December 2005 | Monitor on Psychology | Vol. 36 No. 11

COVER: The 21st Century American family
- Making working families work
As the number of dual wage-earner families soars, psychologists focus on families' strategies for success.
- Stepfamily success depends on ingredients
One in three Americans is part of a stepfamily, each with its own flavor. How can psychologists help them thrive?
- Meet the renaissance dad
Fathers are more involved in their children's lives than ever before, and researchers are taking notice.
- The kids are all right
Research shows that families headed by gay and lesbian parents are as healthy as traditional families, but misperceptions linger.
- Adopting a new American family
Adoption plays a key role in our nation's diversity, experts say, and merits more attention from psychology.

SCIENCE WATCH
Songbird study offers new insights into how malnutrition impairs development and cognition
IN BRIEF
- Taking work home can depress mood, energy
- Workers' new-job excitement often lasts less than a year
- APA supports World Mental Health Day
- Men receive more credit than women for joint work on stereotypically male tasks
- Surgeon General calls for improved disability services
- Become a positive psychology fellow
- People rate their self-esteem high across cultures
- APA task force addresses socioeconomic inequalities
- APA offers free journal access to world's poorest countries
- SAMHSA awards 22 federal grants to boost college mental health services

ETHICS ROUNDS
As psychologists engage in the process of synthesizing clinical and legal perspectives, both psychologists and their clients may benefit most when psychologists begin from their strengths: Their background, training and expertise as - clinicians.

FEATURES
Henry Tomes, the first full-time executive director of APA's Public Interest Directorate, steps down after four decades of advancing public health and minority psychology.
Psychologists across the country help quell the inner storms of Hurricane Katrina's victims.
Psychology's broad community helps students and faculty displaced by Hurricane Katrina rebuild their lives.
APA's U.N. representatives teach others the relevance of behavioral science.
Across the country, psychologists are using novel ways to highlight psychology's everyday relevance to people's lives.
Resource offers one-stop shopping for interventions targeting serious mental illness.
Patients benefit as states enact legislation broadening mental health coverage and increasing psychologists' professional authority.
Psychologist Jon Skidmore helps young musicians overcome anxiety and enjoy themselves on stage.
The new editor hopes to include more cognitive neuroscience and neuropsychology in the journal.
The incoming editor of Professional Psychology: Research and Practice wants the journal to remain every professional psychologist's timely informer.
The journal's new editor continues its legal and psychological mix and introduces an original-research twist.
With APF funding, Elena Grigorenko and colleagues are testing skills training meant to keep violent youth from re-offending.
This year's APF Rosen grant winners will explore gifted children's motivation, learning and mental health.
A CLOSER LOOK
Improved public health is a priority for many APA Div. 8 social psychologists.

PUBLIC POLICY UPDATE
Guided by psychologists' advocacy, Congress supports new legislation aimed at improving children's welfare.

EDUCATION LEADERSHIP CONFERENCE
The 2005 Educational Leadership Conference examined diversity in its many forms–individual, organizational and epistemological.
Psychologists tackled how to bridge the divide between theories of knowledge.
ELC speakers highlighted ways to infuse diversity in ethical principles, curricula and research.
CORRECTIONS
COLUMNS
From the CEO
Why we are staying with New Orleans in 2006In the Public Interest
Last goodbyes and thank-yousJudicial Notebook
Religious conversion after the crimePresident's Column
Farewell!Science Directions
To whom is our science presented?
