Between 1989 and 1993, a research project was conducted at the German Youth Institute in cooperation with the Catholic Federal Working Group for Counseling and with the support of the Federal Ministry for Family Affairs and Senior Citizens. This project focused on the situation of educational counseling centers in light of changes in family life contexts. The term "changes in family life contexts" encompasses not only statistically observable processes such as high rates of separation and divorce, the increasing number of single-child families, or the rising number of working mothers, but also the internal shifts in family structures that arise from these historical changes. Therefore, the study centered on the question of how educational counseling centers cope with the transformation that social policy is closely monitoring with concern and attention.