Family Policy Advocacy: Putting Knowledge to Work

Abstract

An examination of the social science literature leads to the conclusion that family policy has emerged as a distinct area of research. There was little family policy research published in family science journals until the 1970s (Dempsey, 1981). After a burst of interest in the topic, other research issues dominated until recent years when family policy has once again captured the attention of family scientists and other social scientists. Research on social policy, including consideration of the impact of family characteristics, has been common. But it is plain that family policy studies, placing family issues squarely in the research focus, have emerged as a subfield of social policy analysis and of family science. When one thinks of a review article on family policy for an applied journal, the question arises as to what constitutes practice for family policy professionals. Family policy professionals practice in all areas of public life, most notably the federal and state human services bureaucracies, legislative or gubernatorial staffs, or on executive branch committees and boards. Whereas this article may be of interest to these professionals, it is intended to be of greatest service to family scientists in academic or practice settings who engage in advocacy as one of their applied family policy activities. Advocacy, like the policy process itself, is both a process and an outcome. Advocacy includes the persuasive behaviors used in the political or public policy arena (i.e., process), and the policy positions one takes and encourage others to take through one's research and scholarly writing (i.e., outcomes). The advocate I have in mind will be equally interested in training citizens to act on their own behalf with regards to policy issues affecting their families and communities. I have argued elsewhere (Monroe, 1995) that the most important evidence of the emergence of a recognizable subfield specialization within any discipline is a growing body of theory-based, empirical research. In this article, I suggest that family policy advocates should give strong attention to the theoretical, empirical, and ideological underpinnings of their work. Family policy advocates have not ignored theory and research, but at times have emphasized ideology to the extent that advocacy has been treated more as an attitude than as a distinct area of practice with specific skills based on clear conceptual framework s (Ezell, 1994, p. 36). It is easy to understand how ideology occasionally has taken center stage. One may feel so passionately about family policy issues that there is a temptation to abandon scientific practice in the pursuit of policy outcomes. Science is essentially conservative; that is, scientists take a cautious approach because they are aware of the limitations of research. In the face of this caution, one may be aroused to passion by one's values and press for a policy solution even if the research on that solution is scant (Scanzoni, 1983). I argue that this approach undermines family professionals' effectiveness as advocates and as scientists. Sound policy science practice includes advocacy based on empirical research grounded in theory. This is the family policy scientist's version of the triple threat: theory, research, and practice (i.e., advocacy; see Olson, 1976), and it is the position that will be promoted in the pages that follow. The purpose of this article, then, is to explore and illuminate some of the ideological, theoretical, and empirical bases for family policy advocacy. Family science theories and empirical research are explored because the readers for whom this article is intended are likely to be family scientists, scholars, and professionals. Ideology is explored because it is one of the driving forces of politics and is often the motivation, however nebulous, that pushes the scientist or professional out into the public political realm of advocacy. After defining terms and laying the groundwork for the discussion, this article is designed to address the question, What informs the family policy advocacy practices of family policy scholars? …