Contemporary Issues in Family Studies E-Book

Angela Abela

• Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
• Kategorie: Fachliteratur
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 975

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2013

Beschreibung

This volume tackles key issues in the changing nature of family life from a global perspective, and is essential reading for those studying and working with families.

• Covers changes in couple relationships and the challenges these pose; parenting practices and their implications for child development; key contemporary global issues, such as migration, poverty, and the internet, and their impact on the family; and the role of the state in supporting family relationships
• Includes a stellar cast of international contributors such as Paul Amato and John Coleman, and contributions from leading experts based in North Africa, Japan, Australia and New Zealand
• Discusses topics such as cohabitation, divorce, single-parent households, same-sex partnerships, fertility,  and domestic violence
• Links research and practice and provides policy recommendations at the end of each chapter

Leseprobe

Contents

List of Figures

List of Tables

Preface

The Contributors

About the Book

Acknowledgements

Contributors’ Biographies

Part I: Changing Couple and Family Relationships

1 Global Changes in Marriage, Parenting and Family Life

Introduction

Changes in Marriage and Couple Relationships

Changes in Parenting

Global Changes in Family Life

Looking Ahead

References

2 Cohabitation or Marriage? Contemporary Living Arrangements in the West

Introduction

Historical Background

Current Empirical Patterns

Same-Sex Cohabitation and Marriage

Legal Status of Cohabitation and Its Policy Implications

Possible Future Developments

References

3 ‘Alone Together’ Marriages and ‘Living Apart Together’ Relationships

Introduction

‘Alone Together’ Marriage

Individualism in American Culture

‘Living Apart Together’ Relationships

Implications for the Future

References

4 Marriage and Divorce in the Western World

Introduction

Marriage

Divorce

The Implications of Changes in Marriage and Divorce for Families in the Western World

References

5 Divorce in the Arab Gulf Countries

Introduction

The Socio-economic Context in the GCC Countries

Changes in Family Structure and Values

The Effect of Globalisation on Families in the GCC Countries

Competing Views on Current Changes in Family Life

Marriage and Divorce: A Statistical Overview

Major Causes of Divorce in the GCC Countries

The Major Effects of Divorce

Some Policy Recommendations

Concluding Comments

References

6 Couple and Family Dynamics and Escalations in Violence

Introduction

Defining Family Violence

Prevalence of Violence in the Family

The History of Family Violence

Understanding the Dynamics

Treatment Issues

Policy Implications

Concluding Comments

References

7 Loving Diversity

Introduction

The Significance of Intercultural Couple Relationships

Cultural Differences and Couple Relationships

Practice and Policy Implications

Conclusion

References

8 Growing Older in a Changing World

Introduction

Population Ageing

Social Diversity and the Lived Experience of Later Life

Family and Social Relations in Later Life

Public Policy and Later Life

References

Part II: Parenthood, Parenting and Family Life

9 The Transition to Parenthood

Introduction

The Drivers of Change

Becoming a Parent

Supporting Couple Relationships During the Transition to Parenthood

Policy Implications

References

10 Why Fewer Babies? Understanding and Responding to Low Fertility in Europe

Introduction

Low Fertility, Delayed Motherhood and Childlessness

The Main Drivers of Low Fertility

New Explanations for Low Fertility

The Need for Family-Friendly Policies

Looking into the Future

References

11 Mothers, Fathers, Families and Child Development

Introduction

Attachment Theory Revisited

Towards an Ecological Perspective in Understanding Child Development

The Microsystem

The Mesosystem

Implications for Policy and Practice

References

12 Raising Children in Single-Parent Families

Introduction

Children in Single-Parent Families

The Longitudinal Study of Australian Children

Characteristics of Single-Mother Families

The Parenting and Mental Health of Single Mothers

Maternal Exposure to Parenting and Mental Health Risk Factors

Parenting and Mental Health of Single and Couple Mothers

Discussion

Strengths and Limitations

Policy Implications

Concluding Comments

References

13 Sexual Orientation, Marriage and Parenthood

Introduction

Law and Policy in Global Perspective

Research on Lesbian and Gay Parents and Their Children

Conclusions and Policy Implications

References

14 Parenting Teenagers

Introduction

The Development of Autonomy in Adolescence

Conflict and the Generation Gap

Parenting Styles and Adolescent Development

Culture and Ethnicity

Divorce and Changing Families

Parenting Teenagers: Implications for Policy and Practice

References

15 Working Families

Introduction

Tomorrow’s World

Medieval Labour

Modern Serfdom

The Winds of Change

Who Cares About Working Families?

Who Cares in Working Families?

Concluding Comments

Implications for Policy and Practice

References

16 Children and Divorce in World Perspective

Introduction

The Worldwide Increase in Divorce

Studies of Divorce and Children’s Wellbeing

Theoretical Issues

Conclusion

References

Part III: Global Impacts on Family Life

17 Globalisation and Family Life

Introduction

Globalisation and Family Life

The Impact of Globalisation on Family Life

Future Research and Policy Directives

References

18 The Internet and Its Implications for Children, Parents and Family Relationships

Introduction

A Brief History of the Internet

Is the Internet Liberating or Debilitating?

Children’s and Adolescents’ Internet Usage

The Digital Divide

Potential Risks to Young People

Protective Factors and Policy Implications

References

19 Immigrant Families Coming to the West

Introduction

The Structure of Immigrant Families

From Labour Migration to Family Reunification

Policy Implications

Concluding Comment

References

20 The ‘Quiet Migration’

Introduction

Inter-Country Adoption of Children as a Global Phenomenon

Studies of Outcomes in ICA

Early Deprivation and ICA: Lessons from the Research on Romanian ‘Orphans’ Adopted Abroad

The Experiences of Families Who Adopted Romanian Children

Limitations of the Studies of Romanian Children Adopted Abroad

Implications for Policy and Practice

References

21 Families Living on the Margin in Affluent Societies

Introduction

Families with Higher Risks of Exposure to Poverty

Definitions of Poverty

A Conceptual Framework for Understanding Families Living in Poverty

The Effect of Poverty on Children and Their Parents

The Need for Early Intervention

The Importance of a Nurturing Family Environment for Children

Implications for Policy

Conclusion

References

22 Mate Selection and Marriage Stability in the Maghreb

Introduction

The Changing Social and Cultural Context in the Maghreb and Algeria

Theories of Mate Selection

Choice Patterns, Places of Encounter and Their Relation to Family Stability

Traditional Concepts of Prayer

Parental Disapproval of Partner Choice

Protective Factors

Lifestyle and Marriage Stability

Patterns of Family Stability in the Maghreb

Implications for the Future of Maghreb Families

References

23 Demographic Change and Its Impact on Relationships in Japan and East Asia

Introduction

Demographic Change in Japan, Korea and Taiwan

Parent–Child Relationships

Romantic Relationships: The Marriage Market

Elderly Parent–Adult Child Relationships

Policy Implications

Conclusion

References

24 I Say a Little Prayer for You

Introduction

The Practice of Prayer

Research Design

Findings

Implications for Practice and Social Policy

Limitations and Cautions

Concluding Comments

References

Part IV: Looking to the Future: The Role of States in Supporting Families

25 Why Should States Have an Interest in Making Families Stronger?

Introduction

Definitions of Family

The Role of the State

State Intervention

Conclusions and Policy Recommendations

References

26 Making a Global Case for Family Policy

Introduction

Definitions of Family Policy and the Family Impact Lens

What Contributions Do Families Make to Society?

Applying the Family Impact Lens to Policymaking

Policy Implications: Looking Ahead

References

27 Partnership, Parenting and Protecting Children’s Best Interests

Introduction

Changing Couple and Family Relationships

Parenthood, Parenting and Family Life

Global Impacts on Family Life

The Role of States in Supporting Families

Looking to the Future

References

Index

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Contemporary issues in family studies : global perspectives on partnerships, parenting and support in a changing world / edited by Angela Abela and Janet Walker.        pages cm    Includes bibliographical references and index.

    ISBN 978-1-119-97103-0 (cloth)1. Families. 2. Marriage. 3. Parenting. I. Abela, Angela. II. Walker, Janet (Janet A.)    HQ503.C657 2013    306.85–dc23

2013020786

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

Cover image: Images from Shutterstock (© Kudryashka / © Nowik Sylwia / © vectorgirl / © Imagewell / © red rose)Cover design by Richard Boxall Design Associates

To all our families

List of Figures

List of Tables

Preface

The inspiration for this book came from a colloquium held on the Mediterranean island of Malta in 2009. The Cana Movement, a leading NGO which has been providing services to Maltese families for over fifty years, invited one of us, Angela Abela, to assist in the organisation of a colloquium on supporting families in a changing world. Dr Anna Maria Vella, the then President of the Cana Movement, invited a group of leading scholars from around the world to meet at the magnificent Presidential Palace in Valletta for two days in October 2009 to debate global changes in marriage and family life and consider the kinds of supports that are necessary to buttress strong, stable couple relationships and strengthen parenting practices.

The colloquium was held under the patronage of His Excellency the President of the Republic of Malta, Dr George Abela, and under the auspices of the Standing Committee on Social Affairs of the Maltese Parliament. It was made possible by the financial support of the Doha International Institute for Family Studies and Development (DIIFSD). The DIIFSD was established in 2006 to promote and strengthen the family, and it ­provides a platform for networking opportunities between international scholars, practitioners and organisations working on issues related to the protection of families.

During the colloquium, the participants agreed with Angela Abela’s suggestion that the papers presented should be collated in a book which would discuss contemporary issues and global changes impacting on family life across the world. Dr Vella and Dr Richard Wilkins, the then Executive Director of DIIFSD, both of whom had attended and contributed to the colloquium, readily endorsed the idea. Angela Abela took responsibility for developing the proposal and invited one of the key speakers, Janet Walker, to join her as co-editor.

The Contributors

Over the following months, in consultation with the colloquium participants, we invited a range of other scholars from different cultures and a variety of disciplines to contribute to a book which would take a truly global perspective. We were delighted with the overwhelmingly positive response from the colleagues we invited to contribute to the book and with the glowing endorsement by other leading scholars of the book as a whole. We were extremely pleased when Wiley Blackwell accepted the ­proposed book for publication.

The contributors to this book live and work in various countries around the world, and in different cultural contexts. As a consequence, they have access to research studies that are not available in the English language and can offer perspectives on major issues which reflect specific cultural traditions and values: this, we hope, is one of the key strengths of the book. The messages emerging from this book are, in fact, remarkably consistent regarding the importance of strong, stable families for the development and maintenance of strong, stable societies. The contributors also highlight the challenges and opportunities associated with increasing choice in family structures and the need to understand the impacts of diversity and globalisation on partnerships and parenting.

About the Book

The book captures the most significant changes in partnerships, parenting and family life in the second decade of the twenty-first century, drawing on the most recent research findings about the impact of global demographic, economic, social and ­cultural changes. Within the chapters are examples and vignettes of how families are responding to change, and descriptions of good practice and constructive approaches to family policy in many different parts of Europe, North America, North Africa, the Middle East, the Far East, Australia and New Zealand. We believe that these contribute to the richness of the content and significantly extend our understanding of ­similarities and differences within and between nations. The authors include recommendations for ways in which policymakers and practitioners can support children, adults, and all kinds of families, to build and maintain strong, stable personal and intimate relationships across the life course.

The book contains twenty-seven chapters, grouped into four separate sections. After our introductory chapter, Part I explores changing couple and family ­relationships; Part II focuses on parenthood, parenting and family life; Part III examines global impacts on family life; and Part IV looks to the future and ­considers the role of governments in supporting families. An introduction at the ­beginning of each of these parts highlights the key issues addressed in the chapters that follow.

We believe that this book presents a unique perspective on contemporary issues that are relevant to families in all parts of the globe, and that it will make a significant contribution to our understanding of and thinking about the importance of couple relationships and family life in the modern world. Froma Walsh has remarked that ‘[t]he changing landscape of family life in a turbulent world has become “the new normal”’.1 It is timely, therefore, to reflect on the extent and level of changes in different societies and on what they mean for current and future generations.

Acknowledgements

We wish to offer our heartfelt thanks to Dr Vella and the Cana Movement for ­providing the impetus for the writing of this book. We would also like to thank His Excellency the President of the Republic of Malta and the Social Affairs Committee in Parliament for their interest, support and encouragement in helping us to achieve this.

We are extremely grateful to DIIFSD for its generous financial contribution towards our preparation of the book for publication. Our special thanks go to: Dato Fatima Saad, who was until December 2012 Director of Implementation and Social Research at DIIFSD, and who gave us her total support throughout the time it has taken us to complete the book; Dr Marya Reed, Director of Operations, who offered her support in the later stages of the book; and H. E. Noor Al-Malki Al-Jehani, Executive Director of DIIFSD. But above all, we pay tribute to the late Dr Richard Wilkins. As Executive Director of DIIFSD until early 2012, he was an unswerving and constant supporter of our venture, and it was with great sadness that we learned of his sudden and unexpected death in November 2012. Dr Wilkins had dedicated his life to championing and protecting families around the world. As a law professor, he had established the World Family Policy Centre at Brigham Young University and was a staunch advocate of traditional family values. Although he was opposed to many of the changes ­taking place in marriage and family life in recent decades, Dr Wilkins nevertheless ­acknowledged the importance of debate and of ensuring that research could inform our understanding of these changes. We trust that this book will be a fitting tribute to his life’s work.

A special thank you goes to the Malta Community Chest Fund, a distinguished charitable institution chaired by His Excellency the President of Malta, for its generous financial support in the latter stages of the preparation of this publication. Its support highlights the importance the Maltese accord to families, and the President of Malta’s determination to put family life at the centre of his presidency. We are very grateful for this support.

This book would not exist without the contributions of all the authors. They have been a pleasure to work with, and we trust that those who were fortunate enough to participate in the 2009 colloquium in Malta will consider this to be an exciting output. We very much hope that the contributors to the book will enjoy reading all the chapters. We offer our thanks to all of them.

During the preparation of the book we were fortunate to be able to call on the expertise of several colleagues. We have been helped enormously by the unstinting support of Jane Tilbrook, Janet Walker’s personal assistant at Newcastle University, who made sure that all the elements of the book’s preparation were managed and imple­mented efficiently and effectively, liaised with authors and staff at ­Wiley Blackwell and, in the latter stages, prepared the whole manuscript for publication. Claire Casha, Angela Abela’s research officer at the University of Malta, provided support in Malta, and Michael Ayton, our excellent copy editor, worked tirelessly to ensure that our book is acceptable and intelligible to a wide range of readers. In particular, Michael’s careful attention to detail was indispensable to authors whose first language is not English. Our final task was to undertake the indexing, and we were fortunate to secure the professional services of Ingrid Lock. To all four we offer our very sincere thanks for making sure the book has become a reality.

Finally, we would like to offer our very sincere thanks to the team at Wiley Blackwell, Darren Reed, Karen Shield and Olivia Evans, who have been enthusiastic and committed to this project, extremely patient when timelines have slipped, and consistently supportive of our endeavours. We very much hope that this will be a worthy addition to their portfolio.

Angela AbelaDepartment of Family StudiesUniversity of Malta

Janet WalkerInstitute of Health and SocietyNewcastle University, UK

1 Walsh, F. (ed.) (2012) Normal Family Process: Growing Diversity and Complexity, 4th edn (New York: Guilford).

Contributors’ Biographies

Professor Angela Abela is Head of the Family Studies Department at the University of Malta. She is a clinical psychologist and a UKCP-registered family therapist and supervisor. Angela is a consultant in the area of children and families for the Maltese government. Her research interests are in the area of children in out-of-home care, the relationship between adolescents and their parents, families living in poverty, and marital and couple relationships. She also has a long-standing research interest in how culture shapes relationship behaviour within the family. On an international level, she is frequently engaged as an expert of the Council of Europe. She has published widely in the area of children and families and supervision practice and is an associate editor of Clinical Child Psychology and Psychiatry and an international advisory editor of Contemporary Family Therapy.Paul R. Amato is Arnold and Bette Hoffman Professor of Family Sociology and Demography at Pennsylvania State University, USA. His research interests include the causes and consequences of divorce, marriage and marital quality, and psychological wellbeing over the life course. He has received the Distinguished Career Award from the Family Section of the American Sociological Association, the Stanley Cohen Distinguished Research Award from the American Association of Family and Conciliation Courts, the Ernest Burgess Distinguished Career Award from the National Council on Family Relations, and the Distinction in the Social Sciences Award from Pennsylvania State University.Layachi Anser is Professor of Sociology at Qatar University, Doha. He has taught and conducted research for over twenty years, covering various topics relating to North African and Middle Eastern societies, including economic development and political participation, civil society and social movements, family, marriage and ­gender. He has published a number of books and numerous journal articles in his area of interest.Sabah Ayachi is a sociologist specialising in family studies and Head of the Laboratory of Family, Development, Prevention Delinquency and Criminality, University of Algiers, Algeria. In 2011, she founded a new academic BA entitled ‘Sociology of family and childhood’. She has published many papers relating to youth, family and social change. She is co-author of a book on sociology (1998). She is a member of the European Early Childhood Education Research Association and of the Algerian National Family and Woman’s Condition’s Council.Dr Eva Bernhardt is Professor Emerita of Demography, Stockholm University, Sweden. She specialises in the analysis of changing family dynamics in contemporary Sweden. Her main research area is family demography, with an emphasis on the intersection between work and family life, in particular from a gender perspective.Karen Bogenschneider is Rothermel Bascom Professor of Human Ecology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a Family Policy Specialist at the University of Wisconsin-Extension, USA. She directs the Wisconsin Family Impact Seminars and the Policy Institute for Family Impact Seminars. Her book Family Policy Matters: How Policymaking Affects Families and What Professionals Can Do is in its third edition. She co-authored, with Thomas Corbett, Evidence-Based Policymaking: Insights from Policy-minded Researchers and Research-minded Policymakers. She was invited to write the family policy decade review in 2000 and 2010 for the Journal of Marriage and Family. She has received the Extension Specialist Lifetime Achievement Award and was named a fellow of the National Council on Family Relations. She has received several awards for faculty excellence, land grant scholarship, and quality outreach.Professor John Bond is Strategic Research Advisor at the Institute of Health and Society at Newcastle University, UK. He trained as a sociologist and has worked since 1970 as a social gerontologist and applied health researcher. He was co-editor of three editions of the textbook Ageing in Society in 1990, 1993 and 2007. He is also author of Quality of Life and Older People (2004), with Lynne Corner, and The Social World of Older People (2009), with Christina Victor and Sasha Scambler. He has also written widely on psychosocial aspects of dementia and social support.Lisa M. Boyd is a graduate student in Sociology and Demography at Pennsylvania State University, USA. Her research interests include romantic and sexual behaviour across the life course, biosocial and developmental determinants of relationship outcomes, interpersonal processes in families, marriage, and fertility decision-making. Her Masters thesis, ‘Romantic and Sexual Experiences in Adolescence and Later Relationship Instability: How Do Family of Origin Factors Inform the Relationship Life Course?’, looks at family structure and parent-child closeness as predictors of sexual and romantic outcomes in adolescence and early adulthood.Simon B. Burnett is the Programme Manager of Working Families, the UK’s leading work–life balance organisation. He is responsible for the Happy Homes, Productive Workplaces project, investigating the links between work engagement and relationship quality. Prior to this he focused on the effects of flexible working practices on the physiological and psychological health of working fathers. He is the author of a research monograph detailing the political and organisation use of happiness, and also lead- and co-author of numerous peer-reviewed articles on health and wellbeing at work, flexibility and work–life balance.Dr John Coleman is a clinical and developmental psychologist and founder of the Trust for the Study of Adolescence in the UK. He has been a Policy Advisor at the Department of Health in England and is currently a Senior Research Fellow at the Department of Education at the University of Oxford. He has an international reputation for his work on adolescence. His best-known book is The Nature of Adolescence (Routledge, 2011), now in its fourth edition. He has a particular interest in parenting and has written widely on this topic. In 2001, he was awarded an OBE for his services to young people.Cary Cooper is Distinguished Professor of Organisational Psychology and Health at Lancaster University, UK. He is the author/editor of over 120 books (on occupational stress, women at work and industrial and organisational psychology), has ­written over 400 scholarly articles for academic journals, and is a frequent contributor to national newspapers, TV and radio. He is currently Founding Editor of the Journal of Organisational Behaviour and Editor-in-Chief of the medical journal Stress & Health. He is a Fellow of the British Psychological Society, the Royal Society of Arts, the Royal Society of Medicine, the Royal Society of Public Health and the British Academy of Management, and Chair of the Academy of Social Sciences.Dr Fabrizio D’Esposito is a Research Fellow at the Parenting Research Centre, Melbourne, Australia with an honorary position at the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute. He has a PhD in Pharmacy and five years of experience in medical and ­clinical research. In recent years he has completed retraining in public health. His research interests include the study of the social determinants of physical and socio-emotional wellbeing in children and families from disadvantaged backgrounds, and the utilisation of evidence-based information and practice in parenting and family support programmes.Dr Ruth Farrugia is an advocate and Senior Lecturer at the University of Malta. She lectures and researches in family law, child law and human rights. In Malta, she has served as consultant on family law and child law to the deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Social Policy, the Minister for Family and Social Solidarity, the Social Affairs Committee in Parliament, and the Commissioner for Children. She is an expert to the PRMIII Experts Group of the European Commission and the Child Access to Justice and Violence against Children programmes of the Council of Europe, country expert with the Comparative European Family Law Commission, the Common Core in Family Law Group and the Euro-Med Human Rights Group, and a Vice-President of the International Academy of Jurisprudence of the Family. She has published widely in the field of family law, child law and human rights.Frank D. Fincham obtained a doctoral degree in social psychology while a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University. He currently holds the Eminent Scholar Chair in Human Sciences, and is Director of the Family Institute at Florida State University, USA. He is the author of over 250 publications and his research has been widely recognised by numerous awards, including the Berscheid-Hatfield Award for ‘sustained, substantial, and distinguished contributions to the field of personal relationships’ from the International Network on Personal Relationships, and the President’s Award for ‘distinguished contributions to psychological knowledge’ from the British Psychological Society. A Fellow of five different professional societies, he has been listed among the top 25 psychologists in the world in terms of impact (defined by number of citations per paper).Dr W. Kim Halford is Professor of Clinical Psychology at the University of Queensland, Australia, and earned his doctorate at La Trobe University. Prior to that he was Professor of Clinical Psychology at Griffith University, and before that he held a joint appointment as Chief Psychologist of the Royal Brisbane Hospital and as a faculty member of the Department of Psychiatry of the University of Queensland. He has published five books and over 150 articles, primarily focused on couple therapy and couple relationship education. He works with couples adjusting to major life ­challenges, including developing committed relationships, coping with chronic health problems in a partner, becoming a parent, forming a stepfamily, negotiating co-­parenting after separation, and living in intercultural couple relationships.Lydia N. Hayes is a graduate student in the Sociology Programme at Pennsylvania State University, USA. Her research interests include romantic relationships, gender, and union formation. Her Masters thesis was entitled ‘The Role of Facebook in the Formation of Romantic Relationships among College Students’.Danika N. Hiew is a PhD candidate at the School of Psychology at the University of Queensland, Australia, where she graduated with the degree of Bachelor of Psychological Science with First Class Honours and as Valedictorian. She is a ­registered psychologist who has worked with couples and individuals coping with a variety of psychological and physical health conditions and family and couple relationship difficulties. As part of her PhD research, she has interviewed and conducted relationship assessments with over 100 Chinese, European and intercultural Chinese-European couples.Dr Shuang Liu is Senior Lecturer in Communication at the School of Journalism and Communication at the University of Queensland, Australia. She obtained her PhD in communication from Hong Kong Baptist University, and has been researching in the areas of cross-cultural psychology, intercultural communication and intergroup relations. Her books, book chapters and refereed papers on culture and communication have been published in North America, Europe, Australia and Asia.Nina Lucas (MPH) is a Research Officer at the Parenting Research Centre, Melbourne, Australia, with honorary/visiting positions at the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute and the National Centre for Epidemiology and Population Health at the Australian National University. Her work primarily involves analysis of the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children, and she has a particular interest in the wellbeing of parents and children in separated families.Ubaldo Martínez Veiga is Professor of Anthropology at the Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia, Spain. He obtained doctorates at the universities of Rome and Madrid before teaching at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid. He was a Fulbright Scholar at Columbia University (USA) and has been Visiting Professor at Johns Hopkins and Monash Universities, the London School of Economics, and, most recently, La Trobe University, Australia. He has authored more than 15 books on economic and ecological anthropology, labour problems, racism and immigration. His most recent research has focused on African migrants to Spain.Melinda Mills is Professor of Sociology at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands, and is Editor-in-Chief of the European Sociological Review. Her research focuses on family formation, fertility and partnerships, the life course, ­flexible work arrangements, globalisation and event history methods. She currently leads a large-scale sociogenetics project linking sociological and genetic research on the family.Dr Gabriela Misca is a developmental psychologist and Senior Lecturer in Psychology at the Institute of Health and Society at the University of Worcester, UK where she is also director of the MSc in Applied Psychology and of the BSc in Developmental Psychology pathway. After gaining degrees in psychology and social work at Babes-Bolyai University in Romania, she undertook her doctoral research at Newcastle University, UK in child and adolescent development. Her research interest is within the applied developmental psychology field. She has researched and taught in the interdisciplinary fields of child and adolescent development and their interface with social policy and practice. Her current research is in the specialist areas of resilience in child abuse and neglect, attachment and non-parental childcare, inter-country adoption and same-gender parenting.Professor Jan M. Nicholson is the Research Director of the Parenting Research Centre, Melbourne, Australia, with Adjunct/Honorary positions at the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute and Queensland University of Technology. A psychologist by background, with post-doctoral public health training, she has expertise in parenting and family influences on child development, with a particular interest in the influences of social inequalities and families’ work and community environments. She is the Design Team Leader for parenting and family functioning in the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children, a national study tracking the health and development of two cohorts of 5000 children.Dr Turid Noack is Senior Researcher at the research department at Statistics Norway. Her main focus of research has been on fertility, family formation and dissolution, and the relationship between family behaviour and family policies. Her current work involves research on grandparenthood, including on grandparents in both biological and step-grandparent relationships.Charlotte J. Patterson is Professor of Psychology and Director of the interdisciplinary programme on Women, Gender and Sexuality at the University of Virginia, USA. Her interests focus on sexual orientation, human development and family lives. Best-known for her work on children of lesbian and gay parents, she recently ­coedited, with Anthony R. D’Augelli, the Handbook of Psychology and Sexual Orientation (Oxford University Press, 2013).Dr Jan Pryor retired recently as Director of the McKenzie Centre for the Study of Families at Victoria University, Wellington, New Zealand. She is currently an Honorary Research Fellow in the School of Psychology at Auckland University and an Adjunct Professor at Victoria University. Her research includes the impact of separation and divorce on children and adults, and the dynamics of stepfamilies and stepfamily formation. She co-authored the book Children in Changing Families: Life After Parental Separation with Bryan Rodgers, and edited the International Handbook of Stepfamilies. She is currently writing a textbook on stepfamilies for family studies students in the USA.James M. Raymo is a Professor in the Department of Sociology and the Center for Demography and Ecology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA. He received his doctoral degree from the University of Michigan. Much of his research has focused on recent changes in patterns of family formation and socioeconomic differences in family behaviour, especially in Japan. In other work, he has examined life course influences on work, health and family outcomes at older ages in Japan and the USA. This work has appeared in journals such as Demography, American Sociological Review, Journal of Marriage and Family, and the Journal of Gerontology: Social Psychology and Social Sciences.Marie-Cécile Renoux is the delegate of ATD Quart Monde to the European Union. A permanent volunteer with ATD Quart Monde since 1977, she has been involved in several actions supporting families in situations of extreme poverty in France. From 1999 to 2004, she was the delegate on family-related questions in ATD Quart Monde. As part of this role, she was a member of the committee of experts in the European Council. She is the author of Réussir la Protection de l’Enfance avec les Familles en Precarité.Rachel G. Riskind, MA, is a doctoral candidate in psychology at the University of Virginia, USA. Her research deals with sexual orientation and human development, focusing on adolescence and young adulthood. She has studied adolescent girls’ ­sexual and reproductive health, predictors of parenthood, and social climates surrounding members of sexual minority groups.Jo Smith has been a Research Assistant in the Institute of Health and Society at the University of Worcester, UK. She is contributing to a research project on same-gender couples choosing parenthood through adoption and fostering. Her research interests are in child development, including clinical applications such as mental health. She is currently conducting a study of dementia and carer stress.Jonathan Swan is Policy and Research Officer for Working Families in the UK. He has researched and written on a wide range of work–life integration issues, including fathers and work, flexible working in senior roles, productivity and performance, organisational culture and active ageing. He is responsible for the annual work–life balance benchmark for organisations and the Time, Health and the Family series of reports.Maria Letizia Tanturri is Assistant Professor in Demography at the University of Padua, Italy. She has undertaken research in the area of reproductive behaviour, focusing on the link between gender roles, time-use and fertility, and on childlessness. Her research ­interests cover a variety of fields in demography, ranging from the characteristics of the foreign presence in Italy to the economic condition of the elderly in Europe. She has published on these topics in various international journals, including Population and Development Review, European Journal of Population, Demographic Research, Population and Feminist Economics. She is involved in a number of national and international research projects on reproductive behaviour and family change.Samantha L. Tornello, MA, is a doctoral student in psychology at the University of Virginia, USA. Her research interests include parenting, couple functioning, and child development in the context of family systems, with an emphasis on families headed by members of sexual minorities. She has also conducted research on adolescent girls’ sexual and reproductive health.Justine van Lawick is a clinical psychologist and family therapist, and Director of Training at the Lorentzhuis Centre for Systemic Therapy, Training and Consultation in Haarlem, the Netherlands. She is a senior trainer in the Netherlands and abroad. Her areas of interest focus on addressing violent behaviour and demonisation in couples, couple groups and families, with compassion for all involved family members and without blaming. Children are central to her work, while another area of interest is working with marginalised families. She has published numerous articles and is co-author with Martine Groen of Intimate Warfare: Regarding the Fragility of Family Relations (Karnac Books, 2009).Janet Walker is Emeritus Professor of Family Policy in the Institute of Health and Society at Newcastle University, UK. She studied social sciences and has worked as a probation officer, family therapist and family mediator. She was the Director of four research centres, retiring as Director of Newcastle Centre for Family Studies in 2006. She has led over 50 studies in the fields of marriage, divorce, parenting, youth justice, family law and family communication, and has published widely. She has been expert advisor to the Council of Europe and has served on several UK government committees. She has received the Stanley Cohen Distinguished Research Award, USA, is an Academician of the Academy of Learned Society of Social Sciences, and was awarded an OBE in 2010 for her work on the UK government’s Social Security Advisory Committee.Dr Elizabeth M. Westrupp is a Research Fellow and a registered Clinical Psychologist at the Parenting Research Centre, Melbourne, Australia and an Honorary Fellow at the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute. She has experience with clinical and ­population-level longitudinal research, and with randomised control trials of parenting interventions across both the hospital and community settings. Her primary research interest is in exploring models of differential susceptibility, by investigating the effects of biological, and modifiable social and environmental, determinants on long-term developmental outcomes of children and families.Monica T. Whitty is Professor of Contemporary Media in the Department of Media and Communication at the University of Leicester, UK. She is the first author of Cyberspace Romance: The Psychology of Online Relationships with Adrian Carr, and of Truth, Lies and Trust on the Internet with Adam Joinson. She has published widely on the following topics: the online dating romance scam, cyber-relationships, internet infidelity, online identity, online deception, cyber-stalking, cyber-ethics, internet surveillance in the workplace, and taboos in video games.Dr Kenneth Aarskaug Wiik, is a Senior Researcher in the research department at Statistics Norway. His main research area is in family demography, including socio-economic inequalities in union formation and relationship behaviour, with particular emphasis on differences between marriage and cohabitation.

Part I

Changing Couple and Family Relationships

The chapters in the first part of this book explore the changes taking place in couple and family relationships. The first four chapters focus on marriage. For centuries, marriage has signified a committed couple relationship via a legal contract which binds partners together, ostensibly for life. Marriage is influenced by a range of factors, however, including the norms and laws of each society, and by religious beliefs. The institution of marriage, like all social institutions in a given society, is continually adapting to internal and external changes. Over the last fifty years, however, these changes have been extensive; the more traditional pathways to getting married are being eroded and are giving way to a range of options for making, breaking and remaking couple relationships. It is these options which are explored in the chapters which follow.

One option is cohabitation. In the first chapter of this section, Chapter 2, Turid Noack, Eva Bernhardt and Kenneth Aarskaug Wiik explore the development of cohabiting relationships since 1800 and examine the current rise, and variation, in cohabitation patterns across the Western world. They consider different types of cohabitation in different countries and point out that while cohabitation as a partnership type of choice has become commonplace in the Nordic countries and France, the number of those cohabiting in eastern and southern Europe is low. Nevertheless, ­living together in an intimate couple relationship without being married is becoming increasingly acceptable in many countries, although statutory regulation of cohabitation is not well-developed, except in countries with high cohabitation rates. The extent to which cohabitation is replacing marriage is debatable, however, particularly since the symbolic importance of marriage remains high. The authors conclude that it is still reasonable to consider marriage and cohabitation as distinct aspects of ­partnership formation.

Emerging forms of marriage and couple relationships are explored further in Chapter 3. Paul Amato and Lydia Hayes describe a form of marriage in the USA that they term ‘alone together’ marriages, and ‘living apart together’ (LAT) relationships, which are more common in Europe. Drawing on cross-sectional data sets, the authors show how marriage in the USA has changed, and use measures of happiness and ­interaction to create a typology of marriages. They present vignettes to illustrate this typology.

Amato and Hayes point to a shift in the USA from companionate to individualistic marriages, which are successful only insofar as they continue to meet each partner’s innermost psychological needs and deepest wishes. They argue that the rise in alone together marriages can be seen as indicating a natural adaptation to and extension of the growing individualism of American society. By contrast, in LAT relationships, unmarried partners in an intimate relationship maintain dual households. Data about LATs are relatively sparse, but evidence suggests that while most LAT relationships are transitory, others are long-lasting, and a deliberate alternative to marital and non-marital cohabitation. Amato and Hayes suggest that long-term LATs face different challenges and may be particularly fragile when problems occur in the relationship.

The discussion of fragility in couple relationships is developed by Jan Pryor in her review of marriage and divorce in the Western world (Chapter 4). In order to understand the rapid increase in divorce in the last half of the twentieth century, she considers the role of religion, individualism, connectedness, and the changing characteristics of marriage. She argues that connectedness and commitment have not weakened in the Western world. She highlights the distress which accompanies divorce, and argues for a more holistic view of intimate relationships in the twenty-first century and more inclusive approaches for promoting wellbeing and stability in couple relationships. Within this context, she examines different levels of commitment in relationship ­wellbeing and makes a case for strengthening relational commitment.

Although high rates of divorce have been associated with the USA and countries in Northern Europe, divorce is having an increasing impact across the globe. Layachi Anser (Chapter 6) focuses on the challenge posed by divorce in Gulf societies, enabling us to understand changes in marriage and divorce in the Arab world. Muslim societies have always upheld the sanctity of marriage and divorce is regarded as a last resort in a troubled relationship. Nevertheless, the rapid economic and global transformations which have made the Gulf region the richest in the world have had far-reaching impacts on family life, despite the existence of very strong kinship ties. Anser suggests that a complex interaction between internal and external factors has resulted in increasing opportunities being open to women while, at the same time, mate selection and marriage are still strongly influenced by kinship and tribal frameworks. The chapter provides a powerful illustration of the tensions and contradictions which emerge as global changes compete with long-revered traditional values and processes.

The next three chapters in Part I examine three different aspects of family life which have global relevance. The first (Chapter 6) looks at couple and family dynamics in respect of family violence; the second (Chapter 7) examines the growing significance of intercultural couple relationships; and the third (Chapter 8) considers the challenges and opportunities in family life as people grow older.

Family violence has received increasing attention over the last fifty years. In her chapter, Justine van Lawick discusses different perspectives on family violence, considers the evidence relating to both male and female violence, and describes innovative approaches to treatment. She asserts that it is possible to link escalations in violence to the frustrations in human relationships and stress factors in day-to-day family life, and argues that unless these complex dynamics are fully understood treatment ­programmes will be ineffective. Since family violence is a universal phenomenon, in van Lawick’s view contextualisation is necessary to avoid simplistic perspectives on and approaches to a very serious issue in couple relationships.

Danika Hiew, Kim Halford and Shuang Liu examine the complexities of intercultural couple relationships, looking specifically at relationships between spouses of European and Chinese ancestry. Although intercultural partnerships were rare in the past, opportunities today to form relationships across cultural divides are growing. Using vignettes, the authors examine communication between a partner brought up in an individualistic culture and a partner brought up in a collectivist culture. This insightful overview emphasises the powerful role of culture in shaping expectations of relationships, and introduces the innovative Yin and Yang relationship measure. Importantly, this chapter reminds us of the tendency to view one’s own culture’s way of doing things as necessarily right and of the need to transcend any one single ­cultural tradition when developing policies and programmes to support couple relationships in a changing world.

In the final chapter in this section, John Bond also reminds us of the dangers of adopting cultural stereotypes stemming from a Westernised view of family life. He reviews the impact of global changes as perceived by older people. Life expectancy is increasing worldwide, although there are clear regional variations. Societal attitudes to ageing shape both the lived experience of growing older and the predominant discourse, which sees ageing as either an opportunity or a problem. Bond highlights ways in which the changes in couple relationships and family life discussed in earlier chapters will impact on the availability of family support in later life, but he questions whether intergenerational ties are any weaker than previously, and argues that reciprocity in families is as strong as it has ever been. This optimistic perspective nevertheless signals the important role of the state in preparing people for later life and ensuring that older people can live independently within community and family networks.

In all these chapters, cultural context emerges as a key factor influencing the ways in which people are responding to changes in relationships and living arrangements. References to the Second Demographic Transition are made in several chapters throughout the book as a means of contextualising the ideological shifts towards individualism in modern societies.

1

Global Changes in Marriage, Parenting and Family Life

An Overview

ANGELA ABELA AND JANET WALKER

Introduction

We live in a time of unprecedented diversity in household living arrangements, and of extensive social, cultural and economic change, both of which have far-reaching implications for marriage, parenting and family life in the twenty-first century. While families across the globe have always taken a variety of forms, certain functions, such as the nurture of children and care of family members, are universal. The concept of family denotes stability, and most societies have placed a high value on the institution of ­marriage as providing the best environment in which to bring up children.