Journal of Family Theory & Review最新文献

As systems of oppression (e.g., racism) become more evident in public consciousness, Asian American families are grappling with critical discussions about social justice and oppression. To define and explore these increasingly common conversations, we propose critical consciousness socialization as an important construct for socialization research among Asian American families. Critical consciousness socialization is the transmission of knowledge about, skills for, and behavioral orientations toward analyzing and challenging systems of oppression in the interest of social justice. This article applies theories in the developmental and family sciences (Phenomenological Variant of Ecological Systems Theory and Family Systems Theory) to demonstrate future research directions for critical consciousness socialization among Asian American families. Given research suggesting that families are purveyors of information about social justice and power, research on critical consciousness socialization is important to explore the role of the family system in advancing—and actively participating in—movements towards social justice.

Safety and security is at the heart of expectations of family life. Or is it? When Russia invaded Ukraine, it unleashed another massive movement of peoples in search of safety, fleeing from a lack of security, and forced to leave behind other loved ones, such as husbands, partners, fathers, and grandparents. Many countries, including the United Kingdom, offered to host dislocated Ukrainian mothers and their children as guests in family homes. The UK Government launched the “Homes for Ukraine” scheme in March 2022. The hosts need to be able to offer a spare room or a home for at least 6 months. The Government makes monthly thank you payments to the hosts to help continue their sponsorship of their Ukrainian guests. The matching of hosts and guests is carried out at the local government level with a visit to the host property to ensure it meets the required standard and also the safeguarding “disclosure and barring service” check. In June 2023, over 100,000 Ukrainian families are in the scheme. This recent and well-intentioned social experiment in guesting and hosting has brought forth both predictable and unforeseen consequences, and a re-visioning of the meaning and practice of family and family life. In this article, the authors explore some of the reported experiences of guests and hosts to examine what is meant by family, and what helps to create a felt sense of safety in family relationships.

Despite increasing research, the links between racial discrimination and Black Americans' romantic relationship dynamics remain unclear. Guided by models of mundane extreme environmental stress (Peters & Massey, 1983), sociocultural family stress (McNeil Smith & Landor, 2018), and Black marital outcomes (Bryant et al., 2010), we conducted a systematic review of the literature examining racial discrimination and relationship dynamics among Black Americans in same-race and interracial romantic relationships. Synthesizing findings from 32 published empirical articles, we find support for manifestations of each component of MEES in Black intimate life. We uncover evidence that racial discrimination is associated with compromised relationship functioning for Black Americans. Several psychosocial resources were also identified as either buffering these associations or posing drawbacks/limitations for Black Americans. We discuss notable gaps in the literature and directions for future research including intersectional investigations, broader examination of the MEES context, and de-centering whiteness among studies of interracial relationship dynamics.

The conceptual literature is scant on the experiences of older single African American adults. We aim to contribute to the scholarship on singlehood within specific populations (e.g., African American) and in particular life phases (e.g., late adulthood). We begin with a presentation of life course theory. We then review literature that underscores the importance of age, resources (i.e., individual, family, social, financial), and stressful events in predicting levels of independence and self-fulfillment as well as loneliness, regret, and dissatisfaction. We focus on the experiences of older single African American adults. Following this discussion, we propose a new conceptual framework of singlehood in late life. We then summarize key points, offer recommendations, and propose future directions.

LGBTQ+ youth endure health inequities resulting from stigma and would benefit from strategies that help them navigate unique developmental challenges. One promising strategy to address LGBTQ+ youths' health is augmenting parenting behaviors to support youth's adaptive strategies in the face of stigma. There remain limited conceptual frameworks and empirical focus on parenting LGBTQ+ youth. Adjacent research on racial-ethnic socialization—parental practices that communicate messages about race, ethnicity, and culture to children—offers compelling evidence for the protective influence of adaptive identity-based socialization strategies for racially and ethnically minoritized youth. In this commentary, we review the current conceptual perspectives of LGBTQ+ youths' family environment and discuss how lessons learned from racial-ethnic socialization scholarship inform advances in research and practice with LGBTQ+ youth and their families. Throughout, we offer suggestions for advancing scientific understanding of sexual orientation and gender identity-related socialization for LGBTQ+ youth and its potential impact on youth's development and well-being.

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) among service members portends substantial impairments not only for the affected individual but also for their families. However, the association between PTSD symptoms and specific parenting domains remains understudied. Drawing upon the Military Family Stress Model and the Cognitive Behavioral Interpersonal Theory of PTSD, this systematic review provides an overview and synthesis of the literature on PTSD symptoms and parenting in military families with the objective to examine associations between parental PTSD symptoms and key parenting domains. Following PRISMA guidelines, 27 empirical studies were reviewed. Five distinct parenting domains emerged across studies. The findings indicated that greater PTSD symptoms were generally associated with adverse parenting outcomes with some variation across different parenting domains, such that some parenting outcomes showed more consistent negative associations with parental PTSD symptoms than others. These results have significant implications for research and practice, providing insight for family-focused intervention/prevention studies.

Reconfiguring theoretical approaches is needed as growing numbers of adults are experiencing extended periods of singlehood. There is a central distinction in intentionality, which creates a voluntary or involuntary status. Voluntary individuals have chosen to be marriage-free. Involuntary individuals wish to be cohabited/married but have been unable to do so. The purpose of this paper is to describe the linkages among characteristics of voluntary/involuntary singlehood and concepts from four theories (social exchange, symbolic interactionism, family development, chaos). These theories were chosen because they are commonly addressed in family science teaching and scholarship. They are used as conceptual lenses to guide relational or familial research, but there has been little attention to their potential linkages to singlehood. Given the voluntary-involuntary distinction, linkages are drawn to each type. This paper highlights how four traditional theories can be bridged with diverse components of singlehood experiences.

The aim of this article is to offer a novel theoretical perspective on family practitioners' engagement with fathers, through the lens of theories of social care and capabilities. The paper shows how research on low engagement of fathers in family- and child-related social interventions has advanced along three main axes: (a) giving voice to fathers, (b) analyzing workers' perceptions, and (c) what works analysis of father-oriented programs. I point to several problems in existing research: the absence of a unifying theoretical framework and the lack of sufficient attention to issues of relationality and agency. Theories of care and the capabilities approach are offered as a framework. Applying these theoretical frameworks to existing research on father engagement raises new questions and directions for further studies, mainly in two directions: first, relationality and the configurations of relations and power within families and within welfare systems, and second, the effect of agency on father engagement.

Two decades have passed since Ilan Meyer first published the minority stress theory (MST) model. Since then, scholars have used MST extensively to expand the field's understanding of LGBTQ+ populations' experiences with stress and mental health. To better represent these experiences, scholars have combined MST with other theories in empirical articles, but a theoretical model has yet to be proposed that unifies this work. In the current paper, we seek to acknowledge and extend this work by proposing a Temporal Intersectional Minority Stress (TIMS) model. The TIMS model incorporates Intersectionality and historical, generational, and developmental time from Life Course Theory to account for the sociopolitical and cultural changes that have occurred since the creation of the original MST model. We hope this model will help extend work related to minority stress, and we invite further theoretical development to occur using this model as a new framework for scholars to consider.