Family and Consumer Sciences Education as a Vehicle for Impression Management

This chapter examines the role of Family and Consumer Sciences (FCS) education in the shaping and management of personal image across personal, professional, and digital contexts. At its core, FCS (also known to many as “home economics”) is an interdisciplinary field that prepares individuals to lead effective lives through knowledge of personal and family skills, housing, clothing, nutrition, human development, and interpersonal communication. However, its role in impression management and image formation, while implicit in many of its subdisciplines, is often under-theorized in mainstream academic discourse. This chapter seeks to bring this to the forefront of scholarship by making a case for FCS as a vital contributor to the intellectual understanding of personal image management.