Centre For Family Research

The Centre for Family Research is a multidisciplinary research institute within the Department of Psychology at the University of Cambridge. It has an international reputation for its research on families, and attracts visiting scholars from all over the world. The Director of the Centre is Professor Susan Golombok.

Research Interests

Our interests cover parents, children and family relationships. Our research has dealt with topics from pregnancy, through all the years of childhood, to marriage and child bearing, and later life.

Our multidisciplinary team includes academics with psychology, sociology, social anthropology, history, medicine, zoology and legal backgrounds. The Centre has close connections with the health service, the education system, divorce mediation, child and adult psychiatry, clinical genetics, adoption and family law. Many of our studies address the role of parents and professionals in settings such as schools, law courts, labour wards and neonatal units, and genetic counselling and assisted reproduction clinics.

Seminars

The Centre runs regular seminars. Experts from a variety of disciplines and organisations talk about their work and we also discuss our own projects. These meetings attract a diverse audience.

Library

The seminar room also houses a small library based on an original gift from the Lowenfeld Trustees. The collection focuses on the interrelationship of child psychology and psychotherapy, and child care manuals for parents. We also hold the Lowenfeld Archive of papers and letters by and related to Margaret Lowenfeld as well as her test materials and other records of the activity of the Institute of Child Psychology. In addition, the Centre holds an archive of papers and research reports produced by members of the Centre.

Funding

The Centre receives funding from Research Councils and Government departments as well as private foundations and industry. The bodies currently providing funding are listed under the individual projects. For further information please refer to the section on Research.