The purpose of this conference, held in February, 1969, was to examine the desirability and feasibility of focusing national problems more on the family, with the assumption that more concern with the family in planning and implementing national programs would help to: 1) avoid inadvertent damage to families; and 2) use the properties of the family more effectively in our efforts to cope with social problems. This first volume of the report contains the main digest of the conference discussion, together with additional remarks and perspectives intended to bring out the relevance of the conference for policy formation. The thirty participants were drawn from education and several social sciences, giving a strong interdisciplinary flavor to the proceedings. Task groups considered such topics as: economic structure and industrial practices affecting the family; administration of whole family efforts; adequacy of scientific methods and theory relating to the family; and the political and ideological significance of whole family study. Conclusions and recommendations of the conference are reported in a final chapter. An extensive list of references appears at the end of the report. (JLB)