Introduction to Family Processes

Lewis, S., & Lewis, J. (Eds.). (1996). The Work-Family Challenge: Rethinking Employment. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications. Hardcover ISBN 0 8039 7468 X. Paper ISBN 0 8039 7469 8. Parasuraman, S., & Greenhaus, J. H. (Eds.). (1997). Integrating Work and Family: Challenges and Choices for a Changing World. Westport, CT: Quorum Books. Hardcover ISBN 1-56720-038-9. Vannoy, D., & Dubeck, P. J. (Eds.). (1998). Challenges for Work and Family in the Twenty-First Century. New York: Aldine de Gruyter. Hardcover ISBN 0-202-30567-8. Paper ISBN 0-202-30568-6. The past decades have seen major changes in the economy and family life of the United States. Among these changes are increased global economic competition, growth in technological development, an aging population, increased labor force participation of women, and changes in gender roles and family structure. These changes have affected the structure and texture of work and of family life and the ways in which they influence each other. On an individual level the conditions under which performing work and family roles leads to conflict or satisfactions also have changed. As a result of the impact of these changes on work organizations and family life, researchers and practitioners have attempted to understand the nature of the changes, discover their implications for work, families, and individuals, and formulate policies and programs to address associated problems. Several of these examinations are presented in the three edited volumes. The contributors represent corporations, legal firms, government, private research and consulting organizations, and university departments of organizational psychology, sociology, management, social work, family studies, and counseling. As might be expected from such a diverse group, the contributions cover a wide range of issues within the overall subject area of work and family. The topics include several specific corporate policies and programs, e.g., family leave, dependent care, flexible work schedules, part-time work, relocation, pluralistic career paths, telecommuting, and health insurance. Several chapters consider economic changes, gender issues, and work-family policies and programs outside the United States. This diversity of topics exists both within each volume and across volumes. The Parasuraman and Greenhaus volume addresses workfamily issues from the perspective of several stakeholders, namely, corporate management, consultants, counselors, researchers, individual employees, and consumers. Since the Lewis and Lewis volume concentrates on employment and its implications for families, it is the most focused of the three. However, it also gives the most attention to international comparisons. The Vannoy and Dubeck volume covers the broadest range of topics with chapters discussing downsizing, ethnic differences in economic wellbeing, women in management, parental involvement with children, welfare mothers, and children's reading competencies. Despite this diversity, the three books have several commonalities. They share a common goal, namely to encourage the development of solutions to work-family dilemmas experienced by employees, families, and employers. They focus on program and policy issues rather than theory-based empirical research. The authors generally address the work-family interface from the perspective of work and its impact on family life rather than the reverse. More information is provided about how work organizations operate than about family processes or individual wellbeing. The most common theme is the role and impact of corporate policies and programs that address the current conflicts between work and family. The discussions generally are framed within one of three rationales for developing corporate policies or programs (S. Lewis in Lewis & Lewis). The first, and probably most frequently used, rationale is framed in terms of improving the performance of the work organization. …

The Evolution of Family Process: Contexts and Transformations1,2

1. Revision of Family Institution and Its Actual Status -In accordance with the development of modern industrization and urbanization in Japan, an extended family has recently had a tendency to change its form as an nuclear family. On the othere hand, the moral and legal criterions in a traditional family has still remained to a considerable extent. However, the war made a sudden change in our family system to bring about a new family form on the principle of individual dignity and equality of both sexes. The actual state of Japanese family at present, however, has two phases ; one can easily adapt a new institution as seen in large cities, while the other finds it difficult to get rid of old tradition as still existed in rural communities. It is no doubt an interesting ploblem for the study of family in postwar Japan to see how the new family system, which made a legal change ahead of actual change, will have our actual family life changed. From the point of view mentioned above, we shall try to analyze the changes of postwar Japanese family from both sides of its structure and function. 2. Stagnation appeared on family structure -Generally speaking, Japanese family has not changed much in the size of household and the structure of kin-relations, and the average number of its members has tended a little to increase. This tendency has mainly come from the shortage of houses, a great number of repatriates from abroad, and moreover, the rising up of average marital age. 3. Changes shown in inner family structure -If we take up the problem of family authority as one of the phases of the inner family structure, we fined that most people in both cities and villages affirm the principle of equality ideologically, but still in forming their actual relations depend on traditional principle, “authoritarianism” ; especially in rural communities.. 4. Basic problems between parents and children. 5. Various problems of marital relations We examine how those problems mentioned above show on the relations of parents and children, and of man and wife.6. Changes in the function of family -It is generally said that the function of family has gradually decreased. This tendency is most evident in the secondary functions of family, such as economic and productive functions, protective, educational and religious functions, in addition. to the function which makes possible the socialization of the minor members.

As the aging of the American population became apparent, the field of human development underwent an interesting pendulum swing over the years, from an earlier concentration on childhood to a focus on the elderly. Gerontology emerged as a specialty long before middle age received research attention. Now new attention is being paid to middle age. Prominent in the immediate background of this scrutiny was the Kansas City Study of Adult Life in the 1950s and 1960s, led by psychologists from the University of Chicago. The first of their many publications was the 1964 book, Personality in Middle and Late Life, followed four years later by an anthology that remains even today the best collection of essays on the middle years.2

Maternal depression negatively impacts children's development, yet few studies have focused on fathering and the family process in cases of maternal depression. A community cohort of married/cohabitating women was recruited on the second postbirth day (N = 1,983) and maternal depression repeatedly assessed across the first year and again at 6 years to form two cohorts: mothers chronically depressed from birth to 6 (N = 46) and nondepressed controls (N = 103). At 6 years, mother-child, father-child, and family interactions were observed. In families of depressed mothers, both mother and father exhibited lower sensitivity and higher intrusiveness, and children displayed lower social engagement during interactions with mother and father. Fathering moderated the effects of maternal depression on the family process. When fathers showed low sensitivity, high intrusiveness, and provided little opportunities for child social engagement, the family process was less cohesive, implying a decrease in the family's harmonious, warm, and collaborative style. However, in cases of high father sensitivity, low intrusiveness, and increased child engagement, the family process was unaffected by maternal depression. Findings describe both comparability and compensatory mechanisms in the effects of fathering on family life when maternal care is deficient, highlight the buffering role of fathers, and underscore the importance of father-focused interventions when mothers are depressed.

Our major reflection on these data must be that what we know about the effects of the paid employment of mothers does not warrant the simplistic assumption that family life, and the well-being of children, are thereby endangered. The nature of the summary conclusions that follow demonstrates how little we do know with assurance. As indicated earlier, however, the weight of the prevailing myth requires that we proclaim what is known; the finding of "no effect" is important information. Patients who consult their physicians for assistance in making a decision about a change in maternal employment status, need first of all to be reminded that the entire issue is fogged by deep-seated beliefs and prejudices that are not easily understood or even expressed. Our views on spouse relations and parent-child relations are strongly determined by our own early experiences and by the pervasive societal myth. To the extent that families can plan felicitous changes in the course of their lives together, an earnest effort to untangle myth, prejudice, and belief must be made on all sides. This effort can, however, be aided by an understanding of whatever objective information can be marshalled from an examination of the research literature. The physician's responsibility, as always, is to convey all of the relevant data, privately acknowledging his or her personal position without allowing it to color the presentation of the data. The decision, in the long run, must be made by those who will live with the consequences. To guide them, we might offer from this review the following conclusions: 1. Re working conditions: a. The mother is likely to feel comfortable and enhanced by her employment situation if the job is consonant with her skill and training, if she is rewarded (by recognition and promotion) for accomplishment, and if pay is competitive with other paid jobs. b. If these conditions are not met, her valuation of herself may be diminished in the employment situation, and her family relations altered accordingly. (The situation is thus analogous to that of the father.) c. If she must work for pay, but would rather not (or vice versa, if she wishes to be employed but is not), her position in family relations is likely to be stressed. 2. Re family function: a. The opinion of other important persons in the mother's life (including especially her husband but also her relatives and friends) about the value of her employment will strongly influence her satisfaction with employment. b. Maternal employment per se has little demonstrated long-term effect on family dynamics; if a change in ideology about the family (e.g., from traditional toward egalitarian) is brought about in conjunction with or as a consequence of maternal employment, family relations may be altered accordingly. c. There are many options for the accomplishment of domestic chores; the family's choice will be affected by ideology, financial means, and the availability of resources in the community. It is unrealistic to expect that there will be no change in the performance of domestic responsibilities when the mother enters paid employment. d. Major changes in family life, such as the gain or loss of employment by either parent, may bring about some change in all family relations; the period of adjustment, which is usually experienced as somewhat stressful, is of limited duration. The ultimate effect on the family cannot be reliably assessed during this adjustment period. 3. Re the children: a. Satisfactory child-care arrangements are essential, expensive, and may be difficult to find at this time. It is impossible to generalize about "ideal" child care (with or without a full-time homemaker-mother) since needs vary by family and by age and personality of the child. A variety of options exists. b. For the child, a major component of the changes associated with change in parental employment status may be new circumstances in caretaking. New circumstances may be temporarily stressful, and should therefore be avoided, if possible, at points of rapid and saltatory development, e.g., when attachments are forming (in third quarter of the first year), when symbolic use of language is almost but not quite attained (at about the second birthday), and at any point when the child's adjustment capacity is under stress. c. Children are likely to be positively affected by maternal employment, and attendant changes in family function, if the mother finds satisfaction in work outside the home and if she is supported by family members. d. The children of employed mothers are likely to attain a nonstereotyped view of the nature and value of male and female abilities. e. Other specific direct effects of maternal employment on children have not been demonstrated. It is probable that intervening variables (such as child-rearing style) are critical, and that maternal employment per se should not be expected to have single and uniform effects on the lives of children. Finally, it is impressive that a number of studies report that the families of nonemployed mothers (husbands, children, and the mothers themselves) are strongly opposed to maternal employment, principally on the grounds that the family may be harmed.208, 260, 279, 280 When mothers are successfully and enthusiastically employed, however, the changes reported by their families, if any, tend to be in a positive direction. The myth dies hard.

A phenomenological case study of a family in which the father committed suicide following incarceration and an adult daughter also committed suicide years later is described. This study used an embedded design to triangulate multiple sources of data (family documents and interviews with survivors) within the study of a single family. Four themes emerged to describe the relational dynamics between the father and adult daughter: (a) Mirroring, (b) Caretaking, (c) Death, and (d) Suicide. Four themes emerged from interviews with survivors about their coping process: (a) Ongoing Grief process, (b) Media Exploitation, (c) Separation and Transformation, and (d) Forgiveness. Results are discussed in terms of prevention and family processes in coping with suicide.

Research efforts that have focused attention on triadic and larger (polyadic) relationships in families with adolescents largely have focused on a core number of “compelling family processes.” These family processes historically have been used to describe the reciprocal and mutually causal interactions that occur between and among family members over time. The present chapter reviews studies of these family processes over the past 15 years that have included constructs such as family differentiation, triangulation, parentification, family conflict, and family decision making activities. Particular attention is paid to the increased use of multiple family member perspectives in this type of research. The increased concentration on variation in family processes as a function of race, ethnicity, gender, age and other significant demographic variables is discussed as well. Finally, empirical efforts that have focused on the impact of siblings are highlighted, as these studies are thought to represent an important and innovative advancement in the study of families with adolescents.

The aim of the current study is to examine the associations between the quality of relationships and life satisfaction of older mothers in Estonia, Germany, Russia and the People's Republic of China, based on the assumptions of the Family Change Theory. The role of satisfaction with family life as the probable mediating factor is considered. Estonian older mothers reported the least admiration and intimacy in their relationships with their adult daughters, and the least satisfaction with family life compared to German, Russian and Chinese mothers. German older mothers perceived the most admiration from their adult daughters and were the most satisfied with both their family and general life. Russian older mothers were the least satisfied with their general life compared to their counterparts in Estonia, Germany and China. The results from the Structural Equation Modelling showed that the relationship between satisfaction with family life and general life satisfaction was statistically significant in all countries except Russia. The satisfaction with family life as a mediating factor might strengthen the positive and negative aspects of intergenerational relationships on the life satisfaction of older mothers. The findings indicated that the emotional closeness and intergenerational relationships in families during the process of transition and globalisation play an important role in the life satisfaction of older mothers in these four countries.

This study uses the accounts of parents supplemented by those of their children (aged 13–17) to develop understanding of the role of families in the production and garnering of social capital. In doing so, it draws on J. S. Coleman's hypotheses about the impact of single‐parent households, parental work, siblings, and links between parents in different families on the social capital available to young people. The data suggest that non‐traditional family forms do not necessarily represent deficits in social capital, but rather may actively utilize alternative supportive factors and structures via family processes and network associations not identified by Coleman. Material circumstances may be a greater constraint on access to social capital than family form. In addition, rather than representing a passive drain, young people can be identified as a resource in the development of community level social capital. Neighbourhood and community, together with links (networks) and understandings between families, are important in the task of parenting. These results suggest that Coleman's formulation of social capital reflects neither the reality of contemporary family life nor the agency of young people. However, his identification of the importance of between‐family links may benefit future studies of social capital, parenting and the transition to adulthood.

Family Formation and the Home

Drawing on data gathered during ethnographic fieldwork in a south-western Chinese town, this paper examines a detailed case study of a single family, and how their internet use transformed over an 18-month period following the introduction of home broadband to their house. Despite initial intentions that the connection would resolve the problem of errant offspring accessing the internet outside the home, the subsequent effects that home internet brought upon domestic life were largely unforeseen. The detailed narrative presented herein highlights how different family members' perceptions and actual use of the internet generated multiple contradictions over the fieldwork period. This paper argues that Silverstone, R., Hirsch, E., & Morley, D.’s (1992). Information and communication technologies and the moral economy of the household. In R. Silverstone & E. Hirsch (Eds.), Consuming technologies: Media and information in domestic spaces (pp. 15–31). London: Routledge] theory of domestication provides the most suitable model for understanding the introduction of information and communication technologies into the home, owing to its capacity to take into account how attitudes towards the internet are renegotiated over time. The paper proposes further refinements be made to the theory by challenging the assumption that users aspire to ‘incorporate’ the technology into the household. Instead, the ethnographic data indicate that the main drivers of the domestication process are family members' desires to use the internet as a way to transform relationships within the household. More broadly, by foregrounding participants' concerns regarding internet use as focusing chiefly on family life and education, this paper also provides an important alternative to prevailing scholarly trends that generally understand the Chinese internet through themes of politics, censorship and democracy.

Research consistently demonstrates that family relationships are key determinants of health, but most research on health and families focuses on a heterosexual and cisgender context. Sexual and gender identities often are overlooked or erased in family and health research. We present an overview of the current state of research on LGBT families and health, using a life course approach and pointing to the ways that LGBT people's experiences of families occur within a broader social structural context, with implications for their health and the health of their family members. We focus on parenthood, parent–child ties, intimate relationships, and caregiving. We also identify two theoretical obstacles for studies of LGBT families and health as well as important research areas for moving forward, such as the inclusion of non‐binary and queer identities in our studies of family and health. Incorporation of LGBT and other queer families and family forms into our health research interrogates assumptions within family and health research and offers insight into how to move the field forward.

As African societies continue to experience rapid social and economic transformations, traditional family systems are undergoing significant shifts, giving way to new forms and dynamics, with the diffusion of Western cultural values, ideologies, and practices being identified as a major catalyst in reshaping family structures across the continent. This paper explored the impact of Westernization on the African traditional family, focusing on causes, dynamics, and effects. It explored the dimensions of Westernization and its impact on family life in Africa, encompassing areas such as marriage patterns, household sizes, gender roles, divorce rates, intergenerational relationships, and the dynamics of kinship networks. Utilizing a systematic literature review (SLR) methodology, this research aggregated and synthesized insights from an array of scholarly works spanning cultural sociology, globalization studies, and African family dynamics and captured how Western ideals, such as individualism, gender equality, and nuclear family models, have both challenged and coexisted with traditional norms, often leading to a shift from traditional arranged marriages to more self-centred decisions like dating and cohabitation. The paper argued further that the influence of Westernization on family structures in Africa is multidimensional, with both positive and negative outcomes. As African societies navigate the complexities of cultural preservation and adaptation, balancing traditional values and Western influences is crucial for maintaining harmonious family dynamics across generations. The paper concluded by emphasizing the need for informed approaches to understanding the impact of Westernization on African family structures.

This study identifies distinct pathways of migration, marriage, and childbearing among young men in Nepal, a context characterized by short-term circular migration as well as rapid social and demographic change, and examines how these transitions vary by key socio-demographic characteristics. Migration can transform marriage and childbearing by reshaping economic resources and family arrangements in countries of origin. While a small body of research has explored the fluid relationship between migration and family life, less is known about how these processes unfold in settings experiencing short-term, circular migration alongside broader social and demographic change. Using longitudinal data from the Chitwan Valley Family Study (CVFS), this study employs sequence analysis to explore men's trajectories of migration, marriage, and childbearing. Cluster analysis groups these sequences, which are then examined by birth year, caste-ethnicity, and childhood socioeconomic markers. The majority of men have migration experience. They most often migrate before marriage and frequently reengage after marriage and childbirth, which suggests migration may align with family processes. Migration is more common among younger respondents, reflecting its growing normalization. Caste-ethnicity shapes migration patterns, though its influence appears to shift over time, particularly among historically marginalized groups. This research highlights the diverse nature of male migration in terms of timing and process, as well as how these patterns vary across birth year and caste-ethnicity. The study underscores the interdependence of migration, marriage, and fertility, identifying migration as a recurrent rather than singular experience in contexts of short-term circular migration and rapid demographic change.