Today's our last day of regular class, before Thursday's final exam. Mainly, we will review for the exam and do some administrative things (e.g., course evaluations). Here are a couple of topics that we didn't get to cover formally during the class (and won't be on the exam), but are still worth discussing briefly.

(1) Public policies and laws can be formulated to help families alleviate stress. Examples include the federal Family and Medical Leave Act to allow parents to spend time with newborn or sick children. Another example is the New Jersey state law requiring screening of pregnant women and new mothers for postpartum depression. These are discussed in our class encyclopedia, which still has a little way to go before all of the entries are posted on the web.

I teach a graduate course at Texas Tech called "Family Law and Public Policy." If you'd be interesting in checking out the resources there, here is the link.

Also, right here in HDFS at UW-Madison, Prof. Karen Bogenschneider is one of the nation's leading experts on family policy. The website for her Family Impact Seminars, which she provides to policymakers, is available here.

(2) The other topic is what Harvard political scientist Robert Putnam (and others) call "social capital." The idea is that by getting to know one's neighbors and getting involved in the community, quality of life can be improved (e.g., people looking out for each other's houses). The website associated with Putnam's book Bowling Alone, which deals with the decline of social capital in the U.S. in recent decades, is available here.