Hosted by the Master of Public Health department. 

Target Audience

Des Moines University faculty, staff, and students.

Objectives

1. Assess social, mental health, and physical health risks associated with adverse childhood experiences in Iowa.
2. Determine opportunities for policy and practice change related to the effects of adverse childhood experiences.
3. Apply emerging and substantiated theories related to adverse childhood experiences to specifc health issues in Iowa.

Speakers

Clinton Gudmunson, PhD
Assistant Professor, Department of Human Development and Family Studies, Iowa State University

Becoming an adult almost inevitably comes with growing pains, often including economic pressure. Understanding people’s beliefs, attitudes, and capabilities regarding money – the evidences of socialization – informs the illusive quest to predict financial behavior, according to Clinton Gudmunson.

“Everybody comes of age at a unique historical time, and varied family experiences and these forces shape how they view the world, particularly the financial world,”  said Gudmunson, a new assistant professor in human development and family studies at Iowa State University. “And as people move out of their family of origin into their new family of destination, they are going to carry with them certain beliefs, attitudes, and capabilities forged in their younger years.” 

Gudmunson’s doctoral dissertation explored how the timing and coordinated entry into adult roles such as career, marriage, and parenthood corresponded with changes in financial-self reliance and economic pressure in early adulthood.

“It was surprising to discover how little the two were related,”  Gudmunson said. “It seems that financial self-reliance was more a social expectation of getting married, whereas economic pressure was associated with delays in the school-to-work transition and early parenthood.” 

This fall, Gudmunson is teaching personal and family finance (HDFS 283). He plans to continue his research on financial socialization and economic pressure in family life across all ages.

“It’s kind of a unique approach,”  he said. “A lot of social science disciplines only look at individuals in one life stage. I have a broad interest in how financial well-being is produced at any age, and how it is transmitted over time.”

Lisa Ryherd, MS
Department of Human Development and Family Studies, Iowa State University

Education:

• Iowa State University B.S. in Family and Consumer Sciences Education and Studies
• Iowa State University M.S. in Human Development and Family Studies

Research interests:

• Bullying and victimization and what leads to suicidal ideation and depression in youth