Kathleen Knafl, PhD, FAAN

Dr. Kathleen Knafl is Professor and Associate Dean for Research in the School of Nursing at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Through a series of qualitative studies, Dr. Knafl’s program of research has focused on describing different patterns of family response to childhood chronic conditions. Her study of different patterns of family management and the development of the Family management Style Framework (FMSF) has been essential steps in developing interventions that promote positive outcomes for families and their individual members.Dr. Knafl’s program of research is moving from conceptualization of family management to measurement and intervention.

Most recently, in collaboration with colleagues at University of Illinois at Chicago, University of Pennsylvania, and Yale University, she has turned her attention to developing a valid and reliable measure of how families manage a child's chronic condition, the Family Management Measure (FaMM) to generate knowledge of the family context of illness and foster the development of interventions that support optimal functioning and quality of life. Data from the FaMM will contribute to clinicians’ and researchers’ ability to understand more fully family functioning in the context of childhood chronic conditions.

Dr. Knafl has been the Principal Investigator of several studies funded by National Center of Nursing Research and National Institute of Nursing Research with the aims of understanding the family management of a child’s chronic illness. She has numerous publications in research, family and pediatric periodicals.

http://nursing.unc.edu/directories/search.php?x=2436
http://nursing.unc.edu/research/famm/