Families, what makes them work

DAVID H. OLSON is Professor Emeritus of Family Social Science at the University of Minnesota, where he has been for more than 25 years. He is founder and president of Life Innovations, a past president of the National Council on Family Relations and of the Upper Midwest Association for Marriage and Family Therapists, a Fellow of the American Psychological Association, and a Fellow of the American Association for Marital and Family Therapy (AAMFT). He has received numerous awards, including the Distinguished Contribution to Marriage and Family Therapy Award from both the AAMFT and the American Family Therapy Association. David Olson has written or edited more than 20 books, published over 100 articles with the theme of bridging family research, theory, and practice, and has been on 10 editorial boards of family journals. Olson and his colleagues at the University of Minnesota have developed the Circumplex model of Marital and Family Systems and a variety of couple and family assessment tools, including PREPARE, ENRICH, FACES, PAIR, and AWARE. JOHN DEFRAIN is an Extension Professor of family and community development at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, where he has been a member of the faculty for 27 years. He received his doctorate from the University of Wisonsin-Madison in 1975, and has codirected a graduate training program in marriage and family therapy. He is the cofounder of the National and International Symposium on Building Family Strengths, and has co-authored four dozen professional articles on family issues and 16 books. John DeFrain and his wife Nikki are currently working with the University of Newcastle, N.S.W., Australia, on family strengths projects.