Journal of Family Psychology

The Journal of Family Psychology ® (JFP) is the premier family research journal. Family psychology is a complex field, as it includes systems perspectives on the multiple influences on relationships, developmental perspectives on how relationships are formed and sustained over time, cultural perspectives on how society and traditions affect relationships, the intersection of individual differences and social relationships, and practice components in how to affect real and meaningful changes in couple, parent, and family relationships.

JFP addresses societal challenges faced by families today. Important societal challenges facing families today — risk for divorce in vulnerable families, couple and marital satisfaction in military families, child-raising challenges and positive outcomes in immigrant families, risk and resilience in families who adopt, and relationship transitions in diverse couples and families (e.g., in terms of race/ethnicity, sexual orientation, and disability) — are examples of topics addressed in JFP .

JFP publishes important studies on what makes couple and family relationships work. JFP consistently publishes strong empirical studies on what keeps couples together, what makes for strong parent–child relationships, and the subtle nuances in predicting healthy relationships over time.

JFP is a leader in publishing reports that use cutting-edge, sophisticated approaches to research design and data analysis. Actor–partner modeling, bootstrapping, use of phantom data, mixed methods, qualitative inquiry, structural equation modeling with moderators and mediators — these are just a few of the sophisticated approaches commonly used in JFP reports. Close to half of the highly cited works in JFP are longitudinal studies.

JFP imparts knowledge about effective therapy and prevention programs relevant to couples and families. JFP provides an excellent outlet for high-quality studies that test the effects of family- or couple-based therapy or prevention programs. Especially important are reports that include couple or family characteristics as potential mediators and moderators of program effects.

Contact the editor if you have questions about whether your topic is suitable for JFP.

Disclaimer: APA and the editors of the Journal of Family Psychology assume no responsibility for statements and opinions advanced by the authors of its articles.

Equity, diversity, and inclusion

Journal of Family Psychology supports equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) in its practices. More information on these initiatives is available under EDI Efforts.

Call for papers

Open science

The APA Journals Program is committed to publishing transparent, rigorous research; improving reproducibility in science; and aiding research discovery. Open science practices vary per editor discretion. View the initiatives implemented by this journal.

Editor’s Choice

This journal’s content is highlighted in the APA “Editor’s Choice” newsletter, a free, bi-weekly compilation of editor-recommended APA Journals articles. More information is available under the submission guidelines.

Author and editor spotlights

Explore journal highlights: free article summaries, editor interviews and editorials, journal awards, mentorship opportunities, and more.

Prior to submission, please carefully read and follow the submission guidelines detailed below. Manuscripts that do not conform to the submission guidelines may be returned without review.

Submission

To submit to the Editorial Office of Arin M. Connell, please submit manuscripts electronically through the Manuscript Submission Portal in Microsoft Word or Open Office format.

Prepare manuscripts according to the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association using the 7 th edition. Manuscripts may be copyedited for bias-free language (see Chapter 5 of the Publication Manual). APA Style and Grammar Guidelines for the 7 th edition are available.

Arin M. Connell, editor
Associate Professor of Psychology
Director of Clinical Training
Department of Psychological Sciences
Case Western Reserve University
10900 Euclid Ave.
Cleveland, OH 44106

General correspondence may be directed to the editor's office.

Do not submit manuscripts to the editor's email address.

In addition to addresses and phone numbers, please supply electronic mail addresses and fax numbers, if available, for potential use by the editorial office and later by the production office.

Keep a copy of the manuscript to guard against loss.

Journal of Family Psychology is now using a software system to screen submitted content for similarity with other published content. The system compares the initial version of each submitted manuscript against a database of 40+ million scholarly documents, as well as content appearing on the open web. This allows APA to check submissions for potential overlap with material previously published in scholarly journals (e.g., lifted or republished material).

Editor’s Choice

Each issue of the Journal of Family Psychology will highlight one manuscript with the designation as an “Editor’s Choice” paper. Selection is based on the recommendations of the associate editors, who consider the paper’s potential impact to the field, the distinction of expanding the contributors to, or the focus of, our science, or its discussion of an important future direction for science.

Article requirements

For general guidelines to style, authors should study articles previously published in the journal.

All manuscripts must include an abstract containing a maximum of 250 words typed on a separate page. After the abstract, please supply up to five keywords or brief phrases.

The manuscript title should be accurate, fully explanatory, and preferably no longer than 12 words. The title should reflect the content and population studied (e.g., "family therapy for depression in children"). If the paper reports a randomized clinical trial, this should be indicated in the title, and the CONSORT criteria must be used for reporting purposes.

Research manuscripts and review and theoretical manuscripts that provide creative and integrative summaries of an area of work relevant to family psychology should not exceed 30–35 pages, all inclusive (including cover page, abstract, text, references, tables, figures), with margins of at least 1 inch on all sides and a standard font (e.g., Times New Roman) of 12 points (no smaller). The entire paper (text, references, tables, figures, etc.,) must be double spaced. References should not exceed 8 pages.

Brief reports are encouraged for innovative work that may be premature for publication as a full research report because of small sample size, novel methodologies, etc. Brief reports also are an appropriate format for replications and for clinical case studies (note that replication submissions should include “A Replication of XX Study” in the subtitle of the manuscript as well as in the abstract). Authors of brief reports should indicate in the cover letter that the full report is not under consideration for publication elsewhere. Brief reports should be designated as such and should not exceed a total of 20 pages, all-inclusive. References should not exceed eight pages.

Manuscripts exceeding the space requirement will be returned to the author for shortening prior to peer review.

All research involving human participants must describe oversight of the research process by the relevant Institutional Review Boards and should describe consent and assent procedures briefly in the Method section.

It is important to highlight the significance and novel contribution of the work. The translation of research into practice must be evidenced in all manuscripts. Authors should incorporate a meaningful discussion of the clinical and/or policy implications of their work throughout the manuscript, rather than simply providing a separate section for this material.

Masked review

The Journal of Family Psychology ® uses a masked reviewing system for all submissions. The cover letter should include all authors' names and institutional affiliations. However, in order to permit anonymous review, the first page of text should omit this information. This cover page should only include the title of the manuscript and the date it is submitted.

Please make every effort to see that the manuscript itself contains no clues to the authors' identities, including grant numbers, names of institutions providing IRB approval, self-citations, and links to online repositories for data, materials, code, or preregistrations (e.g., Create a View-only Link for a Project).

Please ensure that the final version for production includes a byline and full author note for typesetting.

Cover letter

Authors should indicate in their cover letter that the work has not been published previously and is not under consideration for publication elsewhere. The relationship of the submitted manuscript with other publications and/or submissions of the author, if any, should be explained.

The cover letter should include a statement indicating that the manuscript has been seen and reviewed by all authors and that all authors have contributed to it in a meaningful way.

The cover letter must include the full mailing address, telephone, fax, and email address for the corresponding author.

CONSORT criteria

The Journal of Family Psychology requires the use of the CONSORT reporting standards (i.e., a checklist and flow diagram) for randomized clinical trials, consistent with the policy established by the Publications and Communications Board of APA.

CONSORT (Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials) offers a standard way to improve the quality of such reports and to ensure that readers have the information necessary to evaluate the quality of a clinical trial. Manuscripts that report randomized clinical trials are required to include a flow diagram of the progress through the phases of the trial and a checklist that identifies where in the manuscript the various criteria are addressed. The checklist should be placed in an appendix of the manuscript for review purposes.

When a study is not fully consistent with the CONSORT statement, the limitations should be acknowledged and discussed in the text of the manuscript. For follow-up studies of previously published clinical trials, authors should submit a flow diagram of the progress through the phases of the trial and follow-up. The above checklist information should be completed to the extent possible, especially for the Results and Discussion sections of the manuscript.

Journal Article Reporting Standards

Authors are encouraged to consult the APA Style Journal Article Reporting Standards (JARS) for quantitative, qualitative, and mixed methods research. Updated in 2018, the standards offer ways to improve transparency in reporting to ensure that readers have the information necessary to evaluate the quality of the research and to facilitate collaboration and replication.

• recommend the division of hypotheses, analyses, and conclusions into primary, secondary, and exploratory groupings to allow for a full understanding of quantitative analyses presented in a manuscript and to enhance reproducibility;
• offer modules for authors reporting on N-of-1 designs, replications, clinical trials, longitudinal studies and observational studies, as well as the analytic methods of structural equation modeling and Bayesian analysis; and
• include guidelines on reporting of study preregistration (including making protocols public); participant characteristics (including demographic characteristics); inclusion and exclusion criteria; psychometric characteristics of outcome measures and other variables; and planned data diagnostics and analytic strategy.

Author contribution statements using CRediT

The APA Publication Manual (7th ed.) stipulates that “authorship encompasses…not only persons who do the writing but also those who have made substantial scientific contributions to a study.” In the spirit of transparency and openness, Journal of Family Psychology has adopted the Contributor Roles Taxonomy (CRediT) to describe each author's individual contributions to the work. CRediT offers authors the opportunity to share an accurate and detailed description of their diverse contributions to a manuscript.

Submitting authors will be asked to identify the contributions of all authors at initial submission according to this taxonomy. If the manuscript is accepted for publication, the CRediT designations will be published as an Author Contributions Statement in the author note of the final article. All authors should have reviewed and agreed to their individual contribution(s) before submission.

CRediT includes 14 contributor roles, as described below:

• Conceptualization: Ideas; formulation or evolution of overarching research goals and aims.
• Data curation: Management activities to annotate (produce metadata), scrub data and maintain research data (including software code, where it is necessary for interpreting the data itself) for initial use and later reuse.
• Formal analysis: Application of statistical, mathematical, computational, or other formal techniques to analyze or synthesize study data.
• Funding acquisition: Acquisition of the financial support for the project leading to this publication.
• Investigation: Conducting a research and investigation process, specifically performing the experiments, or data/evidence collection.
• Methodology: Development or design of methodology; creation of models.
• Project administration: Management and coordination responsibility for the research activity planning and execution.
• Resources: Provision of study materials, reagents, materials, patients, laboratory samples, animals, instrumentation, computing resources, or other analysis tools.
• Software: Programming, software development; designing computer programs; implementation of the computer code and supporting algorithms; testing of existing code components.
• Supervision: Oversight and leadership responsibility for the research activity planning and execution, including mentorship external to the core team.
• Validation: Verification, whether as a part of the activity or separate, of the overall replication/reproducibility of results/experiments and other research outputs.
• Visualization: Preparation, creation and/or presentation of the published work, specifically visualization/data presentation.
• Writing—original draft: Preparation, creation and/or presentation of the published work, specifically writing the initial draft (including substantive translation).
• Writing—review and editing: Preparation, creation and/or presentation of the published work by those from the original research group, specifically critical review, commentary or revision—including pre- or post-publication stages.

Authors can claim credit for more than one contributor role, and the same role can be attributed to more than one author.

Transparency and openness

APA endorses the Transparency and Openness Promotion (TOP) Guidelines by a community working group in conjunction with the Center for Open Science (Nosek et al. 2015). Empirical research, including meta-analyses, submitted to the Journal of Family Psychology must meet the “disclosure” level for all eight aspects of research planning and reporting. Authors should include a subsection in the method section titled “Transparency and Openness.” This subsection should detail the efforts the authors have made to comply with the TOP guidelines. For example:

• We report how we determined our sample size, all data exclusions (if any), all manipulations, and all measures in the study, and we follow JARS (Applebaum, et al., 2018). All data, analysis code, and research materials are available at [stable link to permanent repository]. Data were analyzed using R, version 4.0.0 (R Core Team, 2020) and the package ggplot, version 3.2.1 (Wickham, 2016). This study’s design and its analysis were not pre-registered.

Data, materials, and code

Authors must state whether data and study materials are posted to a trusted repository and, if so, how to access them. Recommended repositories include APA’s repository on the Open Science Framework (OSF), or authors can access a full list of other recommended repositories. Trusted repositories adhere to policies that make data discoverable, accessible, usable, and preserved for the long term. Trusted repositories also assign unique and persistent identifiers.

In a subsection titled "Transparency and Openness" at the end of the Method section, specify whether and where the data and material will be available or include a statement noting that they are not available. For submissions with quantitative or simulation analytic methods, state whether the study analysis code is posted to a trusted repository, and, if so, how to access it.

• All data have been made publicly available at the [trusted repository name] and can be accessed at [persistent URL or DOI].
• Materials and analysis code for this study are available by emailing the corresponding author.
• Materials and analysis code for this study are not available.
• The code behind this analysis/simulation has been made publicly available at the [trusted repository name] and can be accessed at [persistent URL or DOI].

Preregistration of studies and analysis plans

Preregistration of studies and specific hypotheses can be a useful tool for making strong theoretical claims. Likewise, preregistration of analysis plans can be useful for distinguishing confirmatory and exploratory analyses. Investigators are encouraged to preregister their studies and analysis plans prior to conducting the research via a publicly accessible registry system (e.g., OSF, ClinicalTrials.gov, or other trial registries in the WHO Registry Network).

There are many available templates; for example, APA, the British Psychological Society, and the German Psychological Society partnered with the Leibniz Institute for Psychology and Center for Open Science to create Preregistration Standards for Quantitative Research in Psychology (Bosnjak et al., 2022).

Articles must state whether or not any work was preregistered and, if so, where to access the preregistration. If any aspect of the study is preregistered, include the registry link in the method section.

• This study’s design was preregistered prospectively, before data were collected; see [STABLE LINK OR DOI].
• This study’s design and hypotheses were preregistered after data had been collected but before analyses were undertaken; see [STABLE LINK OR DOI].
• This study’s analysis plan was preregistered; see [STABLE LINK OR DOI].
• This study was not preregistered.

Manuscript preparation

Prepare manuscripts according to the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association using the 7th edition. Manuscripts may be copyedited for bias-free language (see Chapter 5 of the Publication Manual).

Review APA's Journal Manuscript Preparation Guidelines before submitting your article.

Double-space all copy. Other formatting instructions, as well as instructions on preparing tables, figures, references, metrics, and abstracts, appear in the Manual. Additional guidance on APA Style is available on the APA Style website.

Below are additional instructions regarding the preparation of display equations, computer code, and tables.

Display equations

We strongly encourage you to use MathType (third-party software) or Equation Editor 3.0 (built into pre-2007 versions of Word) to construct your equations, rather than the equation support that is built into Word 2007 and Word 2010. Equations composed with the built-in Word 2007/Word 2010 equation support are converted to low-resolution graphics when they enter the production process and must be rekeyed by the typesetter, which may introduce errors.

To construct your equations with MathType or Equation Editor 3.0:

• Go to the Text section of the Insert tab and select Object.
• Select MathType or Equation Editor 3.0 in the drop-down menu.

If you have an equation that has already been produced using Microsoft Word 2007 or 2010 and you have access to the full version of MathType 6.5 or later, you can convert this equation to MathType by clicking on MathType Insert Equation. Copy the equation from Microsoft Word and paste it into the MathType box. Verify that your equation is correct, click File, and then click Update. Your equation has now been inserted into your Word file as a MathType Equation.

Use Equation Editor 3.0 or MathType only for equations or for formulas that cannot be produced as Word text using the Times or Symbol font.

Computer code

Because altering computer code in any way (e.g., indents, line spacing, line breaks, page breaks) during the typesetting process could alter its meaning, we treat computer code differently from the rest of your article in our production process. To that end, we request separate files for computer code.

In online supplemental material

We request that runnable source code be included as supplemental material to the article. For more information, visit Supplementing Your Article With Online Material.

In the text of the article

If you would like to include code in the text of your published manuscript, please submit a separate file with your code exactly as you want it to appear, using Courier New font with a type size of 8 points. We will make an image of each segment of code in your article that exceeds 40 characters in length. (Shorter snippets of code that appear in text will be typeset in Courier New and run in with the rest of the text.) If an appendix contains a mix of code and explanatory text, please submit a file that contains the entire appendix, with the code keyed in 8-point Courier New.

Tables

Use Word's insert table function when you create tables. Using spaces or tabs in your table will create problems when the table is typeset and may result in errors.

Academic writing and English language editing services

Authors who feel that their manuscript may benefit from additional academic writing or language editing support prior to submission are encouraged to seek out such services at their host institutions, engage with colleagues and subject matter experts, and/or consider several vendors that offer discounts to APA authors.

Please note that APA does not endorse or take responsibility for the service providers listed. It is strictly a referral service.

Use of such service is not mandatory for publication in an APA journal. Use of one or more of these services does not guarantee selection for peer review, manuscript acceptance, or preference for publication in any APA journal.

Submitting supplemental materials

APA can place supplemental materials online, available via the published article in the PsycArticles ® database. Please see Supplementing Your Article With Online Material for more details.

Abstract and keywords

All manuscripts must include an abstract containing a maximum of 250 words typed on a separate page. After the abstract, please supply up to five keywords or brief phrases.

References

List references in alphabetical order. Each listed reference should be cited in text, and each text citation should be listed in the references section.

Examples of basic reference formats:

Journal article

McCauley, S. M., & Christiansen, M. H. (2019). Language learning as language use: A cross-linguistic model of child language development. Psychological Review, 126(1), 1–51. https://doi.org/10.1037/rev0000126

Authored book

Brown, L. S. (2018). Feminist therapy (2nd ed.). American Psychological Association. https://doi.org/10.1037/0000092-000

Chapter in an edited book

Balsam, K. F., Martell, C. R., Jones. K. P., & Safren, S. A. (2019). Affirmative cognitive behavior therapy with sexual and gender minority people. In G. Y. Iwamasa & P. A. Hays (Eds.), Culturally responsive cognitive behavior therapy: Practice and supervision (2nd ed., pp. 287–314). American Psychological Association. https://doi.org/10.1037/0000119-012

Data set citation

Alegria, M., Jackson, J. S., Kessler, R. C., & Takeuchi, D. (2016). Collaborative Psychiatric Epidemiology Surveys (CPES), 2001–2003 [Data set]. Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research. https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR20240.v8

Software/Code citation

Viechtbauer, W. (2010). Conducting meta-analyses in R with the metafor package. Journal of Statistical Software, 36(3), 1–48. https://www.jstatsoft.org/v36/i03/

Wickham, H. et al., (2019). Welcome to the tidyverse. Journal of Open Source Software, 4(43), 1686, https://doi.org/10.21105/joss.01686

All data, program code, and other methods should be cited in the text and listed in the references section.

Figures

Preferred formats for graphics files are TIFF and JPG, and preferred format for vector-based files is EPS. Graphics downloaded or saved from web pages are not acceptable for publication. Multipanel figures (i.e., figures with parts labeled a, b, c, d, etc.) should be assembled into one file. When possible, please place symbol legends below the figure instead of to the side.

Resolution

• All color line art and halftones: 300 DPI
• Black and white line tone and gray halftone images: 600 DPI

Line weights

• Adobe Photoshop images
  • Color (RGB, CMYK) images: 2 pixels
  • Grayscale images: 4 pixels
  • Stroke weight: 0.5 points

  APA offers authors the option to publish their figures online in color without the costs associated with print publication of color figures.

  The same caption will appear on both the online (color) and print (black and white) versions. To ensure that the figure can be understood in both formats, authors should add alternative wording (e.g., “the red (dark gray) bars represent”) as needed.

  For authors who prefer their figures to be published in color both in print and online, original color figures can be printed in color at the editor's and publisher's discretion provided the author agrees to pay:

  • $900 for one figure
  • An additional $600 for the second figure
  • An additional $450 for each subsequent figure

  Permissions

  Authors of accepted papers must obtain and provide to the editor on final acceptance all necessary permissions to reproduce in print and electronic form any copyrighted work, including test materials (or portions thereof), photographs, and other graphic images (including those used as stimuli in experiments).

  On advice of counsel, APA may decline to publish any image whose copyright status is unknown.

  Publication policies

  For full details on publication policies, including use of Artificial Intelligence tools, please see APA Publishing Policies.

  APA policy prohibits an author from submitting the same manuscript for concurrent consideration by two or more publications.

  APA requires authors to reveal any possible conflict of interest in the conduct and reporting of research (e.g., financial interests in a test or procedure, funding by pharmaceutical companies for drug research).

  In light of changing patterns of scientific knowledge dissemination, APA requires authors to provide information on prior dissemination of the data and narrative interpretations of the data/research appearing in the manuscript (e.g., if some or all were presented at a conference or meeting, posted on a listserv, shared on a website, including academic social networks like ResearchGate, etc.). This information (2–4 sentences) must be provided as part of the author note.

  Ethical Principles

  It is a violation of APA Ethical Principles to publish "as original data, data that have been previously published" (Standard 8.13).

  In addition, APA Ethical Principles specify that "after research results are published, psychologists do not withhold the data on which their conclusions are based from other competent professionals who seek to verify the substantive claims through reanalysis and who intend to use such data only for that purpose, provided that the confidentiality of the participants can be protected and unless legal rights concerning proprietary data preclude their release" (Standard 8.14).

  APA expects authors to adhere to these standards. Specifically, APA expects authors to have their data available throughout the editorial review process and for at least 5 years after the date of publication.

  Authors are required to state in writing that they have complied with APA ethical standards in the treatment of their sample, human or animal, or to describe the details of treatment.

  The APA Ethics Office provides the full Ethical Principles of Psychologists and Code of Conduct electronically on its website in HTML, PDF, and Word format. You may also request a copy by emailing or calling the APA Ethics Office (202-336-5930). You may also read "Ethical Principles," December 1992, American Psychologist, Vol. 47, pp. 1597–1611.

  Other information

  See APA’s Publishing Policies page for more information on publication policies, including information on author contributorship and responsibilities of authors, author name changes after publication, the use of generative artificial intelligence, funder information and conflict-of-interest disclosures, duplicate publication, data publication and reuse, and preprints.

  Visit the Journals Publishing Resource Center for more resources for writing, reviewing, and editing articles for publishing in APA journals.

  Editorial Board

  Editor

  Arin M. Connell, PhD
  Case Western Reserve University, United States

  Associate editors

  David J. Bridgett, PhD
  Northern Illinois University, United States

  Susan S. Chuang, PhD
  University of Guelph, Canada

  Stephen A. Erath, PhD
  Auburn University, United States

  Katherine B. Ehrlich, PhD
  University of Georgia, United States

  Rachel H. Farr, PhD
  University of Kentucky, United States

  Amy K. Nuttall, PhD
  Michigan State University, United States

  Hannah C. Williamson, PhD
  University of Texas at Austin, United States

  Erica Margaret Woodin, PhD
  University of Victoria, Canada

  Mengya Xia, PhD
  Arizona State University, United States

  Editorial fellows

  Yunying Le, PhD
  University of Denver, United States

  Jasmine Manalel, PhD
  Hunter College, United States

  Ekjyot Saini, PhD
  Pennsylvania State University, United States

  Xiaoya Zhang, PhD
  University of Florida, United States

  Consulting editors

  Roberto L. Abreu, PhD
  University of Florida, United States

  Kari Adamsons, PhD
  University of Connecticut, United States

  Sam H. Allen, PhD
  University of Maryland, United States

  Jason K. Baker, PhD
  California State University, Fullerton, United States

  Marian J. Bakermans-Kranenburg, PhD
  Leiden University, Netherlands

  Christina Balderrama-Durbin, PhD
  Binghamton University, United States

  Melissa A. Barnett, PhD
  University of Arizona, United States

  Allen W. Barton, PhD
  University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, United States

  Steven R. H. Beach, PhD
  University of Georgia, United States

  Jay Belsky, PhD
  University of California, Davis, United States

  Cynthia A. Berg, PhD
  University of Utah, United States

  Maureen M. Black, PhD
  University of Maryland School of Medicine, United States

  Jordan A. Booker, PhD
  University of Missouri, United States

  Kyle J. Bourassa, PhD
  Durham VA Health Care System, United States

  Scott R. Braithwaite, PhD
  Brigham Young University, United States

  James H. Bray, PhD
  University of Texas at San Antonio, United States

  Geoffrey L. Brown, PhD
  University of Georgia, United States

  Kirsten L. Buist, PhD
  Utrecht University, Netherlands

  Nicole Campione-Barr, PhD
  University of Missouri, United States

  Belinda Campos, PhD
  University of California, Irvine, United States

  Annmarie Cano, PhD
  Wayne State University, United States

  Hongjian Cao, PhD
  The University of Hong Kong, China

  Alice S. Carter, PhD
  University of Massachusetts Boston, United States

  Hoi Shan Cheung, PhD
  National Institute of Education, Singapore

  Daniel Ewon Choe, PhD
  University of California, Davis, United States

  Kelly Cichy, PhD
  Kent State University, United States

  Victor G. Cicirelli, PhD
  Purdue University, United States

  Mari L. Clements, PhD
  Fuller Theological Seminary, United States

  Carla Crespo, PhD
  University of Lisbon, Portugal

  Keith A. Crnic, PhD
  Arizona State University, United States

  Rick A. Cruz, PhD
  Utah State University, United States

  Annamaria Csizmadia, PhD
  University of Connecticut, United States

  E. Mark Cummings, PhD
  University of Notre Dame, United States

  Patrick T. Davies, PhD
  University of Rochester, United States

  Pamela E. Davis-Kean, PhD
  University of Michigan, United States

  Kirby Deater-Deckard, PhD
  University of Massachusetts, Amherst, United States

  Catherine Gray Deering, PhD, ABPP
  Clayton State University, United States

  Tamara Del Vecchio, PhD
  St. John’s University, United States

  Brian D. Doss, PhD
  University of Miami, United States

  W. Justin Dyer, PhD
  Brigham Young University, United States

  Christopher I. Eckhardt, PhD
  Purdue University, United States

  J. Mark Eddy, PhD
  New York University, United States

  Deborah A. Ellis, PhD
  Wayne State University, United States

  Catherine C. Epkins, PhD
  Texas Tech University, United States

  Robin S. Everhart, PhD
  Virginia Commonwealth University, United States

  Eugene W. Farber, PhD
  Emory University, United States

  Allison K. Farrell, PhD
  Miami University, United States

  Barbara H. Fiese, PhD
  The University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign, United States

  Heather M. Foran, PhD
  University of Klagenfurt, Austria

  Gregory M. Fosco, PhD
  Pennsylvania State University, United States

  Karen L. Franck, PhD
  University of Tennessee, Knoxville, United States

  Steffany J. Fredman, PhD
  Pennsylvania State University, United States

  Adam M. Galovan, PhD
  University of Alberta, Canada

  Thania Galvan, PhD
  University of Georgia, United States

  Emily Georgia Salivar, PhD
  Nova Southeastern University, United States

  Yuthika Girme, PhD
  Simon Frasier University, Canada

  Tracy R. G. Gladstone, PhD
  Brown University, United States

  Abbie E. Goldberg, PhD
  Clark University, United States

  Cameron Gordon, PhD
  Middle Tennessee State University, United States

  Kristina Coop Gordon, PhD
  University of Tennessee, Knoxville, United States

  Erika L. Grafsky, PhD
  Virginia Tech, United States

  Harold D. Grotevant, PhD
  University of Massachusetts, Amherst, United States

  John H. Grych, PhD
  Marquette University, United States

  Joseph Grzywacz, PhD
  Florida State University, United States

  Hanna C. Gustafsson, PhD
  Oregon Health and Science University, United States

  Daniel Gutierrez, PhD
  College of William and Mary, United States

  Stephen N. Haynes, PhD
  University of Hawa’'i at Manoa, United States

  Laurie Heatherington, PhD
  Williams College, United States

  Craig E. Henderson, PhD
  Sam Houston State University, United States

  Richard E. Heyman, PhD
  New York University, United States

  Chrystyna D. Kouros, PhD
  Southern Methodist University, United States

  Amy Hughes Lansing, PhD
  University of Vermont, United States

  Seanna Leath, PhD
  Washington University in St. Louis, United States

  Zhi Li, PhD
  Peking University, China

  Iheoma U. Iruka, PhD
  HighScope Educational Research Foundation, United States

  Blake L. Jones, PhD
  Brigham Young University, United States

  Ernest N. Jouriles, PhD
  Southern Methodist University, United States

  Claire M. Kamp Dush, PhD
  The Ohio State University, United States

  Jeremy B. Kanter, PhD
  University of Tennessee, United States

  Florence W. Kaslow, PhD, ABPP
  Kaslow Associates, United States

  Nadine J. Kaslow, PhD
  Emory University, United States

  Astrida Seja Kaugars, PhD
  Marquette University, United States

  Anne E. Kazak, PhD
  Nemours/Alfred I. duPont Hospital for Children, United States

  Peggy S. Keller, PhD
  University of Kentucky, United States

  Shalonda Kelly, PhD
  Rutgers University, United States

  Patricia K. Kerig, PhD
  University of Utah, United States

  Margaret L. Kerr, PhD
  University of Wisconsin Madison, United States

  Elizabeth J. Kiel
  Miami University, United States

  Su Yeong Kim, PhD
  University of Texas at Austin, United States

  Jungmeen Kim-Spoon, PhD
  Virginia Tech, United States

  George P. Knight, PhD
  Arizona State University, United States

  Olena Kopystynska
  Southern Utah University, United States

  Laurie F. Kramer, PhD
  Northeastern University, United States

  Ambika Krishnakumar, PhD
  Syracuse University, United States

  Patty X. Kuo, PhD
  University of Nebraska–Lincoln, United States

  Dorian A. Lamis, PhD, ABPP
  Emory University School of Medicine, United States

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  Erika Lawrence, PhD, LCP
  Family Institute of Northwestern University, United States

  Yunying Le, PhD
  The Pennsylvania State University, United States

  Thomas Ledermann, PhD
  Florida State University, United States

  Patty Leijten, PhD
  University of Amsterdam, Netherlands

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  New York University Shanghai, China

  Diane Lickenbrock, PhD
  Western Kentucky University, United States

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  University of British Columbia, Canada

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  Colorado State University, United States

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  Annette Mahoney, PhD
  Bowling Green State University, United States

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  University of Rochester Medical Center, United States

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  Florida State University, United States

  Nina S. Mounts, PhD
  Northern Illinois University, United States

  Jackie A. Nelson, PhD
  The University of Texas at Dallas, United States

  Tricia K. Neppl, PhD
  Iowa State University, United States

  Brian G. Ogolsky, PhD
  University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, United States

  K. Daniel O’Leary, PhD
  Stony Brook University, United States

  Laura M. Padilla-Walker, PhD
  Brigham Young University, United States

  Lauren M. Papp, PhD
  University of Wisconsin Madison, United States

  Charlotte J. Patterson, PhD
  University of Virginia, United States

  Nicholas S Perry, PhD
  University of Denver, United States

  Vicky Phares, PhD
  University of South Florida, United States

  Lauren E. Philbrook, PhD
  Colgate University, United States

  Alison Pike, PhD
  University of Sussex, United Kingdom

  Kristina M. Post, PhD
  University of La Verne, United States

  Ronald Prinz, PhD
  University of South Carolina, United States

  Christine M. Proulx, PhD
  University of Missouri, United States

  Jae A. Puckett, PhD
  Michigan State University, United States

  Niyantri Ravindran, PhD
  University of Georgia, United States

  Rena L. Repetti, PhD
  University of California, Los Angeles, United States

  Shelley A. Riggs, PhD
  University of North Texas, United States

  Elizabeth Riina, PhD
  Queens College, CUNY, United States

  Michelle M. Robbins, PhD
  Georgia Gwinnett College, United States

  Natalie O. Rosen, PhD
  Dalhousie University, Canada

  Wendy Rote, PhD
  University of South Florida, United States

  Lorelei Simpson Rowe, PhD
  Allegheny Health Network, United States

  Keith Sanford, PhD
  Baylor University, United States

  Darby Saxbe PhD
  University of Southern California, United States

  Dominik Schoebi, PhD
  University of Fribourg, Switzerland

  Sarah J. Schoppe-Sullivan, PhD
  Ohio State University, United States

  Julie A. Schumacher, PhD
  University of Mississippi Medical Center, United States

  Ryan B. Seedall, PhD
  Utah State University, United States

  Elizabeth C. Shelleby, PhD
  Northern Illinois University, United States

  Katherine Shelton, PhD
  Cardiff University, United Kingdom

  Tamara G. Sher, PhD
  The Family Institute at Northwestern University, United States

  Richard Slatcher, PhD
  Wayne State University, United States

  Amy M. Smith Slep, PhD
  New York University, United States

  Bart Soenens, PhD
  Ghent University, Belgium

  Scott M. Stanley, PhD
  University of Denver, United States

  Sunita Mahtani Stewart, PhD, ABPP
  University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas, United States

  Melissa Sturge-Apple, PhD
  University of Rochester, United States

  Chang Su-Russell, PhD
  Illinois State University, United States

  Kieran T. Sullivan, PhD
  Santa Clara University, United States

  Xiaoran Sun, PhD
  University of Minnesota, United States

  Casey T. Taft, PhD
  National Center for PTSD, VA Boston Healthcare System, & Boston University School of Medicine, United States

  Zoe E. Taylor, PhD
  Purdue University, United States

  Douglas M. Teti, PhD
  Pennsylvania State University, United States

  Martie P. Thompson, PhD
  Clemson University, United States

  Erin B. Tone, PhD
  Georgia State University, United States

  Casey J. Totenhagen, PhD
  University of Alabama, United States

  Christopher Trentacosta, PhD
  Wayne State University, United States

  Jill M. Trumbell, PhD
  University of New Hampshire, United States

  Kimberly Updegraff, PhD
  Arizona State University, United States

  Brenda L. Volling, PhD
  University of Michigan, United States

  Deborah P. Welsh, PhD
  University of Tennessee, Knoxville, United States

  Mark A. Whisman, PhD
  University of Colorado, Boulder, United States

  Daniel J. Whitaker, PhD
  Georgia State University, United States

  Deborah Whitley, PhD
  Georgia State University, United States

  Sarah W. Whitton, PhD
  University of Cincinnati, United States

  Marcia A. Winter, PhD
  Virginia Commonwealth University, United States

  Shu Xu, PhD
  New York University, United States

  Jia Julia Yan, PhD
  Utah State University, United States

  Paula D. Zeanah, PhD
  Picard Center for Child Development and Lifelong Learning, United States

  Na Zhang, PhD
  University of Connecticut, United States

  Yao Zheng
  University of Alberta, Canada

  Nan Zhou, PhD
  Beijing Normal University, China

  Xiang Zhou, PhD
  Purdue University, United States

  Abstracting & Indexing

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  Special Issues
  • Advances in Methods and Measurement in Family Psychology: Special issue of APA's Journal of Family Psychology, Vol. 31, No. 8, December 2017. The articles highlight recent advances in methods and measurement and also shed light on the complexity of family psychology.
  • On New Shores: Special issue of APA's Journal of Family Psychology, Vol. 23, No. 3, June 2009. The articles focus on the psychosocial adaptation of immigrant families, parenting practices and their implications for child outcomes, and the importance of parent–adolescent relationships for adolescent mental health.
  • Carpe Noctem: Special issue of APA's Journal of Family Psychology, Vol. 21, No. 1, March 2007. Includes articles about sleep timing and quality; racial/ethnic differences; role of sleep disruptions in emotional security and academic achievement; behavior development; marital relationship in the 1st year of life; family stress and insomnia; and other effects of sleep disturbances on family dynamics.
  • Sibling Relationship Contributions to Individual and Family Well-Being: Special issue of APA's Journal of Family Psychology, Vol. 19, No. 4, December 2005. Articles discuss issues in sibling relationships, including problem behavior; interactions with playmates and teachers; role of familism; links with individual adjustment; maternal perception of sibling negativity; transition to siblinghood; parental differential treatment; adjustment; adolescent substance use; conduct problems; delinquency training; risk to siblings in abusing families; adjustment to chronic disability; and antisocial behavior.
  • Methodology in Family Science: Special issue of APA's Journal of Family Psychology, Vol. 19, No. 1, March 2005. Articles discuss methodological challenges and opportunities in family and couple research, including outcome, cost-effectiveness, qualitative, and narrative research; video-recall procedures, multilevel methods, diary methods, and cluster analysis; and moderator effects, the actor–partner interdependence model, survival analysis, and ethical issues.
  Open Science

  Transparency and Openness Promotion

  APA endorses the Transparency and Openness Promotion (TOP) Guidelines by a community working group in conjunction with the Center for Open Science (Nosek et al. 2015). The TOP Guidelines cover eight fundamental aspects of research planning and reporting that can be followed by journals and authors at three levels of compliance.

  • Level 1: Disclosure—The article must disclose whether or not the materials are posted to a trusted repository.
  • Level 2: Requirement—The article must share materials when legally and ethically permitted (or disclose the legal and/or ethical restriction when not permitted).
  • Level 3: Verification—A third party must verify that the standard is met.

  As of July 1, 2021, empirical research, including meta-analyses, submitted to the Journal of Family Psychology must, at a minimum, meet Level 1 (Disclosure) for all eight aspects of research planning and reporting. Authors should include a subsection in their methods description titled “Transparency and Openness.” This subsection should detail the efforts the authors have made to comply with the Transparency and Openness Promotion (TOP) guidelines.

  The list below summarizes the minimal TOP requirements of the journal. Please refer to the Center for Open Science TOP guidelines for details, and contact the editor (Arin M. Connell, PhD) with any further questions. APA recommends sharing data, materials, and code via trusted repositories (e.g., APA’s repository on the Open Science Framework (OSF)). Trusted repositories adhere to policies that make data discoverable, accessible, usable, and preserved for the long term. Trusted repositories also assign unique and persistent identifiers.

  We encourage investigators to preregister their studies and to share protocols and analysis plans prior to conducting their research. There are many available preregistration forms (e.g., the APA Preregistration for Quantitative Research in Psychology template, ClininalTrials.gov, or other preregistration templates available via OSF). Completed preregistration forms should be posted on a publicly accessible registry system (e.g., OSF, ClinicalTrials.gov, or other trial registries in the WHO Registry Network).

  The following list presents the eight fundamental aspects of research planning and reporting, the TOP level required by the Journal of Family Psychology, and a brief description of the journal's policy.

  • Citation: Level 1, Disclosure—All data, program code, and other methods developed by others should be cited in the text and listed in the References section.
  • Data Transparency: Level 1, Disclosure—Article states whether the raw and/or processed data on which study conclusions are based are posted to a trusted repository and, if so, how to access them.
  • Analytic Methods (Code) Transparency: Level 1, Disclosure—Article states whether computer code or syntax needed to reproduce analyses in an article is posted to a trusted repository and, if so, how to access it.
  • Research Materials Transparency: Level 1, Disclosure—Article states whether materials described in the Method section are posted to a trusted repository and, if so, how to access them.
  • Design and Analysis Transparency (Reporting Standards): Level 1, Disclosure—The journal encourages the use of CONSORT reporting standards for randomized clinical trials and encourages the use of APA Style Journal Article Reporting Standards (JARS-Quant, JARS-Qual, and/or MARS).
  • Study Preregistration: Level 1, Disclosure—Article states whether the study design and (if applicable) hypotheses of any of the work reported was preregistered and, if so, where to access it. Authors may submit a masked copy via stable link or supplemental material or may provide a link after acceptance.
  • Analysis Plan Preregistration: Level 1, Disclosure—Article states whether any of the work reported preregistered an analysis plan and, if so, how to access it. Authors may submit a masked copy via stable link or supplemental material or may provide a link after acceptance.
  • Replication: Level 1, Disclosure—The journal publishes replications.

  Other open science initiatives

  • Open Science badges: Not offered
  • Public significance statements: Not offered
  • Author contribution statements using CRediT: Required
  • Registered Reports: Not published
  • Replications: Published
  EDI Efforts

  Inclusive study designs

  • Diverse samples

  Definitions and further details on inclusive study designs are available on the Journals EDI homepage.

  Inclusive reporting standards

  • Bias-free language and community-driven language guidelines (required)
  • Data sharing and data availability statements (required)
  • Impact statements (recommended)

  More information on this journal’s reporting standards is listed under the submission guidelines tab.

  Pathways to authorship and editorship

  Editorial fellowships

  Editorial fellowships help early-career psychologists gain firsthand experience in scholarly publishing and editorial leadership roles. This journal offers an editorial fellowship program for early-career psychologists from historically excluded communities.

  Reviewer mentorship program

  This journal encourages reviewers to submit co-reviews with their students and trainees. The journal likewise offers a formal reviewer mentorship program where graduate students and postdoctoral fellows from historically excluded groups are matched with a senior reviewer to produce an integrated review.

  Other EDI offerings

  Masked peer review

  This journal offers masked peer review (where both the authors’ and reviewers’ identities are not known to the other). Research has shown that masked peer review can help reduce implicit bias against traditionally female names or early-career scientists with smaller publication records (Budden et al., 2008; Darling, 2015).