Contemporary Issues in Family Studies

Global Perspectives on Partnerships, Parenting and Support in a Changing World

Angela Abela, Janet Walker

• Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell
• Year: 2013
• ISBN:
  9781118321034
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Psychology
• Subtopic: Psychotherapy
• Index: Psychology

This volume tackles key issues in the changing nature of family life from a global perspective, and is essential reading for those studying and working with families.

• Covers changes in couple relationships and the challenges these pose; parenting practices and their implications for child development; key contemporary global issues, such as migration, poverty, and the internet, and their impact on the family; and the role of the state in supporting family relationships
• Includes a stellar cast of international contributors such as Paul Amato and John Coleman, and contributions from leading experts based in North Africa, Japan, Australia and New Zealand
• Discusses topics such as cohabitation, divorce, single-parent households, same-sex partnerships, fertility, and domestic violence
• Links research and practice and provides policy recommendations at the end of each chapter

Part I

Changing Couple and Family Relationships

The chapters in the first part of this book explore the changes taking place in couple and family relationships. The first four chapters focus on marriage. For centuries, marriage has signified a committed couple relationship via a legal contract which binds partners together, ostensibly for life. Marriage is influenced by a range of factors, however, including the norms and laws of each society, and by religious beliefs. The institution of marriage, like all social institutions in a given society, is continually adapting to internal and external changes. Over the last fifty years, however, these changes have been extensive; the more traditional pathways to getting married are being eroded and are giving way to a range of options for making, breaking and remaking couple relationships. It is these options which are explored in the chapters which follow.

One option is cohabitation. In the first chapter of this section, Chapter 2, Turid Noack, Eva Bernhardt and Kenneth Aarskaug Wiik explore the development of cohabiting relationships since 1800 and examine the current rise, and variation, in cohabitation patterns across the Western world. They consider different types of cohabitation in different countries and point out that while cohabitation as a partnership type of choice has become commonplace in the Nordic countries and France, the number of those cohabiting in eastern and southern Europe is low. Nevertheless, ­living together in an intimate couple relationship without being married is becoming increasingly acceptable in many countries, although statutory regulation of cohabitation is not well-developed, except in countries with high cohabitation rates. The extent to which cohabitation is replacing marriage is debatable, however, particularly since the symbolic importance of marriage remains high. The authors conclude that it is still reasonable to consider marriage and cohabitation as distinct aspects of ­partnership formation.

Emerging forms of marriage and couple relationships are explored further in Chapter 3. Paul Amato and Lydia Hayes describe a form of marriage in the USA that they term ‘alone together’ marriages, and ‘living apart together’ (LAT) relationships, which are more common in Europe. Drawing on cross-sectional data sets, the authors show how marriage in the USA has changed, and use measures of happiness and ­interaction to create a typology of marriages. They present vignettes to illustrate this typology.

Amato and Hayes point to a shift in the USA from companionate to individualistic marriages, which are successful only insofar as they continue to meet each partner’s innermost psychological needs and deepest wishes. They argue that the rise in alone together marriages can be seen as indicating a natural adaptation to and extension of the growing individualism of American society. By contrast, in LAT relationships, unmarried partners in an intimate relationship maintain dual households. Data about LATs are relatively sparse, but evidence suggests that while most LAT relationships are transitory, others are long-lasting, and a deliberate alternative to marital and non-marital cohabitation. Amato and Hayes suggest that long-term LATs face different challenges and may be particularly fragile when problems occur in the relationship.

The discussion of fragility in couple relationships is developed by Jan Pryor in her review of marriage and divorce in the Western world (Chapter 4). In order to understand the rapid increase in divorce in the last half of the twentieth century, she considers the role of religion, individualism, connectedness, and the changing characteristics of marriage. She argues that connectedness and commitment have not weakened in the Western world. She highlights the distress which accompanies divorce, and argues for a more holistic view of intimate relationships in the twenty-first century and more inclusive approaches for promoting wellbeing and stability in couple relationships. Within this context, she examines different levels of commitment in relationship ­wellbeing and makes a case for strengthening relational commitment.

Although high rates of divorce have been associated with the USA and countries in Northern Europe, divorce is having an increasing impact across the globe. Layachi Anser (Chapter 6) focuses on the challenge posed by divorce in Gulf societies, enabling us to understand changes in marriage and divorce in the Arab world. Muslim societies have always upheld the sanctity of marriage and divorce is regarded as a last resort in a troubled relationship. Nevertheless, the rapid economic and global transformations which have made the Gulf region the richest in the world have had far-reaching impacts on family life, despite the existence of very strong kinship ties. Anser suggests that a complex interaction between internal and external factors has resulted in increasing opportunities being open to women while, at the same time, mate selection and marriage are still strongly influenced by kinship and tribal frameworks. The chapter provides a powerful illustration of the tensions and contradictions which emerge as global changes compete with long-revered traditional values and processes.

The next three chapters in Part I examine three different aspects of family life which have global relevance. The first (Chapter 6) looks at couple and family dynamics in respect of family violence; the second (Chapter 7) examines the growing significance of intercultural couple relationships; and the third (Chapter 8) considers the challenges and opportunities in family life as people grow older.

Family violence has received increasing attention over the last fifty years. In her chapter, Justine van Lawick discusses different perspectives on family violence, considers the evidence relating to both male and female violence, and describes innovative approaches to treatment. She asserts that it is possible to link escalations in violence to the frustrations in human relationships and stress factors in day-to-day family life, and argues that unless these complex dynamics are fully understood treatment ­programmes will be ineffective. Since family violence is a universal phenomenon, in van Lawick’s view contextualisation is necessary to avoid simplistic perspectives on and approaches to a very serious issue in couple relationships.

Danika Hiew, Kim Halford and Shuang Liu examine the complexities of intercultural couple relationships, looking specifically at relationships between spouses of European and Chinese ancestry. Although intercultural partnerships were rare in the past, opportunities today to form relationships across cultural divides are growing. Using vignettes, the authors examine communication between a partner brought up in an individualistic culture and a partner brought up in a collectivist culture. This insightful overview emphasises the powerful role of culture in shaping expectations of relationships, and introduces the innovative Yin and Yang relationship measure. Importantly, this chapter reminds us of the tendency to view one’s own culture’s way of doing things as necessarily right and of the need to transcend any one single ­cultural tradition when developing policies and programmes to support couple relationships in a changing world.

In the final chapter in this section, John Bond also reminds us of the dangers of adopting cultural stereotypes stemming from a Westernised view of family life. He reviews the impact of global changes as perceived by older people. Life expectancy is increasing worldwide, although there are clear regional variations. Societal attitudes to ageing shape both the lived experience of growing older and the predominant discourse, which sees ageing as either an opportunity or a problem. Bond highlights ways in which the changes in couple relationships and family life discussed in earlier chapters will impact on the availability of family support in later life, but he questions whether intergenerational ties are any weaker than previously, and argues that reciprocity in families is as strong as it has ever been. This optimistic perspective nevertheless signals the important role of the state in preparing people for later life and ensuring that older people can live independently within community and family networks.

In all these chapters, cultural context emerges as a key factor influencing the ways in which people are responding to changes in relationships and living arrangements. References to the Second Demographic Transition are made in several chapters throughout the book as a means of contextualising the ideological shifts towards individualism in modern societies.

1

Global Changes in Marriage, Parenting and Family Life

An Overview

ANGELA ABELA AND JANET WALKER

Introduction

We live in a time of unprecedented diversity in household living arrangements, and of extensive social, cultural and economic change, both of which have far-reaching implications for marriage, parenting and family life in the twenty-first century. While families across the globe have always taken a variety of forms, certain functions, such as the nurture of children and care of family members, are universal. The concept of family denotes stability, and most societies have placed a high value on the institution of ­marriage as providing the best environment in which to bring up children.

Contemporary global variations in partnership formation and decreasing marriage rates have generated concerns that family stability is under threat and family values are in decline. Expressions of a looming crisis in family relationships, however, can be traced through hundreds of years of social history. Such concerns primarily revolve around the weakening of the nuclear family, comprising a married couple and their children, widely regarded as the traditional family structure in Western societies. But this kind of family is by no means a universal phenomenon, nor is it essential for carrying out family functions. As diversity increases, it is vitally important to examine the nature and extent of the changes in marriage, parenting practices and family life taking place across the globe; to understand the impacts of these changes on adults’ and children’s wellbeing, on communities, and on societies as a whole; and to assess the steps that might need to be taken by governments and others to develop family-friendly policies and support services that can enable families to foster strong, stable, loving environments in which family members can flourish and reach their potential in the modern world.

This book has drawn on the expertise of scholars around the world to consider the challenges and opportunities currently facing families in different societies and to review the evidence about changes in partnership and parenting. In this first chapter, we provide a brief overview of the key changes and set the global context for the more in-depth discussions in subsequent chapters about how these changes are affecting people in different societies at a time when long-established cultural traditions and belief systems are having to accommodate modern conceptions and expectations of intimate couple relationships and varying approaches to child rearing.

In developing this book, we were influenced by evidence that points to the importance of family bonds and strong, stable family relationships for the development and maintenance of strong stable societies. It is clear to us that the quality of the relationships between parents as partners and between parents and their children are critical determinants in enabling us to assess the risk and protective factors in children’s lives. An understanding of the interrelationships between these factors and how resilience may be fostered is, we would argue, critical to the development of policies which can support families at times of stress and increased vulnerability to global conditions which might increase risk. Reviewing the wide variety of couple relationships and modern approaches to marriage was the obvious starting point for the book. Love and marriage are symbolic constructions that derive their meaning from the social, cultural and historical contexts in which they are embedded (Albas and Albas, 1989). As McKie and Callan (2012) have pointed out, it is a Western assumption that couple relationships now result exclusively from emotional response and the process of ‘falling in love’. Nevertheless, Balfour et al. (2012, p. xxix) have argued that, irrespective of family structure, couple relationships shape our world:

… the qualities of our relationships have profound implications from our earliest years, for the emotional, cognitive, and physical development of our children, to our latest years—in old age, affecting the likelihood of hospitalisation, the rate of progression of disease in dementia, and even mortality rates.

Changes in Marriage and Couple Relationships

While married couples still constitute the main type of adult couple partnerships in most countries, many people enter marriage having experienced earlier sexual relationships and, increasingly, both men and women exercise choice about the kind of partnership they enter into. Although many social commentators believe that marriage provides the most secure foundation for ra...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title page
• Copyright page
• Dedication
• List of Figures
• List of Tables
• Preface
• Contributors’ Biographies
• Part I: Changing Couple and Family Relationships
• Part II: Parenthood, Parenting and Family Life
• Part III: Global Impacts on Family Life
• Part IV: Looking to the Future: The Role of States in Supporting Families
• Index