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As a further tribute to feminist scholar Jessie Bernard, in this paper, we review the entire collection of the National Council on Family Relations' Jessie Bernard Outstanding papers awarded to feminist junior scholars spanning from 1990 to 2018. In so doing, we showcase Jessie Bernard's devotion to mentoring young scholars as we highlight evolving feminist family scholarship of student/new professionals. In this paper, we sought to:(a) honor Jessie Bernard's intellectual legacy, (b) celebrate contributions of young feminist family scholar's work, and (c) explore how the award collection maps on to wider feminist theoretical debates and empirical shifts within feminist family science over the past three decades. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Via analysis of online survey data of 262 people aged 18 to 70 in the United States who have been involved in a long-distance romantic relationship (LDR) since 2005, we investigate how paper, audio, visual, and digital communication formats may be used and viewed as differentially meaningful. While in most intimate relationships, digital formats such as e-mail, messaging, and texts are frequently used, LDR couples are more likely to use and find most meaningful video chat and audio platforms compared with paper or digital formats. The reason for each platform’s meaningfulness varies according to survey respondents’ subjective understandings. Audio and visual formats are seen as meaningful because they offer intimacy, paper formats offer thoughtfulness, and digital formats offer ease as well as thoughtfulness. This research contributes to understanding the subjectively constructed meaning of ever-changing communication platforms, as well as definitions of shared sociomental spaces, for couples who are geographically separated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although marital forgiveness has been found to increase marital satisfaction, no research to date has examined the actual mechanism. This could derive from the ABCM model of marital satisfaction (Hall, 2021), in which disposition to forgive is understood as one of the marriage maintenance strategies contributing to spousal happiness. In two cross-sectional studies, we examined the association between marital forgiveness and satisfaction. We also tested a model in which dispositional forgiveness mediates the link between forgiveness of a particular marital incident and satisfaction with spousal relationship, moderated by transgression severity and apology. The Marital Offence-Specific Forgiveness Scale, the Heartland Forgiveness Scale and measures of marital satisfaction were used. Positive main effects between forgiveness and multidimensional marital satisfaction emerged. Moderated mediation revealed the mediation effect of dispositional forgiveness, which did not depend on the level of the moderators (severity and apology). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scholars of the family agree on four main parenting styles, varying along two axes: responsiveness and control. Parental involvement and child autonomy fall under the control axis and are assumed to have an inverse relationship; where parental involvement is high, child autonomy is assumed to be low, and vice versa. Drawing on 22 in-depth interviews and participant observation at five homeschooling conferences, we examine the dominant parenting philosophies and practices of conservative Christian homeschoolers (which we call "ownership parenting") and secular unschoolers (which we call "partnership parenting"). We demonstrate that the inverse relationship between parental involvement and child autonomy is not present in partnership parenting, which is marked by both high parental involvement and high child autonomy. Unschooling thus represents an empirical case against the theoretical conflation of parental involvement and child autonomy; a new expanded typology is thus posited that divides the control axis into two distinct axes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although numerous studies have examined the role of helicopter parenting in child outcomes, there is little empirical cross-cultural research on the academic outcomes of helicopter parenting for late adolescents. This study investigated the differences in the association between mothers' and fathers' helicopter parenting and college students' (N = 343) academic outcomes across American and South Korean contexts, examining the role of self-efficacy as a mediator. Multigroup structural equation modeling analyses showed that South Korean fathers' helicoptering has a negative relation with students' academic outcomes. Higher levels of fathers' parenting were directly related to students' lower academic outcomes in the Korean context. However, comparable results were not observed with South Korean mothers or American parents. In addition, mothers' helicopter parenting was not related to either self-efficacy or academic outcomes across the two countries. Although there are cultural differences in helicopter parenting practices, there appear to be potentially more cultural similarities across the two cultures than was conjectured. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We theorize a stress proliferation process whereby the stress of job precarity translates into the stress of work-to-family conflict (WFC). We test whether this process differs by gender and household income. Using four cross-sectional waves of the General Social Survey (N = 2,340), we find a positive association between job insecurity and WFC for women but not men. Examined by household income levels, the association is found only for respondents in the lowest income tercile. Furthermore, gender intersects with household income to shape the stress proliferation process. While the insecurity–WFC relationship holds for women across all household income levels, for men this relationship shifts from positive for men in the lowest income tercile to negative for men in the highest income tercile. Our findings suggest that entrenched gendered expectations around work and family may lead women (regardless of household income) and lower-class men to be most vulnerable to stress proliferation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We examined the relationship between lone mothers' repartnering and health in three welfare contexts: the dual-earner, market-oriented, and general family policy model. Drawing on the resources and crisis models, we applied mixture modelling for spell data of the Harmonized Histories data set. We uncovered six distinct repartnering trajectories that varied regarding the timing, type, and stability of higher order unions for different cohorts of lone mothers. Unstable repartnering was more frequent in market-oriented contexts, while contexts with more comprehensive family support fostered more stable repartnering. Although repartnering trajectories were overall not associated with health, these associations differed by welfare context. Mothers experiencing repartnering, though unstable, reported to enjoy better health if living in market-oriented contexts rather than in general or dual-earner contexts. Altogether, our findings suggest that even if higher financial needs in less-generous welfare may translate in more unstable repartnering histories, this seems to have positive spillover effects on mothers' health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent theory suggests that developmental idealism (DI) is an important source of variation and change in family behavior, yet this suggestion is largely untested at the individual level. This study examines the influence of DI beliefs and values on individuals' entrance into marriage. We hypothesize that when individuals and their parents endorse DI, they enter into marriage later or more slowly. We also hypothesize that two pathways connecting DI to marriage are the instillation of older timing attitudes and expectations of marrying at older ages. We test these hypotheses using panel data collected in Nepal from 2008 to 2014. When young people and their parents endorsed DI, the young people valued older ages at marriage and expected to marry later. Young people's own DI endorsement also delayed their entrance into marriage, but parents' DI did not. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Analyses of the relevance of family for young people are more visible than previously within youth research. Nonetheless, understanding of the nature and meaning of family relationships for those who experience separation from their family, including homeless youth, is relatively weak. Based on selected findings from a qualitative longitudinal study, this article explores the meaning-making processes of homeless young people with explicit attention to the ways in which "family" is produced and (re)negotiated in their lives over time. Four themes are presented—family as reliable and supportive; family as interrupted and "broken"; family as fragile and elusive; and family as fluid and ambiguous—revealing the unfolding nature of young people's constructions of family and family relationships. The enduring impact of separation, dislocation, and conflict on how young people "make sense" of familial experiences is discussed, and we conclude with the practice implications arising from the findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using self-determination theory and the theory of emerging adulthood as frameworks, the present study investigated dyadic associations for the effect of parental support on college student–athletes' need satisfaction, and the effect of need satisfaction on student–athletes' adjustment. Fifty NCAA Division I student–athletes and a corresponding parent (N = 50) completed online surveys. Student–athletes' and parents reported parental support (i.e., parental responsiveness and basic needs satisfaction) and student–athletes' reported college adjustment (i.e., academic self-efficacy, athletic satisfaction, and individuation). Interpersonal models demonstrated both parent and student–athlete reported parental responsiveness was associated with higher levels of need satisfaction. Student–athlete reports of need satisfaction was related to reduced emotional independence, while parental reports of need satisfaction were related to enhanced academic self-efficacy. Findings support the central role of parental support for student–athletes in college; however, negotiating the balance between providing support and encouraging emotional independence remains a challenge for parents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using longitudinal qualitative research, the study focuses on the transition to fatherhood and the life changes which fatherhood effects in men's everyday lives. Comparative thematic analysis was used in the study of data provided by two waves of research focusing on 16 dual-earner Czech parental couples. The first wave of interviews took place during pregnancy and the second on the child reaching 18 months. The expectant fathers evinced vague plans concerning approaching fatherhood; some stressed involvement in childcare while others emphasized the provider role. The concept of a "hazy" transition to fatherhood evolved based on the narratives of first-time fathers and is used to describe the indistinct character of the transition to fatherhood. Identity theory is used as the explanatory framework. I suggest that the hazy transition to fatherhood involves the low social appraisal of fatherhood, the breadwinner role, and the central worker identity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Family building by bisexual mothers is a neglected area of research, yet this is an important aspect of life course development that may reciprocally influence the sexual identity development of bisexual women and family processes around parenting. Family map drawings (genograms) and interview data were collected from eight cisgender women from the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland who spoke about their bisexual parenting experience and family relationships. Thematic narrative analysis indicates that participants depict both heteronormative (traditional) extended kinship networks (radiating out from a family core centering on them and their children) and family of choice network features. Nonetheless certain features appear to be more indirectly presented on some participants’ family maps: namely, complex or marginalized (erased) relationships with additional partners that may sustain sexual identity but contradict both heteronormative and homonormative presentations of family life. Our discussion considers the difficult issues bisexual mothers face in maintaining both their family relationships and a marginalized sexual identity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent work on gender differences in academic performance in wealthy countries highlights the importance of family structure: Boys’ education suffers more than girls’ education does when biological fathers are absent. We explored whether high rates of father absence in Latin America and the Caribbean might help explain why girls in the region have been more likely than boys to complete secondary school for decades. Data from the Demographic and Health Surveys instead demonstrated that the effect of father absence did not differ between boys and girls. The reverse gender gap in Latin American education cannot be explained by father absence compromising boys’ on-time progression at ages 9 to 14 more than girls’. In the United States and other high-income countries, boys are particularly disadvantaged by father absence in poorer households, but in Latin America and the Caribbean poorer households may have higher levels of promale bias that offset any similar pattern. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing from an ecological systems framework, we qualitatively explored how Confucian-heritage Asian American emerging adults compared with non-Hispanic European American emerging adults on views of sibling relationships and birth order. Thematic analysis of 48 semistructured interviews revealed positive sibling relationship themes for both ethnocultural groups: mutual support, companionship, and appreciation; comfort from shared burden of negative parental interactions; and pride in one another. Birth order themes were also similar across the groups. Firstborns reported a strong pressure to be a role model to later-borns, provide sibling care, assume family responsibilities, and not expect to rely on younger siblings. Despite these similarities, Asian American firstborns were unique in taking comfort in having siblings who share a less traditional Asian cultural perspective than their parents. They also described additional pressure from being the oldest within an immigrant family. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cultural norms surrounding gender and family have failed to keep pace with demographic trends of family change, resulting in a wide range of family forms that are excluded from family normativity. Yet the contexts in which diverse families confront normative expectations, and the strategies they use to navigate such situations, have received limited attention. Using participant observation with gay father groups and interviews with 41 gay fathers in California and Texas, this study examines how structures of gender and family affect gay fathers’ everyday lives, as well as the management strategies that contribute to gay fathers’ resilience within exclusively paternal families. Results show that community support and norms of outness and visibility among gay fathers aid in their ability to navigate heteronormative ideologies. The concept of incidental activism is introduced to theorize the relationship between gay fathers’ resistance strategies and discourses of respectability within LGBTQ collective action. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Individuals with disabilities increasingly live at home. This study focuses on experiences of adult siblings (aged 18 years and older) in the United States who have a brother or sister with an intellectual/developmental disability. It is based on qualitative survey data (n = 224). We coded narratives of siblings’ experiences and identified themes, correlating themes with demographic characteristics. The major finding was that narratives of the youngest age group (aged 18-25 years) had the highest number of direct care codes. This group of siblings also had the highest number of codes indicating that their lives were enhanced by their brother or sister. To account for this, we utilize the mutual exchange theory of care from sociology and a social model of disability. As a result, we suggest a richer theoretical understanding of care and disability that can capture these nuances, and comment on some of the historical tensions between disability studies and caregiving. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using a national sample of Dutch (N = 5,854) individuals in same-sex and mixed-sex relationships we explored the associations between relationship dynamics, both positive (partner support) and negative (conflict), and life satisfaction. We found that individuals in same-sex relationships reported lower life satisfaction compared with their peers in mixed-sex relationships but there were no differences in the amount of partner support or level of relationship conflict. Across all couples, greater partner support and lower relationship conflict was associated with greater individual life satisfaction. Interestingly, for individuals in mixed-sex relationships, low level of conflict was associated with greater life satisfaction, whereas the association was not as pronounced for individuals in same-sex relationships. In sum, the impact of some relationship factors (such as conflict) on individual life satisfaction may vary in different ways across couple type. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a well-documented relationship between health and employment, and among women in particular, research ties health of the workers themselves and their family members to employment outcomes. However, little research considers the health of multiple family members simultaneously. Building on research linking individual-level health to women’s employment, this article examines health as a family-level construct. Using data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics, I explore how the number of chronic condition diagnoses reported by women and their family members relates to women’s employment, and consider potential variation by educational attainment. Results show that women’s number of diagnoses more consistently predicts employment than the number of diagnoses at the family level, and these effects do not vary by women’s education. This research emphasizes the importance of multidimensional health measures and the need for more research on the family context of women’s employment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To help explain variation in Asian immigrant women’s employment, we examine the association between women’s employment and the presence and characteristics of adult extended household members for seven Asian immigrant groups: Chinese, Korean, Asian Indian, Pakistani, Filipina, Vietnamese, and Japanese. Using the American Community Survey 2009-2011 pooled data, we find that married, first-generation Asian immigrant women’s employment rates are higher when they live with parents or parents-in-law. Furthermore, hampered by housework and care work, these women apparently receive some support in particular from female extended adults providing child care assistance—especially in families with young children. On the other hand, we find a negative association between the presence of disabled adults and employment, but only for Koreans, and employed extended adults’ support varies across nationality groups. Variations in these dynamics across Asian groups suggest the need for further study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Earlier studies have documented persistent negative stereotypes of childless or childfree adults, though acceptance has increased in recent decades. Recent studies have also shown negative biases against parents, especially mothers, in work-related contexts. The current study used college students’ responses to hypothetical vignettes (N = 1,266) to compare perceptions of childless and childfree adults and parents using means comparisons with generalized linear modeling methods, controlling for student and vignette characteristics. Results showed that parents were perceived as warmer, but with less positive marital relationships, than those without children. Mothers were perceived as more stressed and childless men and women as more emotionally troubled, but there were few differences in work-related perceptions. Childless wives with no plans to have children were perceived as least warm, whereas husbands were perceived as least stressed. Results indicate some persistent negative stereotypes of childless adults along with negative perceptions of stress and marital strains related to parenthood. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this survey study, we investigate factors that predict the extent of men’s engagement in housework in South Korea. Using data collected from 466 working fathers during the period from March 2013 to August 2013, it was found that a more egalitarian gender ideology and supervisor support for work–family balance were significant predictors of the frequency of men’s participation in housework (i.e., child-rearing activities and household chores), but that long work hours, which are prevalent in South Korea, moderated these relationships. More specifically, the condition of long average work hours reduced the positive effect of an egalitarian gender ideology and a supportive supervisor attitude on the extent of housework. Therefore, we contend that the effects of changes in individuals’ attitudes toward men’s housework will be limited without addressing cultural norms of overwork or “work devotion” in South Korea. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Substance use (SU) stigma is one factor contributing to unmet need for SU treatment. Additionally, theory suggests that women and single parents who use substances experience enhanced stigma because they do not adhere to normative social expectations. This study examines differences in perceived stigma by gender and parenthood among those with unmet need for SU treatment using the 2003-2010 National Survey of Drug Use and Health (N = 1,474). Results indicate that women are more likely to report stigma as a barrier to treatment compared with men, though the interaction between gender and parenthood is not significant. We find that married parents report the highest level of stigma. We situate our findings in past health-related stigma research. We suggest that these results shed a light on stigma, particularly as it relates to family status, as a contributing factor to differences regarding SU treatment utilization. Finally, we raise a provocative question concerning social status and anticipated stigma. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the extent to which recent increases in intergenerational coresidence and financial dependency among young Black and White women are associated with declines in marriage and increases in nonmarital parenthood. We use U.S. Census and American Community Survey data for the period 1970 to 2010 to examine how changing family patterns by race have contributed to changes in intergenerational support. We find that compositional shifts in marriage and, to a lesser extent, nonmarital childbearing contribute to rises in coresidence and financial dependency over time, as well as to the growing gap between White and Black women. Controlling for marital and parental status reduces the temporal increase in coresidence and greatly reduces the race difference. Race differences in financial dependency are reversed after controlling for marital and family status, showing that coresiding young Black women are less, not more, likely than similar White women to be financially dependent on their parents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the United Kingdom and the United States, significant numbers of university graduates live with their parents, but little is known about expectations regarding parental support. This article focuses on a sample of British middle-class families and their coresident young adult children. It explores the extent to which parents and their graduate children have consistent expectations regarding coresidence and financial support and how such support is negotiated. Fifty-four in-depth interviews with parents and adult children were conducted. The findings reveal that expectations regarding coresidence were broadly consistent across parents and graduate children. Furthermore, within families, there was broad consistency regarding expectations of financial support, although there was variation between families. The nature and ways in which financial arrangements were negotiated varied between families, between parents, and between children. Expectations appear to be shaped by the child’s circumstances and norms, with negotiations of different types enabling a way forward to be agreed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examined the links between different family structures--capturing type and stability thereof--and preschool-aged children's likelihood of being obese. We build on the limited number of studies that have pursued this topic by using a large, nationally representative sample of preschool-aged children from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Survey-Birth Cohort (n = 8,350) and exploring a wide range of mechanisms to explain these links. Results revealed that, compared with young children with stably married parents, children in cohabiting- and single-parent families that experienced a prior family structure change were more likely to be obese, except for children in single-parent families born to married parents. Children in step, stably single, and stably cohabiting families were at no greater risk of obesity. These patterns were largely driven by female children, for whom the effects of family structure were most robust. None of the 11 tested mechanisms explained such patterns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study addresses parental involvement in spousal choice and the impacts of migration. Individual and parental characteristics are analyzed as determinants of arranged versus couple-initiated marriages in Turkish families in Turkey and abroad. Analyses are based on the 2000 Families study “Migration Histories of Turks in Europe” and indicate a strong decline of arranged marriages over the past four decades. Arranged marriages are less frequent among migrants in Western Europe than among stayers in Turkey. The difference is largest for second-generation children. This pattern can only partly be explained by their higher educational attainment. Moreover, lower-educated parents are more involved in spousal choice, whereas parental religiosity does not make any difference. Parents strongly transmit their own marriage patterns to their children, but transmission is weaker in migration. Results suggest migration-specific intergenerational adaptation processes in times of general global social and cultural change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Postponed marriage is a general trend among today’s Chinese young people. However, since in traditional Chinese culture, marriage has been regarded as a family responsibility, when adult children reach a certain age, their parents often push them for marriage. In recent years, some retired parents in China’s major cities voluntarily organized matchmaking markets in parks to exchange their single adult children’s personal information in order to “help” the latter find spouse. Most of these matchmaking markets are only attended by parents, whose adult children remain single in their late 20s and beyond. Through a field research on matchmaking events held in four parks in Beijing, it was found that young women’s parents significantly outnumbered young men’s parents. Younger age and good physical appearance are considered as “assets” for women, while men’s most valued “capital” are better education, higher income, and wealth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using data from the nationally representative 2010 Married and Cohabiting Couples Survey of different-sex cohabiting and married couples, we compared the relationship quality of today’s cohabitors and marrieds. Consistent with diffusion theory and recent conceptual work on the deinstitutionalization of marriage, we found that the relationship between union type and relationship quality is now bifurcated with direct marrieds reporting the highest relationship quality and cohabitors without marriage plans reporting the lowest marital quality. In the middle were the two largest groups: marrieds who premaritally cohabited and cohabitors with plans to marry. These two groups did not differ in terms of relationship quality. This study adds to the growing literature indicating that the role of cohabitation in the family life course is changing in the contemporary context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research indicates the continuance of a rising trend in cohabitation among heterosexual couples. Although most cohabitors eventually marry or break up, there is a subset of cohabitors that are consciously committed to remaining unmarried. Based on interviews with 45 committed unmarried heterosexual couples residing in the United States, this study investigates the reasons why some choose to abstain from legal marriage altogether. Participants indicate a variety of reasons for forgoing legal marriage, including political views, economic practicalities, divorce concerns, and a lack of rationales or incentives to marry. The reasons offered fit into two larger categories: unease about the meanings associated with marriage and concerns about what marriage does to the relationship. As a subset of cohabitors often overlooked in research, it is important to understand what motivates some into saying “I Don’t” to legal marriage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The social demographic literature on divorce suggests that the lower educated are more likely to have personality traits that reduce relationship stability. However, few empirical verifications of this proposition exist. To fill this void, we look at the distribution of personality traits across educational groups of married individuals in Britain. Using data from the British Household Panel Survey (N = 2,665), we first estimated the effects of the “Big Five” personality traits agreeableness, conscientiousness, extraversion, neuroticism, and openness to experience on divorce and subsequently examine their distribution across educational groups. We find that in particular women’s personality traits differ by education. We also observe that personality traits affecting divorce risk are distributed unevenly over educational groups, but they do not favor the higher educated in general. In sum, the data do not support the hypothesis that the lower educated in Britain have personality traits that reduce relationship stability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Interest in the consequences of family legal status for children has grown in response to immigration-related changes in the ethnic composition of American society. However, few population-based empirical studies devote attention to family legal status because of data limitations. Using restricted data from the California Health Interview Survey (2009), the primary objectives of this research are to identify and evaluate strategies for measuring this important determinant of life chances among Mexican-origin children. The results indicate that measurement strategies matter. Estimates of the size of status-specific segments of this population and their risks of living in poverty are sensitive to how family legal status is operationalized. These findings provide the foundation for a discussion of how various “combinatorial” measurement strategies may rely on untenable assumptions that can be avoided with less reductionist approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study explored the experiences of 35 children of former Arkansas Single Parent Scholarship Fund awardees through qualitative interviews. Particularly, the study sought to understand their experiences in single-parent households, before, during, and after their parents pursued a college degree as well as how they perceived the impact of the scholarships, especially in relation to their own educational attainment. From the qualitative interviews, three main areas were identified: the hardships of single-parent households, the challenges and possibilities of single parents’ higher education, and the generational impact of the Arkansas Single Parent Scholarship Fund. For each area, themes and subthemes were identified along with their thick description. The findings of the study emphasize the significance of single parents’ educational and economic accomplishment in children’s education and quality of life even though they also note the challenges within single-parent households, especially during the parents’ college years. The implications of the findings are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We used community-based participatory research with four tiers of governance and grounded theory methods to examine the lives of Alaska Native grandparents rearing grandchildren in a rural community. We explored the reasons Native grandparents reared or are rearing their grandchildren, challenges rearing grandchildren, and the joys of grandparenthood. We used their words to broaden the grandparenting research by focusing solely on Native People living in a rural, arctic climate. Culture, values, and traditions explain the unique reasons grandparents cared for their grandchildren; values and common concerns of all grandparents describe the challenges of grandparenthood; pride and joy, the value of love, and traditional ways of living made clear the joys of Alaska Native grandparents rearing their grandchildren. After the discussion, we offer considerations for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Military deployments are stressful for service members and partners. Communication is an important factor in trying to maintain a relationship during these separations. This article presents a brief overview of communication in long-distance relationships for context, then reviews articles on communication during military deployments. This review reveals that emerging technology has resulted in an increase in the ability to communicate during deployment, although some studies suggest that access to such technology may vary. The few empirical studies that examine new communication technologies have found that different media (e.g., video calling vs. letters) may serve different functions in communication during deployment (e.g., facilitating problem discussion vs. providing tangible reminders of the partner). Military specific concerns, such as restrictions on communication and the potential for communication to distract service members from their mission, also appear to be important factors. The article concludes with clinical and research recommendations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A period of separation is a ground for divorce in some countries. During this waiting period, some parents live apart in two separate residences, while other parents live apart in one residence. In this article, I examine the experiences of fathers who remain living in the same residence as their former partners and the experiences of a number of fathers who had to move out of the family home and live in a separate residence after the decision to separate. The findings show that restrictive divorce policies that delay divorce potentially create a situation of prolonged boundary ambiguity which complicate the process of renegotiating boundaries between parenting and former spousal relationships on divorce. The article argues that for a sample of divorced fathers, the policies that require a prolonged waiting period relate in some way to issues of unclear boundaries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Transnational marriages are increasing within the Asian region where one spouse migrates across national borders to marry. Compared with other forms of intermarriages, little is known about ethnic intermarriages involving transnational migration, especially in societies that are new immigrant destinations. Using social survey from South Korea (N = 64,972), this article examines the marital power dynamics between transnational couples and the well-being consequences of power differentials for the migrating spouse. The results suggest that upward social mobility obtained through transnational marriages, measured by dyadic gaps in education and family social standing between transnational couples, provides a solid foundation for many marital unions, and thus leads to marriage migrants’ better health, improved life satisfaction, and more positive views on transnational marriage migration. This article sheds light on the unique power dynamics of biethnic families, one of the emerging and unconventional forms of contemporary families, and informs policy makers across family, health, and migration domains. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scholars of transracial adoption (TRA) have theorized that neoliberal ideology—valuing unregulated markets, welfare-retrenchment, color-blindness, and privatized charity—has catalyzed support for TRA among political and religious conservatives as a way of relieving governments from subsidizing poor minority children in foster care or their families on welfare. Drawing on theories linking neoliberal ideology, conservative Protestantism, and race, I examine neoliberalism’s effect on support for TRA and its possible moderating relationship with evangelicalism across both Whites and non-Whites. Analyses of national survey data demonstrate that both neoliberalism and evangelicalism in their main-effects are either unassociated or negatively associated with TRA approval. However, neoliberalism interacts with evangelicalism such that evangelicals who hold more strongly to neoliberal views are more inclined to support TRA. This effect holds across both White and racial minority respondents. Findings suggest that neoliberalism leads to greater support for TRA primarily within the context of evangelical Protestantism, thereby helping account for growing enthusiasm toward TRA among conservative Protestants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Contemporary norms of fatherhood emphasize the dual demands of breadwinning and daily involvement in child care. Recent qualitative research suggests that working-class fathers find it difficult to meet these demands due to job instability and workplace inflexibility. Yet little quantitative research has examined how employment characteristics are related to fathers’ parenting stress, in comparison with mothers’. Analyses using data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study (N = 3,165) show that unemployment and workplace inflexibility, but not overwork, multiple jobs, odd jobs, and nonstandard hours, are related to more parenting stress for fathers. Although these two factors are also related to more parenting stress for mothers, nuanced gender differences emerged: these are better predictors than other parental or child characteristics for fathers only, and the effect size of workplace inflexibility is greater for fathers than mothers. In sum, securing a job with flexible schedule is central to reducing fathers’ parenting stress. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The context in which women raise their children has changed significantly over the past 50 years. However, research on families has often neglected to account for the increasing diversity within household structures and its effects on mothers. Using logistic regression, this article examines the likelihood of depression among mothers and multigenerational coresidence, in the first year of the focal child’s life. This research uses data from the first three waves of the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study, a national representative sample of 2,970 married, single, and cohabitating mothers. The results indicate that those living in a multigenerational household show a statistically significant difference in the likelihood of depression; however, the direction of the relationship is moderated by the duration of the coresidence and the mother’s race/ethnicity and marital status. This article also addresses implications for future research and public policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many studies have shown how important it is for low-income mothers to sustain their moral identities as both good mothers and reliable workers during times of little social valuing of mothers’ caring work. Discovering how low-income mothers sustain this duality when caring crises preclude employment requires a mapping of their social worlds as reflected in their moral justifications. We used an institutional ethnographic approach that focused on situations wherein mothers decide to exit the labor market and devote themselves to their children’s caring needs. Interviews with 48 Israeli mothers revealed that they maintain their moral fitness both as good mothers and good citizens by engaging in a specific emotion management: expressing emotional devotion to their paid job, whereas child care is presented as a necessity. We argue that emotion management is particularly revealing of how macro-level institutional practices and discourses come to the fore in individuals’ daily lives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Little is known about how the sexual orientation of gay, lesbian, bisexual, or queer (GLBQ) young adults emerges in their relationships with grandparents. This article explores grandchildren’s experiences with disclosing their sexual orientation to grandparents using qualitative interviews with 28 grandchildren whose grandparents know about their GLBQ sexual orientation. Findings are contextualized using family systems theory as I argue that grandchildren’s motivations to disclose their sexual orientation mirrors previous findings that having a close relationship or having grandparents demonstrate less conservative values motivates grandchildren’s interest in disclosure to grandparents. However, grandchildren’s accounts also demonstrate how their disclosure experiences are shaped by other factors, such as the salience of their sexual orientation in their relationship or the desire to protect grandparents from the negative repercussions of disclosure. Findings indicate that parents and other family members, and the family system more generally, are woven into GLBQ grandchildren’s disclosure experiences. As such, coming out may be usefully contextualized as a family systems issue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The employment and work experiences of mothers who care for young children with special health care needs is the focus of this study. It addresses a gap in the research literature, by providing an understanding of how mothers’ caring role may affect employment conditions, family life, and financial well-being. Quantitative data are drawn from Growing Up in Australia: The Longitudinal Study of Australian Children. The current study employs a matched case–control methodology to compare the experiences of a group of 292 mothers whose children (aged 4-5 years) with long-term special health care needs with those mothers whose children were typically developing. There were few differences between the two groups with regard to job characteristics and job quality. There were significant differences between the two groups with regard to work–family balance. Fewer mothers with children with special health care needs reported work having a positive effect on family functioning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Discretionary time deficits are a result of a disproportionate amount of time spent in paid and unpaid work. Such time deficits are related to negative health outcomes. Discretionary time deficits may be influenced by family structure, because other adults can provide additional economic and time resources. Research to date does not examine differences in discretionary time deficits by family structure. Using the 2003-2010 American Time Use Surveys (ATUS), this study measures discretionary time deficits using a residual time poverty measure and investigates differences in time poverty rates by family structure for women in combination of two social roles—worker and parent. Never married women have significantly lower time poverty rates as compared with married women. There are no family structure differences in time poverty among married, cohabiting, and previously married employed mothers. Living with other employed adults significantly reduces the odds of time poverty for never married women. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Through the federal child care funding and unspent Temporary Assistance to Needy Families funds, states provide subsidies for child care to some employed parents who are income-eligible. Subsidies cannot alter labor market conditions or stabilize low-wage jobs, but they can stabilize child care arrangements. With stable child care, policy makers hope parents’ workforce participation will be more stable. While researchers agree there is a strong relationship between stability in child care and stability in employment, how they are related is not clear. What drives instability in child care and instability in employment, and does instability in one arena affect the other? How might subsidies affect stability in either arena? Using data from in-depth interviews with 44 parents who received child care subsidies in Oregon, we explore the nuanced and often complex relationship between child care stability and employment stability and the effect of subsidies on that stability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The “New Economy” features 24/7 employment, varied work schedules, job insecurity, and lower benefits and wages, which lead to disparities in experiences of security and sufficiency. This study investigates sufficiency concerns in the New Economy; who is having trouble making ends meet? Sufficiency concerns are subjective perceptions that work is insufficient to meet basic needs and that family and work cannot be coordinated in a stable way. This study uses the 2006 National Survey of Religion and Family Life (N = 1,621) to analyze Americans’ experiences in the New Economy and how these experiences are related to work–family conflict. Sufficiency concerns were experienced by a quarter to a third of our respondents and were shaped by gender and structural inequality, especially race and education. Moreover, sufficiency concerns strongly predict work–family conflict, even when other controls are included. This research furthers our understanding of work–family conflict and the winners and losers in the New Economy. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The discursive practices of adoptive parents in two online transnational adoption forums (2006-2008) and observations of five international adoption workshops suggest that what Heather Jacobson described as culture keeping, the cultural socialization of children that retains a sense of native group identity, is more aptly characterized as cultural tourism, the selective appropriation and consumption of renovated cultural symbols, artifacts, and events that serve as the source of identity construction for adopted children. A feature of consumer capitalism, cultural tourism in transnational adoption helps shape the contours of cultural and racial identity. It also provides a partial understanding of how adopted children often fail to develop hybrid identities and how adult adoptees exist on the margins of two cultures. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Recent studies of family life in Ireland have focused on changes in “traditional” family structures, including the increase in one-parent families. This article illustrates the impact dominant conceptions in Irish society that privilege the family based on marriage have on one-parent family policy. The authors focus on two key areas of social interaction associated with family life—parenthood and (un)paid work—to identify both congruences and tensions between social policy and the needs of one-parent families. The article draws on interview and survey data collected in Galway in 2007 to show how existing welfare policies create some opportunities for those parenting alone while at the same time perpetuating inequalities within the gendered family context and across multiple generations. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]