Linked Lives and Cumulative Inequality: A Multigenerational Family Life Course Framework

Abstract

Growing social and economic inequalities in the UnitedA central focus of family scholarship is the role that family plays in aspects of inequality. Across

Sibling Relationships in Adulthood: Research Findings and New Frontiers

“…Life course theory posits links among family members' life transitions, such as getting married or becoming a parent, and suggests that a life event or change in status experienced by one sibling is likely to affect other siblings and the nature of their relationships (Bengtson & Allen, 1993; Gilligan et al, 2018). For example, some research showed that siblings who were married and had children had lower levels of contact, support, and exchange than siblings who were not married and did not have children (White, 2001; White & Riedmann, 1992).…”

“…Families are the most basic social unit in our society, and family members provide psychological, financial, and social support to one another across the life span (e.g., Shaw, Krause, Chatters, Connell, & Ingersoll‐Dayton, 2004; Umberson, Crosnoe, & Reczek, 2010). Current demographic trends including increases in longevity, postponement and abstention from marriage, increases in divorce in later life, and decreases in childbearing are likely to have an impact on how individuals experience multiple family ties (Gilligan, Karraker, & Jasper, 2018; Suitor, Gilligan, & Pillemer, 2015b). These changes may increase the salience of sibling relationships in adulthood.…”

“…Finally, the life course perspective emphasizes individual and family development across multiple dimensions of time, including age, period, cohort, and generational position within families (Bengtson & Allen, 1993; Gilligan et al, 2018). As a result, the life course perspective encourages the consideration of sibling relationships across both individual and historical time.…”

“…The life course perspective emphasizes the interrelated nature of individual agency and social structure (Settersten & Gannon, 2005). Further, social exchange, family systems, and the life course perspective have all been extended to encourage scholars to consider diversity (e.g., gender, race, ethnicity, socioeconomic status) both between and within families to provide important context to studies of interpersonal family relationships (Bámaca‐Colbert, Henry, Perez‐Brena, Gayles, & Martinez, 2019; Bengtson & Allen, 1993; Gilligan et al, 2018; Sherman, Wan, & Antonucci, 2015). Thus, the integration of these theoretical perspectives promotes the examination of variations in sibling relationships both between and within families.…”

White Supremacy and the Web of Family Science: Implications of the Missing Spider

“…For example, general system theory (or family systems theory) pioneered the realization that all elements of a family are interconnected with each member influencing all others (Minuchin, 1985;von Bertalanffy, 1969). Life course theories examined the changing family across time (Elder & O'Rand, 1995;Gilligan, Karraker, & Jasper, 2018), and social exchange theory broadened the perspective by considering the cost/benefit analysis within and between families and their social resources (Albrecht, Goodman, & Bahr, 1983;Heaton & Albrecht, 1991;Sabatelli, Lee, & Ripoll-Núñez, 2018; see Dilworth-Anderson, Burton, and Klein, 2005, for a thorough history of family science theorizing; see Blume, Fine, and Milardo, 2018, for an introduction to the decade's most up-to-date family theorizing). Importantly, these theories were conceptualized with a persistent focus on heterosexual, two-parent, White, middle-class households that touted the "nuclear family" as primary and the "ideal" to which all other groups were not only compared but deemed to be inferior.…”