Social Justice and the Future of Healthy Families: Sociocultural Changes and Challenges

Abstract

Given the pace of social changes, meanings of “family” and what makes a family healthy are changing. How can these changing meanings and understandings contribute to social justice for all families? First, I acknowledge how my personal history has intersected with research I do on youth and families. I define social justice with respect to healthy families, and then consider how contemporary scholarship helps define, redefine, and refine what is meant by “family.” Examples are presented from research on cultural influences on parenting; parenting in same‐sex couple or lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or queer (LGBTQ) families; and coming out in adolescence as LGBTQ. These examples illustrate how the notion of family is defined, redefined, and refined to provide new vantage points on the complexities, possibilities, and potential for social justice among contemporary families, especially those that are marginalized.

Dismantling the master's house: Epistemological tensions and revelatory interventions for reimagining a transformational family science

“…It is possible that a complex peripheral statement might be both in contradiction with a P & PP statement and raise tensions going beyond the contradiction. Consider, for example, the statement that “The very notion of ‘family’ has been historically defined and situated and carries powerful cultural meanings that often are unquestioned… That is, ‘the family’ is fundamentally complex, contested, and ever‐changing in the context of historical times and cultures” (Russell, 2019, pp. 359–60).…”

Mothers as Teachers: The New Role of Mothers in the New Normal

“…Tang and Bao (2020) opined that understanding the situations of the participants at the time enhances social justice for them. Likewise, Russell (2019) averred that giving value and priority to a certain issue is also a way of promoting justice. The researchers decided to publish this study to an internationally refereed journal so that the issue of mothers as teachers could be disseminated and gather an audience.…”

Transformational family science: Praxis, possibility, and promise

“…Family scientists have also described the multilayers of a social justice focus for the discipline. Anderson (2019, p. 386) writes, “… social justice transcends mere distribution of resources to require the transformation of systemic social processes of oppression.” When applied to family studies, Shih et al (2019, p. 414) write that a social justice framework “emphasizes how structural inequalities, differential access to privilege and power, and oppression can influence the lives and well‐being of all individuals and families.” Russell (2019, p. 350) directs us toward lived experience and the quality of life in a socially just society where there is “the ability of people and families to realize their potential for health and thriving in the context of the society in which they live.”…”