“Something More”: The Meanings of Marriage for Religious Couples in America

This study focused on how couples’ beliefs about marriage and religion shape the meanings they find in their marriage. Interviews about connections between religion and marriage were conducted with 57 Christian, Jewish, and Muslim couples in New England and northern California. Qualitative analyses found the major theme, common across faith traditions, was that marriage is a sacred union that is “something more": more than the self, more than the couple, and more than the family unit. To these couples marriage is divine and institutional and a vital support for their relationship. Our findings raise an interesting counterpoint to the current scholarly discourse about the deinstitutionalization and individualization of contemporary marriage. Institutionalized features of marriage may retain their strength in contemporary society as many religious couples, and perhaps many other couples as well, believe marriage is something more than the deinstitutionalized, private relationship that many scholars now see.     

Small Samples,Big Challenges: Studying Atypical Family Forms

We discuss the challenges of small‐subsample sizes that family scholars often encounter when studying nontraditional or less common family types. We begin by identifying the general difficulties of using existing data in this line of research and then discuss potential solutions that may help researchers to avoid these problems. Using data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, we use the example of monoracial White, monoracial Asian, and Asian/White interracial families to illustrate these problems and available, albeit imperfect, solutions.     

Lesbian-Headed Stepfamilies

Abstract

This paper examines the lesbian stepfamily. It considers the family structure, parenting roles, gender composition of the couple, the distribution of family labor, and the impact of familial and community support. It discusses some of the challenges facing lesbian-headed stepfamilies, their strengths, capacities and competencies, and the strategies these families use for coping with stigma and intolerance. The paper concludes with implications for policy and practice with lesbian stepfamilies.     

Migrant Remittances and Household Division: The Case of Nang Rong,Thailand

Using data from the Nang Rong Projects social survey (N = 4,989), this work examines the effect of migrant remittances on household splits in an agrarian district of Thailand, a developing country experiencing tremendous economic, demographic, and social transformations. Results show that remittances sent from migrants (especially female migrants) to their origin households affect changes in household affiliation. Findings are consistent with a household allocation model, whereby money sent by migrant siblings significantly affects the movement of the migrant’s sisters and their husbands into a new household. Results suggest that remittances are a significant determinant of household nucleation, especially in the latter stages of the Thai household life cycle. Results also suggest that rural Thais still follow traditional postnuptial residence patterns.     

The psychosocial well-being of children from Australian military and fly-in/fly-out (FIFO) mining families

This study investigates the effects of employment-related father absence on children's psychological well-being and home based mothers’ perceptions of family functioning. Ninety primary school aged children and their mothers residing in Perth in Western Australia participated in this study. The sample consisted of three groups: children whose fathers were employed in fly-in/fly-out (FIFO) mining (n =30), children whose fathers were in the military (n =30) and a community sample (n =30) of children, whose fathers’ employment was not military or mining based and who did not have extended periods of absence from home. Children's psychosocial well-being was measured by the Children's Depression Inventory (CDI) and Revised Children's Manifest Anxiety Scale (RCMAS). Children's and mothers’ perceptions of family function were assessed with the Family Assessment Device (FAD). Results indicated that there were no significant differences between the groups on all measures of child well-being, and all groups were functioning at healthy levels. However, mothers from the FIFO families reported significantly more stress than the military and community groups with respect to communication, support and behaviour control within the family. It was concluded that despite mothers’ perceptions of disruption to family routine, the well-being of children in this small sample was not affected.     

The School-Based Family: Teachers as Parental Figures for Orphans and Vulnerable Children in Ugandan Schools

The purpose of this study was to examine the possible formation of surrogate families within Ugandan schools, especially among orphans who lack positive development opportunities typically provided by parents. This qualitative study sample of 66 Ugandan secondary school students were selected from eight schools in the Mukono district of Uganda. Findings suggest a potentially widespread family formation pattern between students and their teachers. More than 75% of students interviewed self-identified their teacher as family. Some teachers were able to offer orphans and vulnerable children positive developmental assets and were, therefore, identified as family.     

Complex families and equality in child support obligations: A comparative policy analysis

Family complexity creates difficulties for child support policy. We examine whether policy in 14 countries results in nonresident parents having equal financial obligations to children in different complex family situations. We find that when a nonresident parent owes support to two nonresident children in different families, the most common policy is to have unequal obligations favoring the older child. However, nearly as many countries achieve equal orders, but do so by reducing the obligation to the older child. When a nonresident parent has one nonresident child and a new resident child, the most common strategy is to reduce the obligation to the older nonresident child, but to make no attempt to equalize obligations for both children. Each of the four main policy strategies we identify has advantages; tradeoffs among three principles of equality, affordability of obligations and protecting the first child's standard of living are discussed.     

A Comparison Study of Low Trauma Disclosure Participants and Their Partners in Army Couples

Intimate partner relationships provide unique conditions for examining how the interpersonal and/or systemic impact of trauma exposure and post-trauma responses can impact both the primary and secondary trauma survivors and the interpersonal dynamics of the couple. The current study explored qualitative and quantitative data from low trauma disclosure individuals (n?=?15) and their partners to understand the experiences of low trauma disclosure to spouses in a sample of Army couples. Contrary to the original hypothesis, the results indicated mixed trauma disclosure partners seemed to be functioning at lower individual and relationship functioning levels than the low or high trauma disclosure partners. Implications for practice and future research also are described.     

Lesbian Stepmothers

ABSTRACT

This study details a grounded theory research project that examined the lived experiences of 29 lesbians who partnered and cohabited with the biological, custodial mothers of children from previous heterosexual relationships. Participants' experiences within their familial relationships were explored and responses were coded. Categories emerged from the coding, and a core concept of navigating visibility and claiming place was identified. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.     

Status of Family Theory and Research in Japan

. This paper examines the development of family research and theory in Japan in the context of family change sinceWorldWar II. Among the topics explored are: the increasingly aging society, decrease in birth rate, child rearing practices of over-protection and non-supervi- sion, increasing independence and its impact on family cohesiveness, and economic and technological development. Theoretical approaches to fam- ily research in Japan are discussed; including the life course perspective, family stress theory, the feminist perspective, and social network theory. Comparative studies are reviewed.     

Caribbean Families: Social and Emotional Problems

Families from the English-speaking Caribbean now comprise 30% of immigrants in New York State. Given the increase of Caribbean referrals to psychiatric hospitals and mental health clinics, it is important to begin examining more seriously the needs of this immigrant group. The concept of mental illness, risk factors that can lead to mental disorders, commonly accepted psychopathological disorders, issues in assessment and treatment as they apply to this cultural group are discussed in this article. A model for treatment—the multiculutral/multimodal/multisystems approach is examined.     

Connecting Complex Processes: A Decade of Research on Immigrant Families

This review examines research on immigrant families in the United States from the past decade from multiple disciplinary perspectives. This work has used variations on assimilation and acculturation perspectives. In the case of the assimilation perspectives, the focus has largely been on family formation, whereas research using acculturation perspectives has focused more on intrafamily relationships. But, over the course of the decade, an interesting integrative model has emerged to address interactions of attitudes and values with structural conditions in the receiving and sending communities. Some of this effort to integrate perspectives can be found in studies of transnational families. The review concludes with some suggestions for continuing this integration and expanding studies to include dynamics of migration and family processes simultaneously.     

Social Networks of Old People in India

Summary

This article presents a comparative analysis of the available research on the social networks of older persons in India. Most of this research has been done in North Indian cities. The research foci of the available studies include network size, core networks and beyond, life course changes in networks, impacts of residency in old-age homes, gender differences, and joint and nuclear family residence. This research is discussed in terms of its policy implications. Because the research demonstrates that social networks are important for the welfare of older Indians, one can conclude that social policy that encourages the maintenance of robust networks throughout the life course may be worth pursuing. One aspect of policy is discussed. The analysis of the relationship between social network and gender suggests that current policies that can be seen as supporting gender inequality in terms of property may have a negative impact on the networks of older women.     

Micro‐ and Macrolevel Determinants of Women's Employment in Six Arab Countries

We analyzed determinants of women's employment with data for 40,792 women living in 103 districts of 6 Arab countries. We tested a new theoretical framework that addresses the roles of needs, opportunities, and values at multiple levels. At the microlevel (individual, family), socioeconomic factors, care duties, and traditionalism were important; at the macrolevel (district), economic development and societal norms were important. Women's education seemed most influential. Interaction analyses showed that returns on women's education depended on their partner's education and on the economic development, labor market structure, urbanization, and strength of traditional norms in the district in which women live. Our results stress the importance of a comprehensive approach toward women's employment in these countries.     

The Basic Plot of Family Life

No abstract available for this article.     

Parental Divorce and Premarital Couples: Commitment and Other Relationship Characteristics

Parental divorce is thought to affect the romantic relationships of young adults, especially with respect to their certainty about the relationship and perceptions of problems in it. We examined these connections with a random sample of 464 coupled partners. Compared with women from intact families, women from divorced families reported less trust and satisfaction, but more ambivalence and conflict. For men, perceptions of relationships were contingent on the marital status of their partners' parents, although men from intact and divorced families did differ on structural constraints that affect commitment. Young adults who were casually dating showed the strongest effects of parental divorce, suggesting that the repercussions of parental divorce may be in place before the young adults form their own romantic relationships.     

Processes Linking Social Class and Racial Socialization in African American Dual-Earner Families

We examined the links between social class, occupational self-direction, self-efficacy, and racial socialization in a sample of 128 two-parent African American couples raising adolescents. A series of multivariate, multilevel models revealed that mothers' SES was connected to self-efficacy via its association with occupational self-direction; in turn, self-efficacy partially explained the association between occupational self-direction and racial socialization. The link between maternal self-efficacy and racial socialization depended on whether or not children had experienced discrimination. For fathers, a strong link between SES and occupational self-direction emerged, but significant associations were not found between occupational self-direction and self-efficacy, or self-efficacy and racial socialization. The discussion focuses on mother-father differences and the role of child effects in racial socialization.     

Differences in consumption patterns of single-parent and two-parent families in the United States

Different patterns of single-parent and two-parent families in six major expenditure categories are examined using the 1989 Consumer Expenditure Survey. Comparisons are made of the influence of permanent income, family size, region, race, gender, age, and education of the head of the family on the expenditure categories. The results show that with the exception of expenditures on shelter, the two groups differ significantly in their consumption patterns.1991 Visiting Professor at the Family Economics Research Group, Agricutural Research Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture. Current research interests include consumption economics and time-use allocation.Current research interests include the economic status of American households.