Showing papers in "Journal of Family Issues in 1993"

The Standard North American Family: SNAF as an Ideological Code

Abstract: This article describes the “Standard North American Family” or SNAF as an ideological code. An ideological code is analogous to a genetic code, reproducing its characteristic forms and order in multiple and various discursive settings. Its operation in two settings is explored. The first is the writer's experience (shared with Alison Griffith) of designing and carrying out a study of the work that women do as mothers in relation to their children's schooling. Although the researchers were committed to feminist methods and to a critical perspective, SNAF reproduced itself in their conceptualization, their interview practices, and in how women responded to them. The second is William Julius Wilson's consideration of the Black family in his study The Truly Disadvantaged. An analysis of his text demonstrates its SNAF-governed order and how its representational credibility is sustained by the SNAF-generated statistics of government agencies such as the U.S. Bureau of Census. It is suggested that such ideologic...

Reshaping Fatherhood: Finding the Models

Abstract: One of the reasons that the “conduct” of fatherhood has been slow to change is lack of exposure to appropriate paternal role models. This research was designed to examine how fathers of young children (one child < 6 years of age) shaped fatherhood roles according to various models in their lives. Following the qualitative research principles of grounded theory and comparative analysis, three key themes emerged. First, there was a void with respect to identifiable and meaningful role models. Their own fathers were not seen as good role models. Second, these fathers tended not to model their behavior after a particular individual, but, rather, their models were fragmented as they selected particular behaviors to incorporate into their roles. A third theme to emerge was the emphasis that was placed by these men on providing a role model to their children, in the absence of role models in their own lives.

Developing a Middle-Range Theory of Father Involvement Postdivorce:

Abstract: The problem addressed in the article is why so many fathers remove themselves from their children's lives after divorce. The authors develop a theory that offers a partial explanation of this phenomena based on the potential for change in the salience of a man's identity as a father postdivorce. Propositions are developed and hypotheses are derived from symbolic interaction and identity theory. The authors define and interrelate the concepts of identity, saliency, commitment, and significant others to explain father presence or absence postdivorce across time. The theory further isolates a number of variables that are expected to moderate (strengthen or weaken) the relationship between father parenting-role identity and father involvement. Identifying modifiers enables the authors to stipulate why some fathers are more involved with their children following separation by explaining the conditions under which father identity becomes translated into a patterned set of behaviors.

Does Marital Status Make a Difference? Housework Among Married and Cohabiting Men and Women

Abstract: In this article, a comparison is made between the time that cohabiting and married women and men spend doing housework, to determine whether there are differences between them and to isolate the sources of those differences. Differences in cohabiting and married women's and men's household labor time are interpreted in light of the way that marital status may affect how gender is accomplished. Using the National Survey of Families and Households, the authors found that marital status affects women's household labor time but not men's; married women spend significantly more time on housework than do cohabiting women. In addition, the gap between cohabiting and married women's housework time cannot be accounted for by sociodemographic differences between them. It was also found that cohabiting women are more like single, noncohabiting women than they are like married women. That is, the research demonstrates the uniqueness of married women. It is not simply the presence of a man that is associated with wome...

Divorced Fathers Parental Role Strain and Psychological Distress

Abstract: Previous studies show that divorced men exhibit high rates of psychological distress, alcohol abuse, and mortality. Using data from a recent national survey, we consider the possibility that these problems reflect strains associated with being a divorced father. The results show that divorced fathers report substantially higher levels of parental role strain than do married fathers. The data further indicate that the estimated effects of divorce on men's psychological distress levels and alcohol consumption are explained, in part, by higher levels of parental role strain among divorced men. Qualitative data from an in-depth interview study of 45 divorced fathers are examined to consider possible reasons why parenting in the divorced status may be conducive to parental role strain, psychological distress, and alcohol abuse.

The Influence of Parental Support, Depressed Affect, and Peers on the Sexual Behaviors of Adolescent Girls:

Abstract: Using logitudinal data from self-reports and observer ratings of family interaction regarding 76 adolescent girls and their parents, this research investigated the effects of parental warmth and supportiveness on adolescents' depressed affect, attitudes about sexuality, peer influence, and sexual experience. The results indicated that girls with more emotionally distant parents were more likely to manifest symptoms of depression. Depressed affect, in turn, was associated with sexually permissive attitudes and having sexually active friends. Although there was a weak direct effect of Time 1 depressed affect on Time 2 sexual experience, the predominant influence on adolescent girls' sexual activity at Year 2 was their perception that their friends were sexually active during the previous year. The authors concluded that the effects of peer influence were due, in part, to the influence of the emotional climate of the girls' families.

Employment, Family, and Perceptions of Marital Quality Among Husbands and Wives:

Abstract: Previous studies of work/family linkages have emphasized the effects of one domain or the other on the individual, yet few have sought to analyze the interconnective nature of paid labor and family environments. Using data from the 1988 National Survey of Families and Households, this study examines the effects of husbands' and wives' employment and marriage characteristics on their respective perceptions of marital quality. Contrary to previous findings, occupational factors have only a minimal effect on both husbands' and wives' perceptions of marital quality. Husbands and wives are both affected by wives' opinions of fairness in the marriage. The results also suggest that husbands may maintain traditional role expectations for themselves and their wives, despite the dual-earner status of their marriage. The implications of these findings for gender roles in dual-earner marriages are discussed.

The Effects of Attitudes Toward Family Life and Gender Roles on Marital Satisfaction

Abstract: This study examines the relationship between the gender role and family attitudes of husbands and wives and five indicators of marital satisfaction. The authors argue that men and women who espouse nontraditional attitudes are likely to be less satisfied than their more traditional counterparts. An empirical analysis is presented using data from husbands and wives interviewed in the 1987-88 National Survey of Families and Households. Husbands and wives who hold nontraditional attitudes toward family life are less satisfied with their marriages, as are men and women whose attitudes diverge from their spouse's attitudes. The effects of attitudes did not vary according to the actual gender roles observed by the couple.

Rethinking Fathers' Involvement in Child Care A Developmental Perspective

Abstract: Most studies of fathers' participation in child care focus on fairness, or domestic democracy. What is sacrificed by fairness-focused studies of family work is attention to the developmental tasks that adult men and women face while building a life together. This article explores the developmental implications for fathers of their underinvolvement in child care using Erikson's conception of adult development and his emphasis on achieving generativity. We suggest processes by which fathers may develop generativity and outline the challenges they face in achieving it. The transition to parenthood often sets mothers and fathers on divergent developmental trajectories that may leave them in different developmental positions. Men's involvement in child care may be crucial to keeping men's and women's development synchronous and hence to maintaining satisfying relationships. A developmental perspective on men's participation in child care may also be more conducive to helping fathers increase their involvement ...

Contemporary Scholarship on Fatherhood Culture, Identity, and Conduct

Abstract: The principal aim in this thematic essay is to identify and discuss three central foci that have influenced the direction of contemporary sociological scholarship on fatherhood issues in North America. These foci include commentaries on the meaning and changing nature of cultural images of fatherhood, efforts to conceptualize and study the social psychological dimensions of fatherhood, and empirical studies that examine resident and nonresident fathers' conduct as it pertains to their children. Discussion of the linkages between these foci is informed by symbolic interactionism and identity theory. The article concludes with suggested avenues for future theory development, research, and social policy relevant to fathers.

Father's Presence and Young Children's Behavioral and Cognitive Adjustment

Abstract: The present study examined the impact of the biological father on young children's cognitive and behavioral adjustment. Using data from the 1986 Child Supplement of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, the relationship between father's coresidence in the household over the first 3 years of a child's life and children's adjustment was assessed for 1,688 four-to six-year-old children. Two dimensions of father-presence were considered, reflecting the timing of the father's entry into the household and the duration of his presence during the child's first 3 years of life. Within-group analyses of variance indicated significant effects of father-presence for White and Hispanic children and for children born to teenage and older mothers. All of these initial effects disappeared, however, once controls for child characteristics, maternal characteristics, and family resources were introduced in multiple regression models. These findings suggest that the father-effects operated through family characteristics...

Fathers and Parental Leave Attitudes and Experiences

Abstract: This research examined the parental leave-taking behaviors and attitudes of a sample of 550 U.S. men whose wives/partners were pregnant, in a longitudinal design that assessed them during the middle trimester of pregnancy, 1 month after the birth, and 4 months after the birth. Identity theory provided the theoretical framework. The fathers' mean length of leave was 5 days, with 71% of fathers taking 5 or fewer days; 91% of fathers took at least some leave. Generally both men and women were strong supporters of job-guaranteed parental leave for fathers, although opinions were mixed about paid parental leave for fathers. The employer's policy regarding length of leave was a significant predictor of the length of leave taken. As predicted by identity theory, sex role attitudes predicted length of leave; supervisor/co-worker attitudes were marginally significant predictors. As predicted by our analysis of the good-provider model and the father involvement model, fathers holding egalitarian sex role attitudes ...

The Fathers' Rights Movement Contradictions in Rhetoric and Practice

Abstract: Family law reforms brought about a new social movement and lobby group—fathers' rights. This article, based on a 2-year study involving participant observation, ethnographic interviews, and document analysis examines the contradictions between the public and private rhetoric of fathers rightists. Thirty-two members from four fathers' rights groups were interviewed about their postdivorce parenting experiences, their personal troubles with family law practices, and their posturing on the fathers' rights' platform. The fatherhood project of family law reform, although viewed as serving all fathers, is primarily driven by fathers' personal stake in the issues and the hope of changing their current situation. The fathers in this study presented a uniform voice in support of the fathers' rights' public image of caring fathers who want men to be recognized as fathers and who are requesting equitable treatment in matters of child custody, support, and access. However, the interviews revealed that individual memb...

Using the Service Economy to Relieve the Double Burden: Female Labor Force Participation and Service Purchases

Abstract: Using a national survey conducted in 1990, this article examines how wives' labor force participation affects the extent to which families use the market economy to provide goods and services that have traditionally been produced by women. The specific purchases examined are help with housecleaning, meals at restaurants, and meals delivered to the home. Findings are discussed within the context of hypotheses about the roles of household resources, personal resources, gender ideologies, role overload, and the specific benefits that different family members receive from the provision of each service.

The Relation between Family Structure and Young Adolescents' Appraisals of Family Climate and Parenting Behavior.

Abstract: Young adolescents (mean age = 11.99 years) who lived with both biological parents (BP), a single divorced mother (DM), a single divorced father (DF), a mother and stepfather (SF), a father and a stepmother (SM), or a multiply divorced parent (MD) (ns = 681, 78, 21, 146, 36, and 55, respectively) appraised dimensions of family climate (supervision, warmth, conflict, and order) and dimensions of parenting (permissive, authoritatian, and authoritative). Differences among these six family structures were found on warmth (BP > SF), conflict (BP < SM, SF; DM < SM), permissive parenting (BP < DF, MD; SM < DM, DF, SF, MD), and authoritarian parenting (DM, SF, MD < DF). Gender did not moderate family structure differences. The findings are consistent with the view that different family structures vary on dimensions of family process.

Family as Mapped Realities

Abstract: Both in everyday language and in more theoretical definitions, family is often made synonymous with household. At the same time, family and household structure have changed remarkably during the last few decades. These changes have implications for how we define family. With a closed and nonproblematized concept of family, certain types of interpretations of social reality are made, but what is needed is a view that can accommodate the more complex and less normative concepts drawn from the everyday experience of family members themselves. This article presents a method for mapping members' conceptualizations.

Family Discourse, Organizational Embeddedness, and Local Enactment:

Abstract: Treating family as an everyday, working vocabulary or discourse for assigning meaning to social relations, the analysis considers the social processes and descriptive conditions through which meaning is established, managed, and transcended. Highlighting both the descriptive utilities and the limits of organizationally embedded discourses, the article presents ethnographic material to show how family, although discursively and interactionally constituted, is a local enactment of practical reasoning substantively bounded by local culture yet offering grounds for resistance. The article suggests analytic orientations and strategies for examining family discourse and meaning in organizational context.

Unity and Difference in Postmodern Families

Abstract: It is argued here that recent changes in families require us to rethink the standard model of family change, initiated by Burgess, as disorganization/reorganization. The dominant image of family life in standard sociological theory was summarized by Burgess in his influential definition of the family as “a unity of interacting persons.” Yet Burgess's studies of families in the 1920s, in fact, revealed two contrasting patterns of relationships. He referred to them as “the highly integrated family” and the “unintegrated or loosely integrated family.” Burgess's devalorization of the latter is described as being typical of theories of the modern family. In the 1980s and 1990s, sociological attention has increasingly turned toward concepts of divergence and difference. It is recommended that these issues be brought into sharper focus in theories of the postmodern family. Some suggestions are made for a research agenda from this emergent perspective.

New Action Theory and Contemporary Families

Abstract: Growing diversities among families and households throughout Western societies are documented. The prevailing conceptual approach has been to distinguish “the family” from alternative life-styles. That dichotomy, rooted in functionalist thought (“old action theory”) is rejected. Drawing on what is called “new action theory” a model for conceptualizing contemporary families is presented. The model assumes that persons construct their families within a societal context that, as Giddens argues, is both constraining and enabling. The authors conceive of families as primary groups. There are least four kinds of interdependencies —each with numerous subfacets, and existing in varied combinations—that give rise to perceptions of families: extrinsic, intrinsic, sexual, and formal. The authors identify two broad expressions of primary groups. One is based on generalized exchange and univocal reciprocity. The other rests on restricted exchange and mutual reciprocity/contingency. Because the authors argue that socia...

Maternal Employment and Child Behavioral Outcomes A Household Economics Analysis

Abstract: This research employs the household economics approach to study the effects of maternal employment and substitute child care on the social behavior of a national sample of 4- and 5-year-old children. Mothers from the National Longitudinal Survey's youth cohort were asked to rate their child's social behavior using items from the Behavioral Problems Index. The household economics approach predicts that behavioral outcomes for children of employed mothers will differ from those of children whose mothers were not employed to the extent that the substitution of market goods and services for nonmarket goods and services is imperfect. The study tests three hypotheses analyzing the interactions of family income and emotional support level with indicators of maternal employment and use of substitute child care. In general, the findings do not support the contention that maternal employment is associated with negative behavioral outcomes for young children. The findings of this and related studies suggest redirect...

The Impact of Rational Considerations and Perceived Opinions on Young Adults' Union Formation Intentions

Abstract: This article examines the extent to which the plans of young adults concerning the choice between cohabitation and marriage are influenced by a rational evaluation of the differences between marriage and cohabitation and by the perceived opinions of significant others, and the extent to which these evaluations mediate the effects of young adults' family backgrounds and current social positions Among a representative sample of young adults in the Netherlands, it is found that evaluations and perceived opinions are quite strong predictors of union formation intentions However, perceived opinions of significant others are better predictors than evaluations of the inherent properties of cohabitation and marriage Furthermore, the effects of family background and social status variables on union formation intentions are almost completely mediated by these subjective evaluations The implications for the discussion of whether union formation choices are rational decisions or based on cultural scripts are disc

Responsibilities in Studying Postmodern Families

Abstract: Traditional modernist family sociology is identified as oppressive and reactionary; this is related to a lack of sense of responsibility. In exploring the responsibilities of those who study postmodern family life, recent material is explored with regard to theoretical, methodological, and policy-related issues. A vital link is made between sociological practice, everyday practice, and policy formation. It is argued that we must recognize and reconcile ourselves to considerable personal and professional responsibilities in the study of postmodern family life.

Father Presence and Family Formation A Theoretical Reformulation

Abstract: During the past several decades, studies on the transition to parenthood and the parent-infant relationship have investigated the role of the father in family formation. The addition of the family systems perspective focused on triadic and family-of-origin effects in early parenthood. The present reformulation introduces object relations theory and self psychology, which permit the development of the concept, the Psychic parental coalition. This concept resides at the heart of a multidimensional definition of father presence beginning at the origins of the offspring's life. It is postulated that father presence cannot be understood apart from the context of the father-mother relationship, beginning at conception. Methods for the study of father presence in family formation are discussed.

Taking Credit Couples' Reports of Contributions to Child Care

Abstract: Biases in husbands' and wives' reports of the relative distribution of child-care responsibility, and the effect of those biases on marital adjustment, were examined in this study. Two hundred and sixty-eight married couples estimated each spouse's percentage contribution to 32 specific child-care tasks and to five global aspects of child-care responsibilities, and completed the Spanier dyadic adjustment scale. The t tests comparing husbands' and wives' estimates on the child care measures showed a consistent credit-taking bias. Spouses gave themselves more credit for participation on a given task than they were given by their partners. Pearson correlations between the degree of credit-taking and marital satisfaction were not significant. The inconsistency between credit-taking for child care and other evidence suggesting an idealization bias between spouses is discussed.

The Link Between Past and Present Intimate Relationships

Abstract: This research addresses how past relationships influence the evaluative and interactive dimensions of current relationships. Data from the National Survey of Families and Households are used to examine cohabiting and married relationships. The results show that after controlling for other factors, prior cohabiting relationships negatively influence current married and cohabiting relationships. For marriage, it is cohabitation with someone other than one's current spouse that produces this negative effect. It is suggested that either those who cohabit with someone other than their intended spouse are predisposed to problems in relationships (and they carry these problems into subsequent relationships), or people who have broken off relationships carry the negative effects of failed relationships into later relationships.

Family, Work, and School Influences on the Decision to Enter the Military

Abstract: This study uses a large, nationally representative data base to examine the multiple correlates of enlistment of young men in the military. It focuses on the recent experience of the all volunteer force (AVF) and pays particular attention to the effects of work, school, and family roles on enlistment in the military and how these effects vary by race. It is argued that the potential for role incompatibility and conflict between the military and work, school, and family roles reduces the likelihood that men who are employed, in school, married, or fathers will enter the military. The findings show that work and school enrollment significantly reduce the likelihood of enlisting in the military for White men but not for Black men. Marriage and parenthood do not affect the likelihood of military enlistment for either Whites or Blacks.

Family from a Dyadic Perspective

Abstract: There are a great number of concepts connected to the term family. These concepts are quite different from one another and many are unclear. The term and the concept dyad are used to sort the differences to provide greater understanding. To demonstrate how the dyadic approach can successfully be used, some illustrative data are presented. The data come from legislation as well as from qualitative and quantitative studies.

Familial Caretaking: A Middle-Range Definition of Family in the Context of Social Policy

Abstract: This article develops the theme of rethinking family as a social form by positing an overall approach that suggests the development of various specific definitions of family, each suitable for the empirical or theoretical exploration of a set of family issues. The development of one example, familial caretaking, a definition of family for use in the context of social policy, will illustrate the potential effectiveness of this approach. The concern of government is to conceptualize the familial in terms concrete behavioral aspects of care and responsibility because if the family does not provide care, the state may have to take over the responsibility and provide the care. Overall, this definition of family is fluid in that it includes nonkin as well as distant kin. It also raises the issue of the gender division of labor with respect to family caregiving responsibilities. The unwillingness, on the part of the state, to support all forms of familial caretaking increases the likelihood of employing mechanis...

Sociology to Famology A Wise Move

Abstract: Proponents of famology stress the unique qualities of the family as exemplified in certain differentiating characteristics of the family realm. When these characteristics are examined in the light of recent research by other family scientists, they appear to disregard negative aspects of family life, present stereotypical roles for both male and female family members, and minimize significant aspects of the interface between families and other institutions and organizations in society. In light of diverse and complex family needs, judging the wisdom of a move to famology should include careful consideration of the defining characteristics of the family realm as identified by those proposing the creation of a new discipline for the family field. At the same time, it seems wise to question famology proponents' inordinate uneasiness with “borrowed” theory and the emphasis on a private-public dichotomy as a given in the study of the family.