Making a “Real” Family

Abstract

This paper discusses the policy of matching as it has influenced American adoption practice. The word “matching” is shorthand for a set of assumptions built around the principle that when a child is “like” her or his adoptive parents, the adoption will be successful. The policy involves establishing criteria for likeness; traits upon which likeness has been based include, explicitly, race, ethnicity, and religion, and, implicity, class. My article shows how, as race became the primary criterion of likeness, matching linked adoption with broader issues in American culture and politics. Resting on a biological model, racial matching reflects changing views of racial equality and of “multiculturalism.” My paper also asks how the increasingly articulated experiences of adoptive parents, birth parents, and adoptees in the 1980s and 1990s impinge on the implementation of matching by social workers, lawyers, and other experts involved in adoption. In conclusion, I speculate on the future interconnections between racial matching, genetic engineering, and ideologies of “biological destiny” reappearing in American culture.     

Growing Up in a “WE” Family

SUMMARY

When couples choose to parent as a unit (the couple as WE) rather than as autonomous individuals, they and their children both benefit. The current article details some ways that parents can further expand their “couple as WE” into a “family as WE” with active parents and socially perceptive children. The article also discusses ways that family members can start and maintain a family dialogue.     

A comment on Scott's “Black Polygamous Family Formation”

This brief article takes a critical look at Joseph W. Scott's article Black Polygamous Family Formation. While Scott's research is seen as helpful, several problems in his treatment of plural mating and marriage arrangements among Black Americans are discussed. Major conceptual problems are created by Scott's use (or misuse) of the concept polygyny. Significant methodological problems are also posed by his sampling approach, operationalization of concepts, and analytic strategies. Studies such as Scott's are of optimal value when their exploratory nature, and consequent limitation, are clearly acknowledged. Authors' Note: Please address inquiries or requests for reprints to: Walter R. Allen, Department of Sociology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109     

Instant Family

WHEN Su Lixin, 26, gave birth to quadruplets, their two-person family suddenly became a six-person family. People from all circles have shown their concern for this special family. The quadruplets' grandfather, Sun Chengji, said, "Without the help of so many warm-hearted people, my four grandsons would not live so happily."     

The Use and “Abuse” of Family in Policy Matters

Family as an institution and as rhetoric appears to play an inordinate role in shaping social policy formation, implementation, and evaluation. Its impact affects the work of applied and academic sociologists in multiple ways. Given its importance and the manner in which it operates, I argue that family may be usefully studied as an ideograph. I present a detailed analysis of how family operates rhetorically to shape and constrain policy-related matters. I also illustrate how it affects and delimits consideration of some specific social concerns, and I conclude that social science practitioners should conscientiously take family into account as we do our own work.     

“Family” Support for Family Violence: Exploring Community Support Systems for Lesbian and Bisexual Women Who Have Experienced Abuse

ABSTRACT

“Family” is a euphemistic term that lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people use among ourselves to designate membership in lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender communities. Ironically, this “family” may be the most sought, yet least successful, support for dealing with the intimate partner violence that occurs within LGBT families. This study of 11 lesbian and bisexual women's experiences seeking support revealed several tiers of unmet needs within the LGBT community. They rarely used services in the general community, although these services are often the focus of both criticism and efforts to build support systems for LGBT victim/survivors. A model presents the different stages and potential sources of support.     

My Ping-Pong Family

WHEN I was born, my father was 40 and my mother was 36. Father is a man of few words and an introverted nature. He belongs to that type of people who are very tough and strong-willed; he has worked hard all his life. Mother, on the other hand, is extroverted and eager to excel. My personality is a combination of both of their characters. Father loves playing ping-pong ardently. He used to be a top player of the Henan provincial team and won the men's singles championship in a contest of five provinces in central and southern China. Mother, a worker at the No. 4 National Textile Mill in Zhengzhou, also loved to play ping-pong when she was young. It was because of the sport that she and Father were brought together and got married. When the Henan     

Marriage and Family Therapy

About the author: Chen Yiyun graduated from the Russian Language and Literature Departraent at Beijing University in 1964. She then enrolled at the Sociology Institute of the China Academy of Social Sciences in 1978. Upon graduation, she remained at the Institute as a research fellow. She later became editor-in-chief of the magazine Sociology Abroad. She translated and edited dozens of sociology books. In 1988, after she returned from the United States, she devoted herself to the research of sociology and marriage consultation. In 1993, Chen set up the Jinglun Family Science Center, a non-governmental organization which is a combination of scientific research and social practice. She organized scholars, social workers and volunteers from sectors of public health, education and legislation to conduct useful activities to promote democracy in the family, equality, health and civilization.     

Dialogues in a Family

FIAMILY relations are the ties that bind—providing care and support in times of need. This truth remains in China and throughout the world. One Beijing family adds flowers tO this equation and together as gardeners grow generations strong. In Nongfengli of eastern Beijing live Lü Shijian and his wife Zhao Naiwen, both retired experts from the Ministry of Agriculture. In their eighth-floor     

Progress of Rural Family

3435Progress of Rural Family     

Continuation Commitment: Family’s Commitment to Continue the Family Business

This study investigates what influences families’ commitment to continue a family business, or continuation commitment. We hypothesize that top executives’ cultural capital, family members’ satisfaction with the firms past performance and their aspirations regarding its future performance, as well as the level of family involvement in the family business represent key factors underlying continuation commitment. In addition, we suggest the interaction effects among the identified factors that affect a family’s commitment will be higher in the founder generation compared to successive generations of family owners. Analysis of a dataset of 2,168 family firms from a nationwide survey provided support for most hypotheses.     

Culture, Family Structure, and Psyche in Hindu India: The “Fit” and the “Inconsistencies”

While Kakar rightly describes important psychological tendencies among upper-caste Hindu men, contradictory tendencies among these men might be a source of change. The dominant psychological orientation among Hindu women differs from the male orientation, which Kakar describes, causing tensions in Indian society that may be a second source of change. While Kakar is right to note that family structure and psychological orientation tend to reproduce each other, cultural ideals and material interests also play an important role in reproducing distinctive Indian patterns of life.     

“Come, Join Our Family”: Discipline and Integration in Corporate Organizational Culture

This article critically examines primaryprocesses and effects of the so-called neworganizational culture that is organized on theprinciples and practices of Total Quality Management(and its variations) and increasingly practiced incorporate organizations in the 1990s. The paperspecifically analyzes the effects of the organizationalcultural practices of family and"team" on the employee and discusses their role incorporate discipline, integration, and control. Data aredrawn from field research conducted in a largemultinational corporation and the analyses andinterpretive propositions are informed by a critical socialpsychoanalytic perspective. The paper disputes theconventional view that the practices of the "newculture" and its purported reform of thehierarchical, specialized, conflict-ridden workplaces oftraditional industrial organizationsempower employees and providemeaningful relationships in the workplace.It is argued, on the contrary, that these new designer culturalpractices serve as processes of regulation, discipline,and control of employee subject selves.     

Motherhood and Family Health Advocacy in Nutrition and Exercise: “Doing the Tradition”

Studies tend to subsume women’s routine family healthcare responsibilities under the larger heading of “household labor.” This study argues that, women’s—and particularly mothers’—family healthcare work in the area of diet and physical activity represents a distinctive area for critical family communication research with potentially serious psychological, emotional, and physical consequences for women and their families. Interviews (N = 30) with young adult-family member dyads supported this assertion. Interview data illustrated that mothers struggled to fulfill incongruous health goals for themselves and their family members, and did so at the expense of their familial relationships (particularly with children) and their own health. Moreover, dyadic data analysis highlighted how young adults ascertained and carried on the “tradition” of the established mother-as-healthcare-provider role. Implications for theory and future research directions conclude this study.     

The Lies That Bind: Heteronormative Constructions of “Family” in Social Work Discourse

The social work profession has an enduring history of commitment to American families; in fact, it has often led the way in embracing alternative family arrangements. Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) families are gaining more political visibility and lobbying for rights and protections from which they were previously excluded. Therefore, this study is an analysis of social work's contemporary, defining representations of LGBTQ families. Twelve LGBTQ “family” research studies were culled from the database Social Work Abstracts, and subjected to queer discourse analysis in order to illuminate how these alternative family forms are being constructed within the discipline. This analysis details the multiple ways in which heterosexual norms are privileged throughout the research studies. For example, the heterosexual family is often constructed as an unchallenged index for psychological health, appropriate partnering, and child rearing practices, social acceptability, and general normative behavior. LGBTQ relationships often earn their “family” designations by their ability to approximate these legible, heteronormative “family” characteristics. As such, this queer discourse analysis indicates that LGBTQ families are ultimately invited to join, but not to change, the traditional terms of “family,” thus making the social work research less of an exploration of alternative family forms and more of an endorsement of same-sex, nuclear families.     

Family structure and child outcomes: a high definition, wide angle “snapshot”

Using data from the National Survey of America??s Families (NSAF), this research investigates the relationships between a highly defined set of family structures and a broad set of child outcomes at a particular point in time in a child??s life. A detailed classification of family structures is constructed that clarifies key differences among various types of diverse families, and facilitates equivalencies testing and pairwise comparisons across nontraditional family structures. The NSAF contains a large number of observations for less common, but growing, family structures such as single-father families, grandparent-headed households and cohabiters, which makes such detailed analyses feasible and allows further stratification by child age, gender and race. The data also contains information on child behavioral, educational and physical health outcomes, as well as extensive household characteristics, economic resources and parental behaviors and inputs. Results suggest that differences across nontraditional family structures are particularly prominent for child health outcomes and that the gender of the resident parent is empirically important, more so than the presence of a cohabiting or married step-parent. Children in single father families have lesser access to health care yet enjoy better health outcomes than those in other families, even after controlling for economic resources (and inputs). In contrast, few differences are found between grandparent-headed families and other non-parent families. While we explore alternative explanations for these results, our cross-sectional data and complex set of family structure variables preclude isolating causal relationships; instead, our analyses yield empirically important distinctions that point to promising avenues for future research.     

Scholars Talk About Family Violence

SINCE ancient times in China, the clash between couples has been called "family affairs" that "even good officials can not settle." Although the state and women's organizations have tried to apply the means of law and public opinion to protect women's rights and interests in the family, not everyone     

Luo Xiuhua and Her Family

MANY women set a goal for themselves of devoting themselves entirely to their husbands and children, but at the same time, they want to be successful in their work as well. This is certainly hard to realize. But Luo Xiuhua, a Tujia ethnic woman from Hunan Province, has turned this ideal into reality. Luo Xiuhua was born in Dayong County of Zhangjiajie City, Hunan Province. After graduating from a normal school in 1963, she taught in a village, and     

Photographer Puts Family in Focus

WITH the rise in the standard of living, the camera—like the television set, the video cassette recorder and the cassette player—has become another essential entertainment tool for families. If you ask young parents who is photographed most in the family, chances are they will readily tell you that the child is the focus.     

Chinese Family Patterns Undergo Changes

IN China, family patterns change as children get married, have children and the family line continues. Aunt Cheng is a retired teacher. After her husband died, Aunt Cheng continued to live with her unmarried younger son. She got on well with neighbors in the building, who would often see her out walking with her son. One day, she began to furnish their apartment. Her neighbors assumed her son