Familial Undercurrents

Not long after her father died, Afsaneh Najmabadi discovered that her father had a secret second family and that she had a sister she never knew about. In Familial Undercurrents, Najmabadi uncovers her family’s complex experiences of polygamous marriage to tell a larger story of the transformations of notions of love, marriage, and family life in mid-twentieth-century Iran. She traces how the idea of “marrying for love” and the desire for companionate, monogamous marriage acquired dominance in Tehran’s emerging urban middle class. Considering the role played in that process by late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century romance novels, reformist newspapers, plays, and other literature, Najmabadi outlines the rituals and objects---such as wedding outfits, letter writing, and family portraits---that came to characterize the ideal companionate marriage. She reveals how in the course of one generation men’s polygamy had evolved from an acceptable open practice to a taboo best kept secret. At the same time, she chronicles the urban transformations of Tehran and how its architecture and neighborhood social networks both influenced and became emblematic of the myriad forms of modern Iranian family life.

A research framework for the United Nations Decade of Healthy Ageing (2021–2030)

The mission of UN Decade of Healthy Ageing (2020–2030) is to improve the lives of older people, their families and their communities. In this paper, we create a conceptual framework and research agenda for researchers to knowledge to address the Decade action items. The framework builds on the main components of healthy ageing: Environments (highlighting society and community) across life courses (of work and family) toward wellbeing (of individuals, family members and communities). Knowledge gaps are identified within each area as priority research actions. Within societal environments, interrogating beliefs about ageism and about familism are proposed as a way to illustrate how macro approaches to older people influence their experiences. We need to interrogate the extent to which communities are good places to grow old; and whether they have sufficient resources to be supportive to older residents. Further articulation of trajectories and turning points across the full span of work and of family life courses is proposed to better understand their diversities and the extent to which they lead to adequate financial and social resources in later life. Components of wellbeing are proposed to monitor improvement in the lives of older people, their families and communities. Researcher priorities can be informed by regional and national strategies reflecting Decade actions.

Associations Between Parents’ Health and Social Control Behaviors and Their Adolescent’s Self-Efficacy and Health Behaviors: Insights From the Family Life, Activity, Sun, Health, and Eating (FLASHE) survey

Background Parents can influence their children to live healthier lifestyles by modeling healthy behaviors and/or trying to persuade their children to engage in healthier activities. Adolescents and their parents tend to have similar eating and exercise patterns, but less is known about the simultaneous influence of parent’s health behavior and social control on adolescents’ self-efficacy and health behaviors, including whether their effect is moderated by parenting style. Purpose We examine the degree to which parents’ social control and health behaviors are associated with their adolescent’s self-efficacy and health behaviors, including whether parenting styles moderate these associations. Method We analyzed data from the Family Life, Activity, Sun, Health, and Eating project. Results We found that parents’ own health behaviors are positively and strongly associated with their adolescent’s health behaviors across four domains: fruit/vegetable consumption, junk food consumption, physical activity, and nonacademic screen time. We found positive, moderate-to-strong associations between parents’ use of social control and their adolescents’ fruit/vegetable and junk food consumption, small negative associations with screen time, and no associations with physical activity. The effects of social control for junk food consumption and screen time, however, depended on parents’ own behavior in those domains. Parent responsiveness moderated the relation between parents’ social control and their adolescent children’s self-efficacy and health behaviors. Conclusions The health behaviors parents model and their social control efforts are associated with their adolescents’ beliefs and behavior. Efforts to leverage parents as sources of influence must consider the context in which influence is enacted.

The Struggle to Balance Work and Family Life During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Insights Based on the Situations of Working Women in Delhi

The COVID-19 pandemic generated economic contraction across the world. In India, the stringent lockdown led to extreme distress. The unprecedented situation adversely affected the women’s efforts to balance professional life with family life because of a disproportionate increase in their domestic work burden and a shift in their workstation to home. Since every job cannot be performed remotely, women employed in healthcare services, banks and media witnessed additional risks of commuting and physical interaction at the workplace. Based on personal interviews of women in the Delhi-NCR region, the study aims to explore the commonalities and variances in the challenges experienced by the women engaged in diverse occupations. Using the qualitative methodology of flexible coding, the study finds that a relatively larger section of women travelling to their office during the pandemic, rather than those working from home, had an effective familial support system that helped them navigate this tough time.

Together or Apart? A Historical Snapshot of Personal Internet Usage at Home

This paper provides a historical snapshot of personal ICT usage in 2005/2006, specifically shedding light on how Australian and German couples (N= 48) had integrated the internet into their homes with a focus on spatial and social transformations. Using a home ethnographic approach, this qualitative study implemented in-depth interviews across two countries. From a spatial perspective, Australian couples had their laptops or PCs highly integrated into the family life usually in multifunctional rooms or open areas, whereas German couples’ laptops and PCs were most often found in separate study rooms. From a social perspective, internet use can be related to elements that bring couples together, but also to elements of disintegration. A shift in how couples spent their time together was observed from watching TV together in the same room, to going online in the same room at two PCs or one person being online while the other conducted other activities.

A Qualitative Research on the Work-Family-Life Balance Perception of Working Fathers

Work-life and work-family-life balance can be expressed as the balance between the demands of an individual's work life and private life, and the demands of work life and family life. The issue of ensuring the harmony between work-family and work-life is taken into consideration by researchers, and studies on this subject are gaining momentum day by day. As in many countries around the world, family-friendly organization practices are taking place in Turkey to address this situation, and many social policies are implemented in order to harmonize the areas of work-life and work-family life. However, although studies on working women are included in detail, studies related with working fathers are very rare. In the study, the concepts of work-life balance and work-family-life balance will be discussed in detail. In addition, the fact of being a working father for working fathers who tend to establish work-family-life balance, and the thoughts of working fathers about whether they can establish a work-family-life balance will be discussed within the scope of the interviews.

Czy państwo może decydować o miejscu pochówku dyktatora? Komentarz do postanowienia hiszpańskiego Trybunału Konstytucyjnego z 17 października 2019 roku w sprawie ekshumacji szczątków Francisca Franco Bahamondego

This article comments on the Spanish Constitutional Court’s order of 17 October 2019, ATC 119/2020, regarding the exhumation and transfer of the remains of Francisco Franco Bahamonde from the Valley of the Fallen. Franco’s relatives brought a constitutional complaint before the Constitutional Court against the resolutions of the Council of Ministers of 15 February and 15 March 2019, which concerned the exhumation of the dictator’s remains and their transfer to the Mingorrrubio Cemetery in El Pardo. This was done against the wishes of the family, who had indicated another location. The applicants submitted, inter alia, that their right to respect for private and family life had been violated. In fact, certain issues relating to the treatment of the body of a deceased person fall within the scope of the right to privacy. However, the Spanish Court did not accept the applicants’ plea and held that there was no violation of the constitutional right. It justified its decision on the grounds that the right to protection of private and family life is not absolute and is subject to limitations, and that the measures applied in this case were in line with a “constitutionally legitimate aim,” proportionate and necessary. The Court’s decision is correct, although its reasoning leaves much to be desired. The Court could have strengthened its argumentation with, first, a more in-depth analysis of proportionality, and, second, with reference to Strasburg standards. In particular, as the Court pointed out, the historical and political importance of the person at the head of the political regime established after the civil war and acting as head of state meant that the decision on where to bury his remains went beyond the dimension of an individual private matter.