History of the Center

The Center for the Study of Parental Acceptance and Rejection was founded by Ronald P. Rohner in 1977. The Board of Trustees of the University of Connecticut officially recognized the Center in 1981, and in 2002 the Board of Trustees honored Ron and his wife, Nancy, by renaming the Center the Ronald and Nancy Rohner Center for the Study of Parental Acceptance and Rejection to recognize their accomplishments and applications on the antecedents, consequences, and other correlates of interpersonal acceptance and rejection, especially parental acceptance-rejection. In December 2007, the name of the Center changed to the Ronald and Nancy Rohner Center for the Study of Interpersonal Acceptance and Rejection which more accurately describes the work being done. The Center is located in the Family Sciences Building on the University of Connecticut campus in Storrs, Connecticut, USA. Here the staff work with researchers, clinical practitioners and other professionals locally, as well as internationally, to study and apply Interpersonal Acceptance-Rejection Theory (IPARTheory) in parent-child relationships, intimate adult relationships, peer and sibling relationships, and others. Research on corporal punishment, father love, adult offspring and their aging parents, and teachers’ acceptance and rejection are currently being conducted in many parts of the world. For more information, read the introduction to IPARTheory.

About the Director

Ronald P. Rohner, Ph.D., is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Psychological Society, and the American Anthropological Association. He is Executive Director and Former President of the International Society for Interpersonal Acceptance and Rejection. He is also former President of the Board of Directors of Natchaug (Psychiatric) Hospital, and past President of the Society for Cross-Cultural Research. He has served on the Executive Council of the International Association for Cross-Cultural Psychology, as well as on the Board of Directors of the Connecticut Association for the Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect. Ron was Professor of Anthropology at the University of Connecticut from 1964 through 1995. Beginning in 1973 he also held a joint appointment in the the Department of Human Development and Family Studies. From 1975-1977, he was a Senior Scientist at the Boys Town Center for the Study of Youth Development in Washington D.C. He has authored 15 books and more than 200 articles and other publications. He received the American Psychological Association Award for Distinguished Contributions to the International Advancement of Psychology in 2004, the American Psychological Association’s Division of International Psychology Award for Outstanding Psychologist in the United States in 2008, and the APA Henry David International Mentoring Award in 2017. In 2020 he received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Society for Cross-Cultural Research. Ron is now Professor Emeritus of Family Studies and Anthropology in the Department of Human Development and Family Sciences at the University of Connecticut, Storrs. More than a hundred master’s theses and doctoral dissertations have been completed in the USA and internationally using his measures. This number continues to grow as he oversees the work of students around the world. As Director of the Ronald and Nancy Rohner Center for the Study of Interpersonal Acceptance and Rejection, Ron continues to write articles and books for publication, and works to promote the Center within the fields of Family Sciences, Psychology, Nursing, Education, Law, Social Work, Psychiatry, Anthropology, and others.

IPARTheory from Inception to Maturity

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Support for the Center

Support for the Center continues in many forms. The Center’s mostly-volunteer staff work on Center administration, research publications, clinical applications, and archiving publications and data sets from around the world for professional scholarly use in research and application.  The Center’s operating budget is supported by the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at the University of Connecticut, with additional financial resources available from the Center’s endowment fund at the University of Connecticut Foundation.

Support is necessary for basic and applied research, clinical applications, workshops and conferences, as well as for visiting scholars and advanced graduate students.  Monetary donations are very much appreciated, and online giving is available through the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. Donations should be directed to the Rohner Center’s University of Connecticut Foundation endowment fund.  To make a donation please specify the purpose of the gift as Rohner Center Fund for the Study of Interpersonal Acceptance and Rejection; fund code 30628. To connect to the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences webpage for access to the University of Connecticut Foundation’s online giving form