TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — A University of Alabama researcher recently received an award for research that looked at the connection between a married couple’s communication patterns and their financial wellness.
Dr. Melissa Wilmarth, an assistant professor in UA’s College of Human Environmental Sciences, received the Family & Consumer Sciences Research Journal Emerging Scholar Award for 2014 at the American Association of Family & Consumer Sciences’ annual conference in Jacksonville, Florida.
This is the fifth year the award has been presented.
To be considered for the Emerging Scholar Award: the topic must be original; the research design and methodology must demonstrate high standards; the article should have the potential to make a lasting contribution to theory and practice in family and consumer sciences; and the recipient must be a tenure track assistant professor.
The award was presented to Wilmarth by Dr. Sharon DeVaney, editor of the Family & Consumer Sciences Research Journal.
Wilmarth’s article was titled “Financial Wellness and Relationship Satisfaction: Does Communication Mediate?”
Her coauthors were Robert B. Nielsen and Ted G. Futris, associate professors at the University of Georgia. The research investigated if married couples’ positive and negative communication patterns mediate the association between financial wellness and relationship satisfaction.
Data were collected from married couples in a southern state in 2007 and 2011. The article also received the Best Paper Award in Human Development and Family Studies for 2014.
The Family & Consumer Sciences Research Journal publishes original research in all areas of family and consumer sciences. AAFCS, the sponsor organization of the journal, is the only national not-for-profit 501(c)3 organization that provides leadership and support to family and consumer science professionals in education, research, business and not-for-profit organizations.
Contact
Kim Eaton, UA media relations, 205/348-8325, kkeaton@ur.ua.edu