Hill specialized in the
sociology of the family. Bert N. Adams described him as "one of the leading scholars in the field of marriage and the family". Wesley R. Burr described Hill's contribution as follows: [D]eveloping a model to study family crises, conducting theory-based field experiments, organising the first bibliographic storage system in the field, developing the methodology to study three generations of families simultaneously, initiating graduate traineeships in the family field, helping to develop the family development conceptual framework, developing methods to improve theory, dramatically improving theory, and helping to establish the Theory and Method workshops that are held in conjunction with the annual meetings of the National Council on Family Relations. Olson and Boss mention that Hill's "
ABC-X model describing family stress [presented in 1958] has had an immense impact on the field". == Awards ==