This document contains the proceedings of a conference on the themes of career competency, consumer education, and consumer research conducted in April 1982. The proceedings consist of 69 research reports (each with abstract) as well as a list of the conference participants, their affiliations, and addresses. The reports, which are indexed by author, cover the following topics, among others: shopping time of homemakers and spouses, classification of concepts in consumer education, comparison of food stamp participants and eligible nonparticipants, consumer policy, evaluating energy conservation strategies for public housing residents, consumer price information programs, financial crisis management for families, career ladders for consumer affairs professionals, consumer educators in the 1980s, marketplace problems as perceived by solar homeowners and solar experts, consumer responses to mail order problems and knowledge of the Federal Trade Commission rule, consumer risk perception and response, consumer satisfaction with complaint handling, competencies of consumer education students, state consumer protection offices, factors motivating consumer energy conservation, bankruptcy, whole life insurance, needs of consumer economics education teachers, use of credit cards, home warranties, health care legislation, the consumer content of prime-time television, and the development of a model for a community-based information and referral system. Most of the reports contain bibliographies. (KC)