Consensus on Constraints in Marital Satisfaction Among Married People in African Context

Marriage is considered as the most important social institution and symbol of adulthood in Africa. However, the trend of divorce has increased alarmingly in recent years. We explored the constraints towards marital satisfaction by using the Delphi technique with assumptions that couples are the experts on their marriages. Participant’s panel included married heterosexual couples divided into two groups: men and women couple’s panels. The group of women’s panel included 31 participants and men’s panel contained 25 males. Then in the final stage, both groups provided their views and discussed on the possible solutions to the identified constraints. Five major themes emerged: satisfaction in sexuality among couples, difficulties in communication, economic and financial conflicts, the role of extended families, and opportunity for behavioural change to achieve marital satisfaction. Our findings support the hypothesis that satisfaction with sexual intercourse, respectful communication, financial stability and careful handling of relatives influence marital satisfaction.

Bargaining over Remittances in Tajik Extended Families

This study investigates the impact of male labor migration upon wives living among their husbands’ extended families in Tajikistan. It studies the risks and choices available to such wives in bargaining for remittances, with a particular focus on the risks that daughters-in-law (kelin in Tajik) undertake when negotiating remittances with their mothers-in-law. This paper explores age and gender-specific norms in Tajik transnational families and their minimal opportunities for kelins to bargain and negotiate the risks associated with making “claims” on remittances by using Deniz Kandiyoti’s “patriarchal bargain” and Bina Agarwal’s household bargain framework, as well as extensive fieldwork conducted in Tajikistan. The study concludes that international migration and remittances have had a complex impact on gender norms in Tajikistan, with emerging new forms of passive negotiation by kelins unlikely to undermine patriarchal gender norms in their favor.

“We, as Parents, Do Have a Voice”: Learning from Community-Based Programs Effectively Engaging Parents in Urban Communities

Utilizing Yosso’s community cultural wealth framework as a theoretical lens, we sought to examine how nontraditional, community-based family engagement programs impacted adult family members’ thoughts and actions about engagement with their children's schools. The study drew primarily from the interviews, observations, and document analysis of two nontraditional family engagement programs in urban communities. Findings indicate that program approaches built upon and extended families’ social and navigational capitals. Educational leaders can more meaningfully engage urban families by learning from and incorporating practices implemented by the programs we examine and discuss in this article.

Extended family thalassemia screening as a feasible alternative method to be implemented in identifying carriers in West Java, Indonesia

The thalassemia screening program in Indonesia mostly conducted sporadically. Ideal prospective screening is still limited. This study aimed to compare thalassemia screening methods using the extended family approach with and without a history of severe thalassemia and the feasibility of implementing extended family screening method. A case control study was conducted in Dr. Hasan Sadikin General Hospital Bandung with 3 generations of extended families. Data were collected from 150 subjects of 8 extended families with severe thalassemia as an index case entry and 151 subjects of 12 families with no history of thalassemia. All subjects were examined for Hb, MCV, MCH, and peripheral blood smear (PBS) as initial laboratory examinations. Subjects with MCV < 80 fL, MCH < 27 pg, and suggestive findings on PBS continued hemoglobin analysis. Carrier status was determined by definition. All subjects consented to undergo screening and voluntarily participated. The proportion of thalassemia carriers and the participation rate between the 2 groups were compared. Sixty-four of 150 (42.7%) and 16 of 151 (10.6%) carriers were identified in both the case and control group (p < 0.001). The participation rate was 42–88 vs. 23–100% (p = 0.244). The mean age was 31.9 ± 21.2 vs. 31.1 ± 20.8 years (p = 0.782). The median family size was 28.5 vs. 20 subjects per family (p = 0.245). The types of identified thalassemia carrier in both groups consisted of β-thalassemia, β-thalassemia/HbE, suspected α-thalassemia, and β-thalassemia Hb variant. All carriers continued the counseling process. The extended family method seems feasible to be implemented for thalassemia screening in West Java, Indonesia.

Women in the Whirlpool: Traversing the Tie-up of Personality and Work-Life Balance of Pakistani Academicians

This research strives to explain the impact of personality type on the work-life balance of women academicians. With the positivist paradigm and quantitative approach, this study has been conducted with a survey methodology. Data was collected from 362 women academicians on adopted instruments and analyzed with multiple regression and ANOVA tests. Results revealed a positive effect of agreeableness, extraversion, and openness personality types on work-life balance. Those women academicians who are with agreeableness personalities are more in a capacity to manage their work-life balance. The results also show a difference in managing the work-life balance between those who are single and married, those who belong to a nuclear family, and those who belong to joint or extended families. This study will facilitate them to develop the personality type which has more capacity to manage work-life balance. It will help policymakers to facilitate women academicians to ensure better work-life balance.JEL Classification: M12How to Cite:Shahin, S., Baloch, M. N., Shaikh, N., Ibrahim, I., & Abbassi, A. A. (2021). Women in the Whirlpool: Traversing the Tie-up of Personality and Work-Life Balance of Pakistani Academicians. Etikonomi, 20(2), xx – xx. https://doi.org/10.15408/etk.v20i2.17272.

Evolution of family systems and resultant socio-economic structures

Families form the basis of society, and anthropologists have observed and characterised a wide range of family systems. This study developed a multi-level evolutionary model of pre-industrial agricultural societies to simulate the evolution of family systems and determine how each of them adapts to environmental conditions and forms a characteristic socio-economic structure. In the model, competing societies evolve, which themselves comprise multiple evolving families that grow through family labour. Each family has two strategy parameters: the time children leave the parental home and the distribution of inheritance among siblings. The evolution of these parameters demonstrates that four basic family systems emerge; families can become either nuclear or extended, and have either an equal or strongly biased inheritance distribution. Nuclear families in which children leave the parental home upon marriage emerge where land resources are sufficient, whereas extended families in which children staying at the parental home emerge where land resources are limited. Equal inheritance emerges where the amount of wealth required for a family to survive is large, whereas strongly biased inheritance emerges where the required wealth is small. Furthermore, the frequency of polygyny is low in the present model of agricultural societies, whereas it increases for the model of labour-extensive subsistence patterns other than agricultural societies. Analyses on the wealth distribution of families demonstrate a higher level of poverty among people in extended families, and that the accumulation of wealth is accelerated in families with strongly biased inheritance. By comparing wealth distributions in the model with historical data, family systems are associated with characteristic economic structures and then, modern social ideologies. Empirical data analyses using the cross-cultural ethnographic database verify the theoretical relationship between the environmental conditions, family systems, and socio-economic structures discussed in the model. The theoretical studies made possible by this simple constructive model, as presented here, will integrate the understandings of family systems in evolutionary anthropology, demography, and socioeconomic histories.