Program Overview

General Studies (BGS): Family Life Emphasis

Program Information

The General Studies (BGS): Family Life Emphasis program is designed to provide students with a comprehensive understanding of family life and human development.

Minimum and Maximum Credit Hours

• Minimum Credit Hours: 33
• Maximum Credit Hours: 33

Major Academic Plan

The Major Academic Plan for the BGS in General Studies - Family Life can be found in the MAPS document.

Learning Outcomes

The program has several learning outcomes, including:

• Describe how their coursework in the BGS program has contributed to the aims of a BYU education: Spiritually strengthening, Character building, Intellectually enlarging, Preparing for lifelong learning and service.
• Describe major theories and research findings related to marriage, family living, and human development.
• Write professional research papers in the discipline that demonstrate an ability to synthesize and critically evaluate research related to specific theories and/or substantive areas.

Program Requirements

The program requirements include:

• Having 27 hours of campus residency.
• Completing a minimum of 10 hours in the emphasis after formal admission to the BGS program.
• Ensuring that thirty of the 120 hours, including 15 hours in the emphasis, must be 300-level or above courses.
• Earning a minimum 2.0 BYU grade point average, a minimum 2.0 cumulative grade point average, and a minimum 2.0 emphasis grade point average.
• Completing the program in eight years or less.
• Ensuring that all emphasis courses taken after admission to BGS must be BYU courses.

Requirement 1 Complete 1 Course

• Prerequisite course: STDEV 100 - Essential College Skills 1.0

Requirement 2 Complete 4 Courses

• Core courses:
  • SFL 160 - Intro to Family Processes 3.0
  • SFL 200 - Strengthening Marriage/Family 3.0
  • SFL 210 - Human Development 3.0
  • SFL 290 - Critical Inquiry & Research Meth 3.0

Requirement 3 Complete 3 hours

• Any courses not taken in requirement 4 below may be used toward fulfilling this three-hour elective requirement.
  • SFL 102 - Introduction to Interiors 3.0
  • SFL 110 - Food Preparation in the Home 2.0
  • SFL 224 - Marriage Enhancement 3.0
  • SFL 240 - Parenting & Child Guidance 3.0
  • SFL 260 - Family Finance 3.0
  • SFL 359 - Child Life 3.0

Requirement 4 Complete 15 hours

• BYU 300- or 400-level campus courses in the School of Family Life (including Salt Lake Center classes) may also be used to fill this requirement.
  • SFL 331 - Infant Dev in the Family 3.0
  • SFL 333 - Adolescent Dev in Fam & Soc 3.0
  • SFL 334 - Adult Development & Aging 3.0
  • SFL 335 - Family Adaptation & Resiliency 3.0
  • SFL 351 - Social Development 3.0
  • ECE 355 - Language Development 3.0
  • SFL 358 - Media, Fam & Human Dev 3.0

Requirement 5 Complete 1 Course

• Complete a capstone experience (last course to be completed): STDEV 490 - BGS Capstone 2.0