Journal of Family Psychology®

Journal of Family Psychology ^® offers cutting-edge, groundbreaking, state-of-the-art, and innovative empirical research with real-world applicability in the field of family psychology.

This premiere family research journal is devoted to the study of the family system, broadly defined, from multiple perspectives and to the application of psychological methods to advance knowledge related to family research, patterns and processes, and assessment and intervention, as well as to policies relevant to advancing the quality of life for families.

Coverage includes empirical research in the areas of:

couple and family patterns and processes, life stages, transitions, and stress and coping
health and illness across the family life cycle
couple and family diagnosis
couple and family assessment
couple and family intervention studies
family-focused prevention programs
families in transition (separation, divorce, and single parenting; remarriage and the stepfamily; adoption; death)
family violence
employment and the family
family and other systems
diversity – ethnicity/race, social class, gender, sexual orientation, and disability
methodological and statistical advances in qualitative and quantitative research
policies related to families
theories related to families and systems
family psychology education and training
professional issues in family psychology

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Journal of Family Psychology^® is a registered trademark of American Psychological Association

Editor

Nadine J. Kaslow
Emory University

Associate Editors

Annmarie Cano
Wayne State University

Marianne Celano
Emory University

Susan S. Chuang
University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, Canada

Barbara H. Fiese
University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign

Ernest N. Jouriles
Southern Methodist University

Martie P. Thompson
Clemson University

Mark A. Whisman
University of Colorado at Boulder

Sarah W. Whitton
University of Cincinnati

Editorial Associate

Larisa Niles-Carnes

Consulting Editors

David Atkins
University of Washington

Jason K. Baker
California State University, Fullerton

Melissa A. Barnett
University of Arizona

Brian R. Baucom
University of Utah

Steven R. H. Beach
University of Georgia

Jay Belsky
University of California Davis

Cynthia A. Berg
University of Utah

Annie Bernier
University of Montreal, Montreal, Quebec, Canada

Maureen M. Black
University of Maryland

Thomas Bradbury
University of California Los Angeles

Bekh Bradley
Emory University

James H. Bray
Baylor College of Medicine

Michelle Robbins Broth
Georgia Gwinnett College

Belinda Campos
University of California Irvine

Alice S. Carter
University of Massachusetts Boston

Victor G. Cicirelli
Purdue University

Mari L. Clements
Fuller Theological Seminary, Pasadena, California

Arin M. Connell
Case Western Reserve University

Kristina Coop Gordon
University of Tennessee Knoxville

E. Mark Cummings
University of Notre Dame

Melissa Curran
University of Arizona

Patrick Davies
University of Rochester

Joanne Davila
Stony Brook University

Kirby Deater-Deckard
Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University

Catherine Deering
Clayton State University

Sujata Desai
The Family Place, Dallas, Texas

Susan Dickstein
Bradley Hospital

Brian D. Doss
University of Miami

W. Justin Dyer
Brigham Young University

Christopher I. Eckhardt
Purdue University

J. Mark Eddy
Oregon Social Learning Center

Deborah Ellis
Wayne State University

Catherine C. Epkins
Texas Tech University

Eugene Farber
Emory University

Mark Feinberg
The Pennsylvania State University

Mark A. Fine
University of North Carolina at Greensboro

Frank Floyd
University of Hawaii

Heather M. Foran
University of Braunschweig, Erlangen, Germany

Gregory M. Fosco
Pennsylvania State University

Suzanne Freedman
University of Iowa

Karen L. Franck
University of Tennessee

Jody M. Ganiban
The George Washington University

Tracy R. G. Gladstone
Wellesley College

Tamara Goldman Sher
Northwestern University

Cameron L. Gordon
University of North Carolina, Wilmington

Harold D. Grotevant
University of Massachusetts Amherst

John H. Grych
Marquette University

W. Kim Halford
University of Queensland, St. Lucia, Queensland, Australia

Robert B. ("Buck") Hampson
Southern Methodist University

Stephen N. Haynes
University of Hawaii

Laurie Heatherington
Williams College

Richard E. Heyman
New York University

George W. Howe
The George Washington University

Carol Huntsinger
Northern Illinois University

Theodore Jacob
VA Palo Alto Health Care System, Palo Alto, California

Claire M. Kamp Dush
Ohio State University

Florence W. Kaslow
Kaslow Associates, Palm Beach Gardens, Florida

Astrida Seja Kaugars
Marquette University

Anne E. Kazak
Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and University of Pennsylvania

Peggy Keller
University of Kentucky

Michelle L. Kelley
Old Dominion University

Angie Kennedy
Michigan State University

Patricia K. Kerig
University of Utah

Su Yeong Kim
University of Texas

JB Kingree
Clemson University

Katherine Kitzmann
University of Memphis

George P. Knight
Arizona State University

Chrystyna D. Kouros
Southern Methodist University

Laurie Kramer
University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign

Anna Lau
University of California Los Angeles

Erika Lawrence
University of Iowa

Melinda S. Leidy
University of California Riverside

Ronald F. Levant
The University of Akron

Leslie Leve
Oregon Social Learning Center, Eugene, Oregon

Michael F. Lorber
New York University

Annette Mahoney
Bowling Green State University

Gayla Margolin
University of Southern California

Howard J. Markman
University of Denver

Velma McBride Murry
Vanderbilt University

Susan H. McDaniel
University of Rochester

Renee McDonald
Southern Methodist University

James K. McNulty
Florida State University

Nina S. Mounts
Northern Illinois University

William D. Norwood
University of Houston Clear Lake

Tom O'Connor
University of Rochester

K. Daniel O'Leary
Stony Brook University

Pamella H. Oliver
California State University, Fullerton

Lauren M. Papp
University of Wisconsin Madison

Mary Ann Parris Stephens
Kent State University

Charlotte J. Patterson
University of Virginia

Gregory S. Pettit
Auburn University

Vicky Phares
University of South Florida

Danielle Popp
MedAvante Research Institute, Hamilton, New Jersey

Ron Prinz
University of South Carolina

Keith D. Renshaw
George Mason University

Keith Sanford
Baylor University

Julie A. Schumacher
University of Mississippi

Lorelei Simpson Rowe
Southern Methodist University

Amy M. Smith Slep
New York University

Laura Spiller
Midwestern State University

Scott M. Stanley
University of Denver

Sunita Stewart
University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center

Melissa Sturge-Apple
University of Rochester

Kieran Sullivan
Santa Clara University

Casey Taft
VA Boston Healthcare System, Boston, Massachusetts

Patrick Tolan
University of Virginia

Erin B. Tone
Georgia State University

Lisa A. Uebelacker
Brown University

Shari L. Wade
Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center

Deborah P. Welsh
University of Tennessee Knoxville

Daniel J. Whitaker
Georgia State University

Michael Windle
Emory University

Paula D Zeanah
Tulane University

Heidi Zinzow
Clemson University

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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

Please submit manuscripts electronically, either using Microsoft Word (.doc) or Rich Text Format (.rtf) via the Manuscript Submission Portal.

If you encounter difficulties with submission, please email Larisa Niles-Carnes at the Editorial Office or call 404-616-2897.

General correspondence with the journal should be addressed to:

Nadine J. Kaslow, PhD, ABPP
Editor, Journal of Family Psychology
Emory University School of Medicine
Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences
Grady Health System Room 13D018
80 Jesse Hill Jr. Drive NE
Atlanta, GA 30303

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

Keep a copy of the manuscript to guard against loss.

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. 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 8 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.

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 the American Psychological Association.

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.

Visit the CONSORT Statement Web site for more details and resources.

Manuscript Preparation

Prepare manuscripts according to the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (6^th edition). Manuscripts may be copyedited for bias-free language (see Chapter 3 of the Publication Manual).

Review APA's Checklist for Manuscript Submission 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.

Below are additional instructions regarding the preparation of display equations 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.

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.

Submitting Supplemental Materials

APA can now place supplementary 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:
Hughes, G., Desantis, A., & Waszak, F. (2013). Mechanisms of intentional binding and sensory attenuation: The role of temporal prediction, temporal control, identity prediction, and motor prediction. Psychological Bulletin, 139, 133–151. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/a0028566
Authored Book:
Rogers, T. T., & McClelland, J. L. (2004). Semantic cognition: A parallel distributed processing approach. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Chapter in an Edited Book:
Gill, M. J., & Sypher, B. D. (2009). Workplace incivility and organizational trust. In P. Lutgen-Sandvik & B. D. Sypher (Eds.), Destructive organizational communication: Processes, consequences, and constructive ways of organizing (pp. 53–73). New York, NY: Taylor & Francis.

Figures

Graphics files are welcome if supplied as Tiff, EPS, or PowerPoint files. Multipanel figures (i.e., figures with parts labeled a, b, c, d, etc.) should be assembled into one file.

The minimum line weight for line art is 0.5 point for optimal printing.

For more information about acceptable resolutions, fonts, sizing, and other figure issues, please see the general guidelines.

When possible, please place symbol legends below the figure instead of to the side.

Original color figures can be printed in color at the editor's and publisher's discretion provided the author agrees to pay

$255 for one figure
$425 for two figures
$575 for three figures
$675 for four figures
$55 for each additional 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, for example, test materials (or portions thereof) and photographs of people.

Download Permissions Alert Form (PDF, 47KB)

Publication 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).

Download Disclosure of Interests Form (PDF, 38KB)

Authors of accepted manuscripts are required to transfer the copyright to APA.

For manuscripts not funded by the Wellcome Trust or the Research Councils UK
Publication Rights (Copyright Transfer) Form (PDF, 83KB)
For manuscripts funded by the Wellcome Trust or the Research Councils UK
Wellcome Trust or Research Councils UK Publication Rights Form (PDF, 34KB)

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.

Download Certification of Compliance With APA Ethical Principles Form (PDF, 26KB)

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

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.
Family Psychology and the Law
Special issue of APA's Journal of Family Psychology, Vol. 17, No. 2, June 2003. Includes articles about legal indicators of child adjustment to divorce; child custody and visitation disputes; relocation cases; pregnancy, drug testing, and the fourth amendment; new reproductive technologies; parental fitness of psychiatrically diagnosed individuals; and same-sex domestic violence.
Cultural Variations in Families
Special issue of APA's Journal of Family Psychology, Vol. 14, No. 3, September 2000. Includes articles about family relatedness; family conflict and well-being; impact of interparental conflict and parental factors on child adjustment; discipline responses; parenting practices and adolescent depressive symptoms; adolescent self-esteem; achievement and self-perceptions; and racial preferences in media and peer choices.

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Journal of Family Psychology^®