Cross-Cultural Family Research and Practice

W. Kim Halford, Fons Van De Vijver

• Publisher: Academic Press
• Year: 2020
• Print ISBN:
  9780128154939
• eBook ISBN:
  9780128154946
• Topic: Technology & Engineering
• Subtopic: Industrial & Organizational Psychology
• Index: Technology & Engineering

Cross-Cultural Family Research and Practice broadens the theoretical and clinical perspectives on couple and family cross-cultural research with insights from a diverse set of disciplines, including psychology, sociology, communications, economics, and more. Examining topics such as family migration, acculturation and implications for clinical intervention, the book starts by providing an overarching conceptual framework, then moves into a comparison of countries and cultures, with an overview of cross-cultural studies of the family across nations from a range of specific disciplinary perspectives. Other sections focus on acculturation, migrating/migrated families and their descendants, and clinical practice with culturally diverse families. - Studies cultural influences in couple and family relationships - Features a broadly interdisciplinary perspective - Looks at how cultural differences affect how families are structured and function - Explores why certain immigrant groups adapt better to new countries than others - Discusses why certain countries are better at integrating immigrants than others

Part 1

Introduction

Chapter 1: An introduction to families and culture: Research and practice

W. Kim Halford^a; Fons van de Vijver^{b a} School of Psychology, University of Queensland, St. Lucia, QLD, Australia
^b Department of Culture Studies, Tilburg University, Tilburg, Netherlands

Abstract

The forms and functions of families have some noteworthy consistencies, and important variations, across cultures. Understanding the research on these consistencies and variations informs practice in enhancing human well-being, as families are central to humans’ lives. This chapter provides an overview of the content of the chapters in this book. This chapter is organized into three sections: the forms and functions of families, the influences on families, and family-based interventions.

Keywords

Family; Culture; Cross-cultural; Family therapy

Family is central to humans’ lives. In the World Values Survey (2016) conducted across 60 countries, more than 85,000 adults rated the importance of a range of aspects of life. On a 4-point scale (1 = very important to 4 = not at all important), 92% of respondents rated family as very important, whereas work (63%), religion (50%), friends (47%), leisure (36%), and politics (15%) were much less frequently rated as very important. In the 60 countries surveyed, the modal response in every single country was to rate family life as very important. Across diverse cultures drawn from all regions of the world, the mean overall rated importance of family was 1.10 (SD = 0.35), which is very close to the maximum possible importance rating of 1.00. (NB: Lower scores correspond to higher rated importance.) This rating contrasts with the lower mean importance ratings for other significant aspects of life: work (M = 1.51, SD = 0.79), friends (M = 1.67, SD = 0.73), religion (M = 1.89, SD = 1.05), and leisure (M = 1.89, SD = 0.83).

The global pattern of attaching very high importance in life to family might suggest that there are cross-cultural human universals in the forms and functions of family life. Consistent with this possible universality, evolution has shaped the way humans reproduce and care for offspring, and family plays a central role in these functions (Buss, 2016). At the same time, there are large bodies of evidence documenting important cultural differences in some of the forms and functions of families. For example, in most Western cultures (e.g., United States, Australia, Germany), a committed couple relationship is seen by most adults as distinct from the families of origin of the partners, and there are certain matters only discussed within the boundaries of the couple relationship (Epstein, Chen, & Beyder-Kamjou, 2005). The satisfaction of the adult partners with that relationship is central to, and defines, the success of the couple relationship (Coontz, 2005; Halford, 2011). In contrast, in traditional Chinese culture, the couple relationship is considered as an extension of the parent’s family (Shi & Wang, 2009), and filial piety—obeying and showing respect for one’s parents—is considered a virtue in Chinese culture (Chan, Ng, & Hui, 2010). In these contexts, the extent of family approval of how the couple interacts with the extended family is central to the view of the relationship as successful (Coontz, 2005). Thus, family form can vary (the couple-based nuclear family vs extended family group), as can family function (meeting the needs of the adult partners and offspring, vs meeting the needs of the whole extended family).

The aim of this book is to provide a multidisciplinary synthesis of research on what is common to all human families, what varies cross-culturally, and the implications for practice in promoting positive family functioning. The book draws on insights from diverse disciplines including anthropology, communication studies, demography, economics, evolutionary biology, law, political science, psychiatry, psychology, and sociology. The book content falls conceptually into five broad areas, this introduction plus four more sections. The second (next) section is an analysis of the forms and functions of families. The third section analyzes influences on family functioning, and the role of culture in moderating the effects of these influences. The fourth section is a review of family interventions, with a particular focus on how to deliver family interventions in a culturally informed and appropriate manner. The fifth and final section consists of a conclusions chapter.

Family forms and functions

This section analyzes the universals, and the cross-cultural differences, in families’ form and function. It begins with Chapter 2 by Bjorklund, Myers, and Bartolo-Kira, which analyzes evolutionary influences on human families. As the chapter describes, humans are a distinctive species in that we humans have extended to an unprecedented level the primate trend toward a large brain, complex social groups, and an extended period of immaturity. The extended period of immaturity not only allows the human brain to continue to develop after birth to give a complex behavioral repertoire, but also makes human offspring depend on caregivers for survival. Caregivers are predominantly family members, and successful raising of offspring requires family members to cooperate. Thus, humans are cooperative family breeders, and family serves the evolutionally critical function of promoting the survival of young humans. Bjorklund and colleagues describe how parents, offspring, and other family members have evolved particular patterns of within-family behavior that enhances survival.

Bjorklund and colleagues also note that evolution operates relatively slowly, and humans evolved behavioral tendencies that influence family functioning, rather than fixed behaviors, as this allows flexibility in response to changing environments. Our human characteristics evolved in a time referred to as the environment of evolutionary adaptation, when humans were living a hunter-gatherer existence. Cultural changes have modified the forms, and to some extent the functions, of families, and these cultural influences are explored in the subsequent chapters.

Chapter 3 by Hewitt and Churchill and Chapter 4 by Lesthaeghe use a demographic lens to examine cross-cultural similarities and differences in a family life. As Hewitt and Churchill documented, family life has undergone dramatic transformations in the last few hundred years, with global declines in the rates of marriage, increasing age at marriage, increasing rates of divorce, changes in gender roles within the family, and shifts in who is allowed to marry. They concluded that marriage and family formation are continuing to change, and while there are some consistent global trends (e.g., a decline in marriage rates), there seems not to be convergence toward a particular family form but rather diversification of family forms within countries.

Lesthaeghe critically analyzes the rise of one family form, unwedded cohabitation. He documents how the trends toward cohabitation vary greatly across countries, in terms of rises in rates of cohabitation, differences in overall rates of cohabitation, and who within particular countries cohabits. Importantly, Lesthaeghe documents how cultural contexts moderate the association of cohabitation with the functions of family, cultural contexts include variables like the level of income inequality, welfare state provisions, and religiosity.

Gautier in Chapter 5 examines family law across 189 countries. She describes the large variations cross-nationally in laws on who can marry, such as the minimum age for marriage, whether the law permits polygamous relationships, and the legality of same sex marriage. Gautier also describes the large between-country variations in laws about the relationship within couples. She analyzes how many such laws disadvantage women. For example, numerous countries have laws requiring wives to be obedient to their husbands, and also that women can only undertake certain activities with the husband’s permission (e.g., open a bank account, obtain a passport). Moreover, many countries have laws that specify property settlement arrangements after divorce that disadvantage women economically.

Chiappori and Molina in Chapter 6 use an economic framework to analyze couple relationships cross-culturally. Their analysis starts from the economic argument that people live in couple and family relationships because that arrangement allows more efficient use of economic resources than living as individuals. They then analyze what influences spousal bargaining power to decide on the expenditure of family resources, drawing on studies in high-, middle-, and low-income countries. They concluded that spousal bargaining power strongly depends on the cultural context, and that the spousal bargaining power moderates the effects of social policy designed to reduce family disadvantage.

Zhang and Kline in Chapter 7 critically review the research on the association between couple communication and couple relationship satisfaction. They noted that, cross-culturally, there is an association between relationship satisfaction and high rates of positive communication (e.g., positive affect, validation, and warmth) and low rates of negative communication (e.g., hostility, dominance, and invalidation). However, the normative rates of particular behaviors, and the strength of the association between satisfaction and communication behaviors, vary considerably cross-culturally. They conclude by considering the implications of cross-cultural variation in communication for couple therapies, which often focus on promoting positive couple communication.

Parsons, Heyman, Mitnick, and Slep in Chapter 8 review an important but dark side of family functioning, the occurrence of violence and abuse in families. In their chapter, they explore the definition of what constitutes partner abuse and neglect, and what constitutes child abuse and neglect. They consider whether such definitions are culturally determined; to what extent it is possible to establish worldwide, cross-culturally meaningful, standards that define unacceptable violence and abuse; and how to understand how systems of power, privilege, and oppression operate with particular cultural contexts.

Chapter 9 by Pepping, Power, Bourne, and Lyons reviews the form and functions of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) families in a cross-cultural context. The chapter describes the changing legal recognition of LGBT families in many parts of the world, and the implications of the different laws for LGBT family functioning. The authors present evidence that most people in LGBT communities desire to have a satisfying couple relationship, and describe their aspirations for those relationships. The chapter analyzes the distinctive challenges for LGBT couples who wish to be parents, and the laws surrounding issues like surrogacy, artificial insemination, and adoption as they affect LGBT couples. Finally, the chapter looks at the negative effects of stigma and discrimination against LGBT families, and suggests how to attenuate these negative effects.

Influences on family

This section analyzes how culture moderates the effects of many influences on family functioning. The influences considered range from those that have an impact on all families, like work-family balance, through to influences that can have a major impact but affect only some families, such as migration and war.

The first chapter (Chapter 10) is by Holmes, Thomas, Petts, and Hill, who address the interface between work and family. They describe how work and family domains can have positive and negative effects on each other. The authors explained a conceptual model in which work-family system interaction are determined, at least in part, by the cultural context within which the family and work systems exist. The authors then describe the large variations that exist cross-culturally in gender roles, maternity and parental leave provisions, availability of flexible work arrangements, and child care practices. They analyzed how these cultural factors moderate the work-family interface.

The next chapter (Chapter ...

Table of contents

• Cover image
• Title page
• Table of Contents
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contributors
• About the editors
• A Personal Tribute to Fons van de Vijver (1952–2019)
• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• Part 1: Introduction
• Part 2: Essential forms and functions of families
• Part 3: Influences on family functioning
• Part 4: Family interventions
• Part 5: Conclusion
• Index