About

Professional

Jim is a tenured associate professor and Extension Field Specialist of Family Wellness in the Family and Consumer Sciences program area of Ohio State University Extension in the College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences.

In 2002, he graduated from Brigham Young University in with a Bachelor’s degree in Marriage, Family, and Human Development.  After working for a year as a Family Service Assistant Coordinator at Mountainland Head Start in Provo, UT, he began graduate studies in the Department of Child Development and Family Studies (now Human Development and Family Studies) at Purdue University.  He graduated in 2005 with a Master’s degree in Developmental Studies.  His research focused on grandparents and his thesis centered on grandmothers’ expectations for their grandchild’s personality development.  He also discovered that there was (and still is) very little empirical science about grandfathers and their relationships with grandchildren.  So, upon graduating he transferred to Syracuse University to work with Alan Taylor on research related to grandfathers.  Alan mentored him throughout his doctoral studies and their efforts to study grandfathers have culminated in a project called the Grandfather Involvement and Health Survey.  He graduated from Syracuse in 2009 as a Doctor of Philosophy in Child and Family Studies.

From 2008 to 2012, he taught online and face-to-face courses in family relations, family life program design, implementation, and evaluation, parenting, intergenerational relationships, and research methods and applied statistics at South Dakota State University.  While there he formed partnerships with community outreach organizations to evaluate programs and was invited to consult on a multi-state, multi-year project called iCook.

In September of 2012, he joined Ohio State University Extension to be a specialist in family wellness.  His three program themes are Intergenerational Family Relationships, Family Resiliency, and Family Life Education Program Design, Implementation, Evaluation and Analysis.  Please checkout his scholarship, projects, and programs described in other sections of this website.

Personal

Jim and his wife Emily are the parents of 5 great kids (4 girls and 1 boy).  Some like sports, some like to dance, some like to swim, but they all like music.  They’re all creative; they are literate and artistic in many ways.  We are teaching them to become self-reliant and capable so they can excel in modern America.  We enjoy board games, being outside, and reading.

9 thoughts on “About

  1. Do you know of research demonstrating children’s relationship with their grandparents was benifical for the child?

    Thanks

    • Hi David,
      Thanks for contacting me. I’m away from the office for the next couple weeks and will provide you with a proper response when I get back. To briefly respond however, I have written about your question in Bates (2009) Generative Grandfathering:…. The two papers with Goodsell are also examples of adult grandchildren talking about the impact their grandfathers have had on them (the titles and references to these papers are under Publications under the Research tab of this website). In addition, a colleague at BYU, Jeremy Yorgason has a paper published here: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1532-7795.2010.00735.x/abstract.

      This should get you started.

      Thanks,

      Jim

  2. Dear Dr. James Bates

    Good day!

    I am Ms. Aleli Dadayan from the Philippines and I currently am making a Grade 4 manuscript in our country. I am hoping to use one of your articles from Family Times. I hope you will allow me to use your article entitled “Respect your elders” . This will be used as an educational reading text in the Grade 4 book of Rex Publishing to be able to promote understanding of Editorial Writing and promote respect for the elderly. I found this in the URL: http://www.familytimes.biz/index.php?mact=News,cntnt01,detail,0&cntnt01articleid=
    17&cntnt01returnid=16 .

    I hope you will help me in the giving knowledge to Grade 4 students of a third world country like the Philippines.

    Should my request for a non-exclusive permission merit your kind approval, I will include a full citation of your selection in my textbook. If you need additional information, please let me know and I will be happy to comply.

    Your response will highly be appreciated. Thank you and God bless!

    More power and thanks,
    Ms. Aleli Dadayan
    aleliadadayan8@yahoo.com

    • Hello Ms. Dadayan,

      Thank you for your inquiry and your interest in my work on grandparents. I will provide you with an updated manuscript for your textbook.

      Best,

      Jim

  3. Estou com uma parte do texto sobre a importância dos netos na saúde dos avós. muito bom por sinal

  4. Hello Dr. Bates, I am a doctoral student in Texas researching grandparents who support their grandchildren to adulthood. I am planning to integrate the intergenerational solidarity theoretical framwork into my research. I would love to have a 10 minutes conversation with you sometime in the month of May.

  5. Hello, James!
    My name is Charles Woodruff. I am a 70-year-old grandfather of 2 with one on the way. I am an administrator of a new magazine for men, and especially us older fossils, called Christian Grandfather Magazine (CGM).
    I am writing because I ran across The Nurturant Grandfathering Fact sheets. I would like to ask your permission to republish these wonderful fact sheets in Christian Grandfather Magazine. It is perfect for our readership as those who are not grandfathers, will be in the future.
    If you so graciously grant CGM this permission, please let me know what your credit requirements are so that I make sure proper acknowledgment is given to you and to your website. You can do this by sending a bio photo and a short written bio (approx. 150- 200 words) to be placed at the end of your article. We will also provide an author page allowing quick reference for our readers.
    I see that you have other articles on Live Smart Ohio blog that we can use for dads and family and would like to use those in the future, if you agree. We do not alter any of your work and always attribute your writing to you. Of course you retain the rights to your writing and grant CGM permission to publish in our format. Just to be clear, we do link to other social media sites, such as LinkedIn, Association of Christian Ministers, and Facebook (in the near future). If you prefer not to be linked, just let us know and your work will stay on our site alone.
    Thank you for your consideration in allowing CGM to use the words God has given you to share with others grandparents.
    May God overwhelm you and your ministry with His love and blessings this coming year.

    Fellow Labors in Christ!
    Charles Woodruff
    Administrator, CGM
    charles@christiangrandfather.org
    https://www.christiangrandfather.org/

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