“Our Family’s Path:” Couples’ Perspectives on the Developmental Trajectories of Families in Urban Southern Angola

2021 ◽  
pp. 009579842110379
Author(s):  
Tchilissila Alicerces Simões ◽  
Isabel Marques Alberto

The aim of the present study was to explore and to understand how 36 urban Southern Angolan couples perceived their family’s development across the lifetime. The study sought to compare those results with three systemic approaches of family development, two Western and another indigenous. Through semi-structured interviews, the existence of two trajectories of family life, with similar life events, were identified. The life events of these two trajectories were organized in a different chronological order, based on the religious commitment of the individuals. The results showed discrepancies with the Western models on the composition of the household (i.e., big backyard families and families with a third element) as well as the type of events considered to be important milestones within the family trajectory (e.g., the inexistence of the empty nest). This study provides support for the indigenous framework proposed by Simões and Alberto (2015) and contributes to a better comprehension of the family functioning of the urban Southern Angolan families.

2020 ◽  
Vol Volume 4 (Issue 3) ◽  
pp. 192-207
Author(s):  
Dr. Muhammad Shabbir Sarwar ◽  
Humara Gulzar ◽  
Muhammad Ahsan Bhatti

The purpose of this research paper is to explore the negative relationship between mobile phone and family life as well as negative impact of mobile phone usage on family life norms and traditions. The study is based on data collected through mixed method i.e. survey of a random sample of 1300 people and structured interviews conducted with a sub-sample of 13 people in Lahore, Pakistan. The study found that mobile phone is negatively affecting the family life due to its massive usage during family socialization time. The quantitative analysis found that over 85% of respondents use mobile phone for communication with the people other than their family members when they are with their family; over 50% make calls to others during their family time; 83% make SMS; 75 feel that they ignore their family due to cell phone; 86% thinks that mobile has influenced their family time face-to-face socialization negatively and 91% said that they exchanged harsh words with their family members for at least once or more due to using mobile phone during family time. The study reveals that male members of the traditional families are more responsible for using mobile phone during family time and damaging family traditions as compared to the female members. However, parents remain very concerned about the possibilities of misuse of mobile phone by female teenagers of the family. In most cases family elders were annoyed with the youth for adopting this change in their behaviors damaging the family traditions.


2019 ◽  
Vol 14 (4) ◽  
pp. 453-462 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hélène Joncheray ◽  
Fabrice Burlot ◽  
Mathilde Julla-Marcy

This article examines how high-performance sport coaches combine their professional and family lives. To address this issue, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 41 French coaches (8 females, 33 males) involved in the preparation of the French teams for the Olympic Games in Rio (2016), Pyeongchang (2018) and/or Tokyo (2020). The results show that all the coaches interviewed are engaged in a passionate relationship with their job. For some coaches, this commitment has an impact on their family life. Three groups of coaches stand out: (i) a majority of coaches who are unable to preserve their family life, (ii) coaches who maintain a distance from their profession and preserve their family life, (iii) coaches who have or have not preserved their family life and who position themselves as actors wishing to do everything possible to preserve the family life of the coaches they supervise. Thus, these results highlight, for some coaches, difficulties in combining professional and family life. For others, family life is a protection for engagement in a passionate profession. These data can provide useful information for sport organizations in charge of coaches.


Author(s):  
Uliana Culea

The family is a social system which functions according to one’s own inner laws and for the benefits of the society, being an indispensable part of it, focusing on the social role in perceiving family life. Therefore, the family behavior can be analyzed depending on the family life cycle stages and society evolution. The changes within inner family framework focus on family interactions and on its members’ reactions to specific life events and situations.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hagen Wäsche ◽  
Christina Niermann ◽  
Jelena Bezold ◽  
Alexander Woll

Abstract Background The family is an important social environment for children’s, adolescents’ and adults’ health. However, studies mostly focused on dyadic and unidirectional influences of parents on their children. Studies addressing influences arising from daily family life and including family level influences are rare and the existing studies solely focus on the relevance for children’s health or health-related behaviors. We use a qualitative approach to explore how daily family life and its inherent health-related cues affect family members’ physical activity and eating behavior. Methods Semi-structured interviews utilizing an interview guide were conducted. Since we aimed to examine family life, we analyzed both parents’ and their children’s views on health-related interaction patterns and family environmental influences on individuals’ health-related behavior. Twenty-two members of seven families were interviewed. Transcripts of the interviews were systematically analyzed following Grounded Theory principles.Results The interviews revealed that various individual as well as environmental factors shape health-related aspects of daily family life. A model was developed that organizes these influencing factors on family life with regard to health-related interactions and the emergence of the Family Health Climate (FHC) – reflecting shared perceptions and cognitions regarding a healthy lifestyle within families – and its consequences. Family interactions and family time, often realized through shared family meals, are key factors for families’ health with regard to nutrition and physical activity. The FHC showed to affect various aspects related to health behavior of individual family members.Conclusions The model allows to gain knowledge on underlying processes and mechanisms of family life that influences individuals’ health-related behavior. Based on a better understanding of the association between family life and individual health behavior the development of family-based interventions can be informed. Furthermore, the insights can help to guide further research focusing on families as a system.


2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 93-118
Author(s):  
Carl J Dunst

Objective: The purposes of the meta-analysis were to evaluate the relationship between family hardiness and different dimensions of parent and family functioning in households experiencing adverse child or family life events and circumstances and determine if family hardiness had either or both stress-buffering and health-enhancing effects on parent and family functioning. Method: Studies were included if the correlations between family hardiness and different dimensions of parental or family functioning were reported. The synthesis included 53 studies (N = 4418 participants) conducted in nine countries between 1992 and 2017. Results: showed that family hardiness was related to less parental stress, anxiety/depression, and parenting burden/demands and positively related to parental global health, well-being, and parenting practices. Results also showed that family hardiness was negatively related to family stress and positively related to family life satisfaction, adaptation, and cohesion. The effects sizes between family hardiness and positive parent and family functioning indicators were larger than those for stress-buffering indicators. Child and family life events and child age moderated the relationship between family hardiness and family but not parental functioning. Conclusion: The results are consistent with the hypothesis that family hardiness is an internal resource that simultaneously has stress-buffering and health-enhancing effects on parent and family functioning.


2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Hagen Wäsche ◽  
Christina Niermann ◽  
Jelena Bezold ◽  
Alexander Woll

Abstract Background The family is an important social environment for children’s, adolescents’ and adults’ health. However, studies mostly focused on dyadic and unidirectional influences of parents on their children. Studies addressing influences arising from daily family life and including family-level influences are rare and the existing studies solely focus on the relevance for children’s health or health-related behaviors. We use a qualitative approach to explore how daily family life and its inherent health-related cues affect family members’ physical activity and eating behavior. Methods Semi-structured interviews utilizing an interview guide were conducted. Since we aimed to examine family life, we analyzed both parents’ and their children’s views on health-related interaction patterns and family environmental influences on individuals’ health-related behavior. Twenty-two members of seven families were interviewed. Transcripts of the interviews were systematically analyzed following Grounded Theory principles. Results The interviews revealed that various individual as well as environmental factors shape health-related aspects of daily family life. A model was developed that organizes these influencing factors on family life with regard to health-related interactions and the emergence of the Family Health Climate (FHC) – reflecting shared perceptions and cognitions regarding a healthy lifestyle within families – and its consequences. Family interactions and family time, often realized through shared family meals, are key factors for families’ health with regard to nutrition and physical activity. The FHC showed to affect various aspects related to health behavior of individual family members. Conclusions The model sheds light on underlying processes and mechanisms of family life that influences individuals’ health-related behavior. Based on a better understanding of the association between family life and individual health behavior the development of family-based interventions can be informed. Furthermore, the insights can help to guide further research focusing on families as a system.


2017 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 17-29
Author(s):  
Jana Majerčíková ◽  
Barbora Petrů Puhrová

Abstract Introduction: The family life of a child of compulsory school age is influenced by the way that a child’s educational career is discussed and practically supported. This is transmitted into normal family life through the completion of the child’s homework and any other school-related responsibilities. The parent is considered an actor who contributes significantly to the supervision of the child’s homework. Methods: This research project explored how parents and children describe their experience of homework through semi-structured interviews with elementary school pupils and their parents. The results are presented in our study. Seven, mostly university-educated parents and six pupils were interviewed at the start of compulsory schooling, when the bonds and interaction are the most intensive between parents and children in the context of homework. The transcribed interviews were analysed using the technique of open coding. Codes identified were repeatedly read, reviewed and subsequently grouped into categories with the aim of description and explanation. Results: The survey revealed that the completion of homework in the parent - child interaction is an implicit part of everyday family life. Homework and advance home preparation are considered to be the responsibility of the parent as well as the child, on the other hand, the home preparation is also time-consuming and gendermarked. Limitations: The limitations of the study relate primarily to the construction of the research sample. The intentional sample of parents was determined by socioeconomic status and quantity and also by the parents’ willingness to share their parenting experience, and for the child by the extent of data gathered. In further research, this will be supported by observation in the home setting. Conclusions: The research findings contribute to a description of the child’s life in the family and confirm the importance of inevitable parental participation in their educational socialization at the beginning of compulsory school attendance.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Seung-Hee Han

[ACCESS RESTRICTED TO THE UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI--COLUMBIA AT REQUEST OF AUTHOR.] The study examined the longitudinal associations between stressful family life events at 4 years of age and children's internalizing and externalizing behaviors at 7 years of age, whether family functioning and parental warmth (i.e., mothers' warmth, fathers' warmth) successively mediated those associations, and whether the pattern of associations varied by positive father involvement in Korean families. Participants were 1,703 families including mothers (M age = 34 years at T1), fathers (M age = 37 years at T1), and children (M age = 51 months at T1) in the Panel Study on Korean Children. Results revealed that stressful family life events was positively associated with children's internalizing and externalizing behaviors, but not through family functioning and parental warmth. Family functioning and mothers' warmth successively mediated the association between positive father involvement and children's internalizing and externalizing behaviors. Positive father involvement moderated the association between stressful family life events and externalizing behaviors. The findings highlight that positive father involvement may play a protective role in children's externalizing behaviors when Korean families experience stressful situations.


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