Multidimensional Developmental Pathways: A Proposal to Facilitate the Conceptualisation of ‘Family Diversity’

1986 ◽  
Vol 34 (3) ◽  
pp. 590-610 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jon Bernardes
Keyword(s):  
Life Course ◽  
Family Life ◽  
Developmental Pathways ◽  
Developmental Pathway ◽  
Central Type ◽  
Family Diversity ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
The Family ◽  
The Rich ◽  
The Life Course

This analysis takes Elder's work on the life-course as a starting point. Two proposals are made: (1) That the sociological use of the concept of ‘the family’ should be restricted to indicate only the occurrence of everyday usage; (2) That the notion of the ‘family life-course’ be replaced by the notion of individual life-courses coinciding upon developmental pathways. In this way the idea of a central type of ‘the family’ is made redundant and we are required, instead, to discover when and why participants refer to a particular developmental pathway as being ‘a family’. This approach not only facilitates the conceptualisation ‘family diversity’ but also compels researchers to engage the rich complexity of everyday life.

Family policies and family life course complexity across 20th-century Europe

2019 ◽  
Vol 30 (3) ◽  
pp. 320-338 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zachary Van Winkle
Keyword(s):  
Life Course ◽  
20Th Century ◽  
Family Life ◽  
Family Policy ◽  
Family Formation ◽  
Empirical Studies ◽  
Family Policies ◽  
The Family ◽  
Life Courses ◽  
The Life Course

The family policy landscape changed dramatically across and within European societies during the 20th century. At the same time, family life courses have become more complex, unstable and unpredictable. However, there are no empirical studies that attempt to link changes in family policies with increasing family life course complexity. In this study, I address two research questions: (1) What is the association between family policies and family life course complexity? and (2) Do these associations vary by the life course stage at which individuals experience family policies? Retrospective data from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe are used to construct the family life courses of individuals from the age of 15 to 50, born between 1924 and 1956, from 15 European countries. I use metrics developed in sequence analysis that incorporate life course transitions and unpredictability to measure the complexity of family formation. Annual policy information from 1924 to 2008 for each country are combined to generate cohort indices for three policy dimensions: familization, individualization and liberalization. These cohort metrics express the policy experiences of individuals over the course of their lives, rather than at a specific historical time point. I find that while familization is associated with less complex life courses, individualization is related to higher levels of complexity. Furthermore, my results indicate that the levels individualization experienced early and later in the life course are linked most strongly with complexity. I conclude that family policy reforms may partially account for increasing life course instability and unpredictability across Europe.

Intergenerational Similarity of Religiosity Over the Family Life Course

2017 ◽  
Vol 40 (6) ◽  
pp. 580-596 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joohong Min ◽  
Merril Silverstein ◽  
Tara L. Gruenewald
Keyword(s):  
Life Course ◽  
Family Life ◽  
Growth Mixture ◽  
Individuation Process ◽  
The Family ◽  
Group Variation ◽  
Life Course Framework ◽  
Similar Class ◽  
The Life Course ◽  
Parent Child

Objectives: Research consistently shows that parents influence children’s religiosity. However, few studies acknowledge that there is within-group variation in the intergenerational transmission of religiosity. In this article, we examine whether and how congruence in religiosity between generations changes over the family life course and identifies unique parent–child trajectory classes. Method: We used eight waves of data from the Longitudinal Study of Generations, including 1,084 parent–child dyads beginning in 1971 when the children were adolescents and young adults, followed up to 2005. Growth mixture models (GMM) were tested. Results: GMM revealed four temporal patterns: stable similar, child weakens, child strengthens, and child returns. Results showed that children who were married were more likely to be members of the child-returns class than members of the stable-similar class. Discussion: Results are discussed in terms of the utility of the separation-individuation process and the life-course framework for understanding intergenerational differences and their stability over time.

Rural land and credit markets, the permanent income hypothesis and proto-industry: evidence from early modern Zurich

2007 ◽  
Vol 22 (3) ◽  
pp. 489-518 ◽  
Author(s):  
ULRICH PFISTER
Keyword(s):  
Life Course ◽  
Labour Force ◽  
Permanent Income ◽  
Land Markets ◽  
Permanent Income Hypothesis ◽  
Major Objective ◽  
Debt Contracting ◽  
The Family ◽  
The Life Course ◽  
Empirical Material

ABSTRACTThe study documents fluctuations of proto-industrial income, of occupation, debt and presence on land markets across the life course for rural households in a major proto-industrial region during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. These fluctuations are interpreted on the basis that a major objective of households is to equalize their income across different stages of their development. The permanent income hypothesis is then extended to take into account land purchases and debt-contracting that result from the need to adjust land and capital to fluctuations in the size of the family labour force across the family cycle and from endeavours to improve the family's welfare by increasing the labour to land ratio. The empirical material presented shows marked fluctuations of income from proto-industrial work across the life course and suggests the existence of permanent income-cum-accumulation strategies to cope with these fluctuations.

Transitions, The Family and the Life Course in Historical Perspective

1980 ◽  
Vol 42 (1) ◽  
pp. 211
Author(s):  
Herman R. Lantz ◽  
Tamara K. Harevan
Keyword(s):  
Life Course ◽  
Historical Perspective ◽  
The Family ◽  
The Life Course

Housework Over the Family Life Course

2020 ◽  
pp. 87-98
Keyword(s):  
Life Course ◽  
Family Life ◽  
The Family

Past, Present, and Personal: The Family and the Life Course in American History

1987 ◽  
Vol 27 (3) ◽  
pp. 407
Author(s):  
N. Ray Hiner ◽  
John Demos
Keyword(s):  
Life Course ◽  
American History ◽  
The Family ◽  
The Life Course

National Goals for Supporting Families Across the Life Course

Inclusion ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 3 (4) ◽  
pp. 260-266 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michelle C. Reynolds ◽  
George S. Gotto ◽  
Catherine Arnold ◽  
Thomas L. Boehm ◽  
Sandra Magaña ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Best Practices ◽  
Life Course ◽  
Implementation Strategies ◽  
The United States ◽  
Intellectual And Developmental Disabilities ◽  
Policy And Practice ◽  
Family Structures ◽  
The Family ◽  
Support Practices ◽  
The Life Course

Abstract As a core unit of our society, the family provides support for all its members. Due to the nature of their disabilities, people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) often receive emotional, physical, and material support from their families across the life course. During the National Goals 2015 Conference, three goals were identified that will lead to a better understanding of families and maximize their capacity, strengths, and unique abilities to support, nurture, and facilitate opportunities for family members who have a disability. The three goals are to (1) develop a better understanding of the complex family structures in the United States and the best practices for supporting them; (2) extend our knowledge on how families are or might be supported by their natural communities, outside the purview of IDD systems; and (3) synthesize support practices, implementation strategies, and outcomes for supporting families. This article describes these three goals related to supporting families across the life course and provides a rationale, areas of research to address the goals, and implications for policy and practice for each goal.

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