Families and family study in international perspective

Abstract

Many changes are occurring in the world's families. Some observers feel that the changes are destructive, whereas others see them as leading to new opportunities and understanding. Issues in international family studies include regional limitations and the various aspects of doing research cross-culturally. Knowledge regarding certain categories of families, inheritance, and the social psychology of families is incomplete. There are, however, some universals and universal or worldwide changes, including movement toward individual partner choice, more divorces, lower fertility, and greater opportunities for women.

Parents Don’t (Always) Know Their Children Have Been Bullied: Child-Parent Discrepancy on Bullying and Family-Level Profile of Communication Standards

“…Yet another possibility for the centrality of dyad is cultural. Most samples in this study were Caucasian living in the United States, who are generally individualistic (Adams, 2004; Coontz, 2003). Families with other ethnic heritage and cultural values may share information more willingly within the whole family.…”

Marital Satisfaction Across Three Cultures: Does the Number of Children Have an Impact After Accounting for Other Marital Demographics?

“…Nonetheless, this does not necessarily imply that the impact of children is constant or of the same magnitude across cultures. For example, a cross-cultural perspective on family dynamics would suggest that what occurs in Western societies is not always typical of our species (Adams, 2004;Friedl, 1975;Goode, 1993;Quale, 1988). Indeed, the cross-cultural literature using the Individualism-Collectivism distinction generally indicates that there are cultural differences in the dynamics of paths of development of mating and parent-child relationships (Markus & Kitayama, 1991;Triandis, 1995).…”

Cohabitation in the Philippines: Attitudes and Behaviors Among Young Women and Men

“…Declines in marriage and fertility have been among the few broadly generalizeable patterns in family change recently identified by Adams (2004) and others. Such general patterns, however, mask substantial variation between subgroups within and between countries (Heuveline & Timberlake, 2004).…”