Advancing Family-Focused Health Equity: Reconceptualizing Family in Social Work Research and Practice

In this commentary, we address the strengths and limitations of prevailing conceptualizations of family, particularly in relation to advancing health equity. To better attend to the continuing evolution and diversification of family experiences in the United States, we propose the CHIEF framework, which represents chosen, household, immediate, extended, and fictive kin families. We call on social work and its governing bodies to center diverse family structures, backgrounds and experiences in research, practice, and policy.