Considering Alternate Sources of Role Identity: Childless Parents and Their Animal “Kids”

Identity theory posits that role identity is negotiated between human social actors and is based in broader cultural expectations about how particular statuses should be performed. I argue that the formation of role identity in actors can also occur in relationship to nonhuman actors, if they are perceived as minded. Depending on context and human perception, identity can be formed as a result of interaction and developing “theory of mind” with nonhuman animals, directly implicating the animal. Using in‐depth interviews of childless and childfree companion animal owners, I demonstrate the existence of a parent identity in childless participants that would not otherwise be present were it not for interaction with the animal “child.” This identity is confirmed in participant narratives describing substantial behavioral output aligned with the U.S. cultural ideal of “parent.” Likewise, I find that significant others provide external support for the enactment of this role identity, allowing participants to verify self‐in‐situation. Overall, my analysis emphasizes the importance of considering nonhuman sources as occupying counterstatus positions in the formation of role identity while highlighting how these relationships affect interaction in the childfree and childless home, thus expanding scholarly understanding about both identity formation and emerging family types.     

The “Homeless Problem” and the Double Consciousness*

The purpose of this article was to identify manifestations of a social discourse that construct those who are homeless as an existential problem. Based on 4 years of ethnographic data and grounded theory analysis, we illustrate the nature of exclusionary social practices that emerge from discourse on the “homeless problem” as well as the conflicting identities experienced by those who are homeless. Herein we frame the data using DuBois concept of “double consciousness.” Our findings indicate that those who are homeless mix together discourses of value and legitimacy with self‐applied stigmas and self‐denigrating political perspectives in ways that directly mirror DuBois’ notion of the conflicting nature of African and American identities around the end of the nineteenth century. We illustrate identity problems that manifest in the contemporary conflict between being both “homeless” and “American.”     

“The troublesome other and I”: Parallel stories of separated parents in prolonged conflicts

This qualitative study aims to explore how noncohabiting parenting couples in prolonged conflict construct the other parent and themselves. Ten parents from five parent couples were interviewed. A dyadic analytical design was used, where parent's stories of conflict were analyzed in parallel with their co‐parent. Drawing on positioning theory, self‐identity as parents emerged as implicit counter positions in storylines, which construct the co‐parent as “the troublesome other.” Two typologies of conflicted storylines were prominent in the findings: storylines of violations of trust, positioning the co‐parents in relation to traumatic events in the past and, storylines of who is bad, positioning the co‐parent as either a disloyal co‐parent or a dysfunctional parent. The findings indicate that prolonged conflicts made it impossible to find available positions for cooperation. We argue that family therapists should aid each household toward promoting child and family resilience rather than continued efforts to solve chronic conflicts.     

“There Is No Perfect School”: The Complexity of School Decision‐Making Among Lesbian and Gay Adoptive Parents

Parents influence their children's educational experiences in part via school selection. This process is particularly complex for families with multiple minority, potentially stigmatized, statuses. This qualitative study examines middle‐class lesbian and gay (LG) adoptive parents' school decision‐making. Parents' economic resources provided the foundation for how parents weighed child/family identities (children's race, LG‐parent family structure, child's special needs) and school‐related concerns (e.g., academic rigor). For White gay male‐headed families in affluent urban communities, financial resources muted racial and sexual orientation consciousness in favor of competitive academic environments. Lesbian mothers of modest economic means prioritized racial diversity more centrally. Racial diversity overrode gay‐friendliness as a consideration in lesbian‐mother families; gay‐friendliness was prioritized over racial diversity among families in conservative communities; and special needs overrode all other child and family identity considerations. For LG adoptive parent families, school decision‐making has the potential for greater tensions amidst multiple intersecting identities and fewer economic resources.     

Social Relations Model Analyses of Perceived Self‐Control and Trust in Families

How do people know which family member is trustworthy? In this study, the authors tested the hypothesis that people use their perception of a family member's self‐control as an indicator of his or her trustworthiness. Eighty‐four Dutch families consisting of 2 parents and 2 children completed questionnaires assessing each family member's trust in and perceived self‐control of the other 3 family members. This full‐family design enabled the authors to examine their hypothesis in horizontal relationships, between family members of equal status (i.e., parent–parent and sibling–sibling relationships), and vertical relationships, in which partners have unequal status (i.e., parent–child and child–parent relationships). Consistent with the hypothesis, Social Relations Model analyses showed that being perceived as having higher self‐control is related to greater trustworthiness among adults and children in the large majority of horizontal and vertical relationships (10 out of 12). These findings highlight that perceived self‐control is an important factor by which to gauge trustworthiness in families.     

“I'll Be There for You”: Teen Parents' Coparenting Relationships

Marriage promotion policy agendas have focused research attention on coparenting relationships, but little is known about coparenting among teen parents. Using qualitative interviews with 76 teen mothers and fathers supplemented with site observations at a school and clinic, the authors investigated coparenting relationships and those relationships' embeddedness in extended families and social institutions. They identified prevalent coparenting trajectories and analyzed individual‐, interaction‐, and institutional‐level influences on coparenting. Coparenting trajectories diverged depending on whether the couple stayed together and assumed traditionally gendered parenting roles. Participants perceived that coparenting relationships strongly shaped their current and future socioeconomic, emotional, and practical circumstances and their success at “being there” for their child. Extended families, institutions, and social programs often pushed teen parents apart, although many participants felt they needed a functional relationship with the other parent. Coparenting relationships, considered jointly with extended families and social institutions, are fundamental for understanding teen parenthood and shaping effective social policies.     

Residential Instability,Family Support,and Parent–Child Relationships Among Ethnically Diverse Urban Families

From a social disorganization standpoint, neighborhood residential instability potentially brings negative consequences to parent–child relationship qualities, but family social support and racial/ethnic identity may modify this association. Using data (n = 3,116) from the Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods, this study examines associations between neighborhood residential instability and parent–child warmth and conflict, whether family social support moderates associations between residential instability and parent–child relationships, and variation by race/ethnicity. Multilevel models reveal that residential instability undermines parent–child relationship qualities, particularly for non‐White individuals. Family support is a protective factor for families in less stable neighborhoods and specifically buffers the association between neighborhood residential instability and reduced parent–child warmth. Among Hispanics, family support mitigates the association between residential instability and heightened parent–child conflict. Findings highlight residential instability as a detriment to parent–child relationships; families in unstable neighborhoods may benefit from family social support.     

More‐than‐human families: Pets,people, and practices in multispecies households

Although humans have coexisted with dogs and cats for thousands of years, that coexistence has taken on various meanings over time. Only recently have people openly included their pets as members of the family. Yet, because of the cultural ambivalence toward animals, what it means for a pet to “be” a family member remains unsettled. Drawing from research on family practices including kinship, household routines, childhood socialization, and domestic violence, this paper considers how pets participate in “doing” family and what their presence means for this social arrangement long considered quintessentially human. Today's more‐than‐human families represent a hybrid of relations, human and animal and social and natural, rather than an entirely new kind of family. Becoming family has always been contingent on a cast of nonhuman characters, and recognition of the “more‐than‐human” can enhance sociological understanding, not only of the family but also of other aspects of social life.     

White Universal Identity as a “Sense of Group Position”

This article seeks to expand upon Blumer's “Race Prejudice as a Sense of Group Position.” I argue that Blumer's group position model invites us to critically consider the role that dominant group identity and “threats” to identity play in reproducing racial inequalities. Identities seat both material and ideal concerns, and white identities, in particular, may provide “ontological security” that whites will defensively protect. I draw on ethnographic research conducted in 1994–96 in two demographically distinct high schools. Young whites in both schools expressed identities that positioned them as “universal,” and they responded reactively, even prejudicially, when their universal group position was threatened.     

The Aural and Moral Idylls of “Englishness” and Folk Music

The idea of “Englishness” is explored as an historical social construction that is subject to ongoing negotiation. Important features of “Englishness” are embedded in the sacralized symbolism of the “rural idyll,” which represents traditional English values. “Landscapes” and “soundscapes” are utilized to construct personal and national identities in periods of “revivalism.” By viewing English folk music through an interactionist framework, responses to the music build upon earlier collective works that have shaped traditional song. “Englishness” is problematized as either an inclusive, or exclusive, identity. Ideational artifacts thus provide a foundation for social action.¹     

Family Relationships From Adolescence to Early Adulthood: Changes in the Family System Following Firstborns' Leaving Home

This study charted the course of parent–child and sibling relationships from early adolescence to early adulthood and examined how these relationships changed following firstborns' departure from their parents' home for the first time. Data were drawn from a 10‐year longitudinal study of family relationships. Participants included mothers, fathers, and first‐ and secondborn children from 184 White, working and middle class families. Multilevel models revealed declines in parent–child conflict, acceptance, and sibling negativity and increases or U‐shaped patterns in sibling and parent–child intimacy over time. Birth Order × Leaving Home interactions revealed that firstborns' leaving home related to changes in family relationship qualities for both first‐ and secondborns, with relationships improving for firstborns and no changes or declines in relationship quality for secondborns. Overall, the results highlight the inter‐relatedness of family subsystems.     

Identity Management of the Dead: Contests in the Construction of Murdered Children

Presenting data gathered from fieldwork and ethnographic interviews with families of homicide victims, this study explores “postmortem identity‐contests” faced by families who have experienced the homicide of a child or other family member. Interview data from families on their interaction with police, funeral home directors, and other institutional officials suggest that the construction of postmortem identities is commonly a process of contestation filled with competing identity‐claims. The findings reveal that as families resist “oppressive othering” by the state and other institutional actors, they develop various accounts and strategies in “selfing” and sanctifying the identity of the dead.     

“Don't Step on My Groove!”: Gender and the Social Experience of Rock

This article utilizes a symbolic interactionist framework to examine how gender is, and is not, salient in “depth‐listening” practices. Based on qualitative interviews with male and female fans of contemporary “angry” rock music by female performers, the author shows that men and women engage in similar processes of cultivation (especially with regard to emotion) in depth listening, but that they also employ gender as a socio‐semiotic resource to interpret their relationships to the music and artists differently and to evaluate what this music could mean in their daily lives. Gender identity is influential in how the music is constructed as personally transformative for informants and as having implications for social change.     

Stories of Non‐Becoming: Non‐Issues,Non‐Events and Non‐Identities in Asexual Lives

In contrast to conventional models of positively “becoming” an identity through social interaction, this article explores the inverse, negational process of “non‐becoming,” whereby actors start but do not continue along an identity career trajectory. Through cumulative attrition, interactions and encounters at key moments create an overall pattern of non‐progression. Using asexuality as an example, we identify three main trajectory stages of non‐awareness, communicative negation and non‐consolidation, each involving interactional contingencies. With a wider applicability to other repudiated identities, this model shows how even negational symbolic social objects (non‐issues, non‐events, and non‐identities) are constituted through social interaction.     

Ambivalence in Gay and Lesbian Family Relationships

Intergenerational ambivalence—the simultaneous presence of both positive and negative dimensions of a parent–child tie—is a concept widely used in family studies. Scholars have clarified the measurement of psychological ambivalence, or an individual's own feelings of ambivalence toward others. Yet research has yet to demonstrate whether—and, if so, how—individuals characterize others as ambivalent. Moreover, relatively little is known about ambivalence in gay and lesbian families. In the present study 60 in‐depth interviews were analyzed to identify what the author calls perceived ambivalence in the parent, sibling, extended kin, and “in‐law” relationships of gay and lesbian adults. Perceived ambivalence is revealed through gay and lesbian adults' characterizations of family members' simultaneous positive and negative overt and covert beliefs and behavior. In addition, the author refines the concept of collective ambivalence, wherein perceived ambivalence typifies an entire family unit. The findings further revealed the importance of broader sociological factors, such as homophobia, in structuring perceived ambivalence.     

“He Did It on Purpose!” Family Correlates of Negative Attributions About an Adolescent Sibling

Scholars have suggested that family life may influence children's attributions about close relationships. Using a sample of 369 two‐parent families with 2 children (a target adolescent in the 8th grade and a sibling aged 10 to 18), we investigated whether the sibling's negative attributions regarding the target adolescent were associated with mother's and father's negative attributions regarding the target adolescent, or the gender constellation and birth order of the sibling pair. In addition, we used the self‐reported negative attributions of both siblings and adolescents to investigate whether attributions predicted one's own behavior, or whether the behavior of the partner predicted the perceiver's negative attributions. Structural equation models showed that mothers' and fathers' negative attributions regarding the target adolescent predicted concurrent negative attributions for girls, but not boys. In addition, siblings' negative attributions regarding each other predicted their negative and positive behavior toward the partner 2 years later. The positive behavior of the attribution target also predicted the perceiver's negative attributions, but its effect was weaker. Girl sibling pairs were less negative in their attributions than cross‐sex sibling pairs and boy sibling pairs. Finally, although younger siblings were less negative in their attributions than older siblings, this difference decreased over time. This study advances the knowledge of negative attributions in close relationships by identifying family correlates of an understudied, but important, close relationship.     

Shifting Worlds of Strangers: Medium Theory and Changes in “Them” Versus “Us”*

Macrolevel analyses of the influence of different communication technologies are more difficult to test and apply than the results of focused studies of particular media messages. Nevertheless, “medium theory” is of potentially great significance because it outlines how media, rather than functioning simply as channels for conveying information between two or more social environments, are themselves social contexts that foster certain forms of interaction and social identities. This article uses a medium-theory perspective to address one variable related to “technological communities”—the changing boundaries between “them” and “us.” The ways in which oral, print, and electronic modes of communication each foster a different balance between strangers and “familiars” are outlined.     

The myth of the “data‐driven” society: Exploring the interactions of data interfaces,circulations, and abstractions

The prominence of data and data technologies in society, such as algorithms, social media, mobile technology, and artificial intelligence, have heralded numerous claims of the revolutionary potential of these systems. From public policy, to business management, to scientific research, a “data‐driven” society is apparently imminent—or currently happening—where “objective” and asocial data systems are believed to be comprehensively improving human life. Through a review of existing sociological literature, in this article, we critically examine the relationship between data and society and propose a new model for understanding these dynamics. “Using the concept of the informatic,” we argue the relationship between data and society can be understood as representing the interaction of several different social trends around data; that of data interfaces (that connect individuals to digital contexts), data circulation (trends in the movement and storage of data), and data abstraction (data manipulation practices). Data and data technologies are founded to be entwined and embedded in numerous social relationships, and while not all are fair and equitable relationships, there is ample evidence of the deeply social nature of data across many streams of social life. Our three‐part informatic framework allows these complex relationships to be understood in the social dynamic through which they are witnessed and experienced.     

From “Swinging Hard” to “Rocking Out”: Classification of Style and the Creation of Identity in the World of Drumming

This article takes a social constructionist approach to the study of a seldom considered subculture—the “world” of drumming. I describe this subculture from both the “etic” and “emic” perspectives, showing how drummers and drumming are perceived and experienced by the musicians themselves (insiders) as well as the “outside” public. The main focus is on the drummers' intersubjective “mental maps” of their world, specifically exploring how they create musical and personal identities by adhering to a rigid classification scheme surrounding “styles” of drumming. I demonstrate how drummers use drumming equipment, personal appearance, education, and “purist” attitudes to separate styles of drumming and to construct distinct social selves. Of special interest is how drummers are cognitively socialized into “thought communities” which teach and reinforce attitudinal and behavioral norms. I conclude with a discussion of the possibilities of applying my analytical framework to other worlds of music and art, as well as some forms of occupational and avocational specialization.