Link Enterprise | T. Denny Sanford School of Social and Family Dynamics

The Link Enterprise is designed to break down the social barriers that interfere with effective relationships and to build positive relationships within schools, families, and community organizations, with the goal of fostering success for all.

Members of the Link Enterprise conduct innovative research, train the next generation of scholars, and engage in community impact by developing and disseminating evidence-informed and evidence-based products and programs for use in schools and other institutions.

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Research and Translational Initiatives

Children's Attitudes, Relationships, and Education (CARE)

The CARE Project is a series of research studies that aims to develop and validate new measures of children's attitudes toward their relationships with other boys and girls. It assesses how these attitudes affect social and academic achievement from kindergarten through college.

Fostering Adolescent School Transitions (FAST)

The FAST Study examines the interplay between peer relationships, gender identity, and adjustment during the transition from elementary school to middle school. It particularly focuses on the social-relational context of this transition to better understand this age group.

APPLE Project

The APPLE Project is a federally-funded project (Institute of Education Science) with the goal of exploring the extent of gender segregation versus integration (inclusion) in coeducational 3-5th grade classrooms. It also examines the effects of variations in gender integration on social and academic outcomes.

Library Project

The Library Project works in collaboration with public libraries and other informal learning institutions to engage families in their children's learning and development. By creating and evaluating programs and initiatives, the project identifies and implements key strategies for supporting educational staff and engaging diverse families.

Project Connect

The purpose of Project Connect is to develop, test, and disseminate evidence-informed programs and products that help schools, families and the community bring people together. By fostering positive and effective connections, Project Connect aims to promote successful learning, development, and well-being.

Project Intersect

Project Intersect involved a study of gender and ethnic identity and social networks in adolescents. The goal is to better understand how identity relates to academic and social adjustment.

Single-Gender Schooling

The main goal of the single-gender schooling initiative was to explore whether and how single-gender schooling impacts social and academic outcomes.

Project Teach

The goal of Project Teach is to explore how classroom teachers from preschool through fifth grade structure and manage gender issues and peer interactions in the classroom. Projects within this initiative use an innovative observational method as well as survey methods.

Mapping Social Relationships at School

Many of the Lives projects include a collection of detailed observational and nomination data regarding children's relationships with peers. Using multilevel modeling, social network methods of studying large group dynamics, and novel approaches to mapping dyadic and triadic relationships developed by team members (Q-Connectivity), one goal is to better understand the nature and quality of peer relationships.

Lives of Teens: ASPIRE

The The ASPIRE (Adolescents, Schools, Peers, and Interpersonal Relationships) Study investigates how adolescents' relationship dynamics and break-ups relate to their wellbeing and academic engagement over time. The goal is to better understand why some adolescents are highly vulnerable to their relationship experiences.

Understanding School Success (USS)

The USS project involved a 5-year longitudinal data collection designed to examine how young children's early classroom-based relationships influence school readiness and adjustment.

Kindergarten Project

The Kindergarten Project consists of a series of research studies designed to better understand how children make successful transitions into kindergarten. The studies include explorations of classroom composition, teacher training, and student outcomes.

Completed Projects

The following projects are completed and available for use

Better Together Challenge (BTC)

The Better Together Challenge was developed by the Center for Child and Family Success (CCFS) at Arizona State University to work in partnership with Maricopa County public schools to support students' success.

The Diversity and Inclusion Science Initiative (DISI)

The Diversity and Inclusion Science Initiative (DISI) is a signature initiative of the School of Social and Family Dynamics. The goal of this initiative is to increase participation of undergraduate and graduate students from historically underrepresented or excluded groups in social science research by providing opportunities for them.

Sanford Harmony Projects

Over six years, a team of scientists and educators developed The Sanford Harmony Program (SHP). This program provides teachers with tools to effectively promote social-emotional development among Pre-K-6th-grade students; exercises and activities emphasize communication, empathy, critical thinking, collaboration and problem solving skills.

Sanford Program for the Advancement of Compassion and Empathy

The Sanford Program for the Advancement of Compassion and Empathy aims to increase students’ capacity to respond respond empathically and compassionately to others in need. Developing and implementing college and professional courses will improve the human condition and enhance the quality of care, citizenry, and harmony experienced in young adults’ personal and professional relationships, now and into the future.

Sanford Bullying and Victimization Prevention Curriculum

The Sanford Bullying and Victimization Prevention Curriculum is a comprehensive teacher education program that aims to equip teachers with a thorough understanding of bullying, peer victimization and prosocial peer relationships. Drawing on research-validated approaches to bullying prevention, specific strategies are discussed that can be implemented to address and discourage bullying and encourage healthy relationships in the classroom, school, and community. Programs have been tailored to the unique needs of preservice and in-service teachers, as well as online and traditional delivery methods.