postdoctoral researchers, and graduate students on uses and applications of the FFCWS data. The conferences will provide a unique opportunity for attendees to engage directly with FFCWS leadership and facilitate collaboration among regional researchers. Additional activities will include recruiting and hiring postdoctoral fellows who have used the FFCWS data and can support the research efforts of Notre Dame faculty.

“Our aim is to build capacity to leverage these unique data to ask and answer the critical poverty-related questions that drive policy change, generate real-world solutions, and advance knowledge — all of which will cement Notre Dame's leadership in poverty research,” Haskins said.

FFCWS@ND is supported by Notre Dame’s Poverty Initiative, a University-wide effort to create a world intolerant of poverty by expanding knowledge about how to solve it.