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Courses

The Youth, Family, and Community Sciences Online Graduate Certificate in Family Life Education and Coaching prepares students to work with parents, professionals, and families as both a family life educator and family life coach. Family Life Coaches (FLC) help clients through a thought-provoking and creative process that inspires them to maximize their potential, reach goals, and achieve happiness.

Required courses are designed to strengthen the student’s understanding and application of the critical aspects of family life coaching, including a strengthened understanding of the fields of coaching psychology and family life education. Family Life Educators (FLE) are strengths-based professionals who provide preventative education to families in organized efforts designed to provide information, skills, experiences, or resources intended to strengthen, improve, or enrich their family experience. Coaching is an emerging family science field that provides research-based strategies for helping families become more successful.

Required Courses

A total of 4 graduate courses (12 credit hours) are required:

Units: 3

Theoretical and empirical literature in lifespan, family life, and parent education will be explored along with implications for issues affecting families including content, delivery, and evaluation of parent education programs. Offered either face-to-face or in person via Distance Education.

Offered in Spring Only


Units: 3

This course examines communication in families and integrates the coach approach to communication including identifying individual and family issues; appreciating differences; discovering purpose; practicing forgiveness; resolving conflict; conducting successful critical conversations; mending relationships; effective communication; direct and indirect communication; the art of saying no; the power of words; powerful questions; work/life balance; identifying values; stress management.

Offered in Summer

YEAR: Offered Alternate Odd Years


Units: 3

YFCS 547: Family Life Coaching prepares family science practitioners to meet the growing demands of improving family life through family life and parent Coaching. This graduate-level course examines family life coaching as an approach to services for families and youth. Students will be introduced to coaching as a vital service for helping families better communicate and reach goals and will explore theoretical and empirical literature in coaching. Through practice and skill building exercises, students will learn to coach and will examine the implications for future coaching practice.

Offered in Fall Only

Choose One YFCS Elective

Students should select an elective that mosts aligns with their professional interests; as such, courses not listed here may be applied to the Certificate program. Electives must be advisor-approved in a FLE content area.

Units: 3

This course will critically compare and evaluate the major human development theories and their application to family life and youth development and examine the usefulness of theory in describing, explaining, predicting, or changing behavior.

Offered in Fall Only


Units: 3

The intent of this course is to prepare students to be effective educators in non-formal settings such as Extension education. Students will learn theoretical concepts and their application for planning an effective educational program to meet the learning needs of target audiences. Students will gain knowledge and skills in conducting needs assessments and environmental scanning; writing objectives; and designing, marketing, and delivering educational programs. This course is appropriate for students preparing for Extension education professions.

Offered in Fall Only


Units: 3

Applications of theories and research about interpersonal relationships and family dynamics to issues facing families over the life course, emphasizing the interplay of social, developmental and health factors in affecting change, continuity and well-being.

Offered in Fall Only

YEAR: Offered Alternate Even Years


Units: 3

Family resource management theory is used to examine personal financial management concepts. Family systems and stress theories will be employed to emphasize the interconnections between families, communities, resources through topics such as personal management [decision-making, time & organizational management, stress management]; human and social capital [education, skill building, health, employability, relationships]; physical capital [transportation, real estate, and housing]; financial management [credit and debt, budgeting, retirement issues, bankruptcy].

Offered in Spring Only

YEAR: Offered Alternate Even Years


Units: 3

This course will examine educational intervention strategies for family issues that pose particular difficulty for Family Life and Parenting Educators. Topics include: addictions/substance abuse; child abuse and neglect; domestic abuse; Illness, death and dying; divorce/mediation; step-families & single parenting; gang memberships, suicidal ideation, sexuality/teen pregnancy; and rape and other acts of violence. The course will include a discussion of evidence-based prevention and treatment options for referring clients, and a debate of the role of educators in this process.

Offered in Fall Only

YEAR: Offered Alternate Odd Years


Units: 3

This course will provide students with an advanced understanding of the physiological, psychological, social and cultural aspects of sexual development throughout the lifespan. This includes, but is not limited to, emotional and psychological aspects of sexuality; gender and sexuality; reproductive health and family planning, and the intersections of sexuality and interpersonal relationships. While some cross-cultural information will be included, the main focus will be sexuality in the United States.

Offered in Fall Only


Units: 3

AEHS 538 focuses on issues of social and cultural diversity, social identity, and societal manifestations of power, privilege, and oppression within the context of youth and family sciences. Using a social justice education framework, this course will critically examine and analyze social identity development, social group differences, socialization, intergroup relations, and levels and types of oppression in the United States as they relate to youth and families. Students will reflect on their own identities and learn how to work collaboratively toward inclusion, equity, and social change with youth and families.

Offered in Summer


Units: 3

This course examines the application of classic and contemporary theories and models of leadership to the work of community-based organizations. Students will examine leadership from diverse perspectives; then analyze the strengths and weaknesses of leadership theories and models when applied to organizational development of community-based systems.

Offered in Spring Only


Units: 3

This course explores the fundamental concepts of child and youth development [including early childhood through adolescence] as applied to programmatic and organizational contexts. A special focus is placed upon the concepts as applied to Community Youth theories & practice.

Offered in Fall Only


Units: 3

This course explores contemporary issues facing youth, family, and community professionals in the United States. Students will explore respective social, cultural, political, and/or organizational underpinnings of issues as focused in two major domains: [1] professional ethics and practice and [2] family law and public policy. Emphasis will be placed on issues affecting family life educators and their understanding of the legal issues, policies, and laws influencing the well-being of families, along with understanding the character and quality of human social conduct. This includes the ability to critically examine ethical questions and issues as they relate to professional family life education practice.

Offered in Spring Only

*Students should select an elective that mosts aligns with their professional interests; as such, courses not listed here may be applied to the Certificate program. Electives must be advisor-approved in a FLE content area.

For specific coaching-related questions, contact:

Jessica Williams
Graduate Certificate Coordinator
919-515-8500
jmwill24@ncsu.edu

Note: This program is approved by the Center for Credentialing & Education to use the Board Certified Coach (BCC) credential. It is not an ICF Accredited Coach Training Program (ACTP) at this time.

Graduate Courses in Family Life Coaching

There are two graduate level fully distance BCC approved courses that can be taken as part of a degree or as a non-degree student.

  • YFCS 545 Family Communication and Coaching: This master’s level 3-credit summer session (10 week) course examines family communication patterns and integrates the coach approach to improving interpersonal relationships.
  • YFCS 547 Family Life Coaching: This master’s level 3-credit fall semester course examines family life education content areas with emphasis on parent coaching. The focus of this course is improving familial relationships through coaching.

Students may register for YFCS 545 or YFCS 547 as a Non-Degree Studies student. For more information about registering through Non-Degree Studies (NDS), visit the Non-Degree Studies website.