A report said that greater fluidity and flexibility in family roles and ties, rather than weakening the family, had reinforced its critical role in society.
Source: The Networked Family, Future Foundation (020 7250 3343)
Links: Summary
Date: 2006-Oct
A think-tank report examined trends that influenced modern parenting - the changing nature of the family; how anxiety and time constraints had led to a professionalization of parenting; how the need for trust combined with necessity to form childcare and healthcare choices; and what parents (and potential parents) understood to be of benefit to them in parenting. It said that the depleted freedoms children had were made up for by an increased amount of quality time spent with parents.
Source: The Changing Face of Parenting, Future Foundation (020 7250 3343)
Links: Summary | Observer report
Date: 2006-Oct
An article used the Millennium Cohort Study to examine a number of aspects of non-residential fatherhood that commenced with the birth of a child.
Source: Kathleen Kiernan, 'Non-residential fatherhood and child involvement: evidence from the Millennium Cohort Study', Journal of Social Policy, Volume 35 Issue 4
Links: Abstract
Date: 2006-Oct
A new book examined evolving notions and practices of kinship, and the interrelationship of kinship, law, and social policy.
Source: Fatemeh Ebtehaj, Bridget Lindley and Martin Richards (eds.), Kinship Matters, Hart Publishing (01865 517530)
Links: Summary
Date: 2006-Sep
An article examined the extent to which changes in women's labour market participation, changing ideologies of gender, and changing forms of intimate relationships, were affecting the ways in which couples organized household money, together with the implications of such changes for recent theories of intimate relationships.
Source: Carolyn Vogler, Michaela Brockmann and Richard Wiggins, 'Intimate relationships and changing patterns of money management at the beginning of the twenty-first century', British Journal of Sociology, Volume 57 Issue 3
Links: Abstract
Date: 2006-Sep
A new book offered a comprehensive overview of the major conceptual models used to understand the patterns and interactional dynamics that operated in families.
Source: Stephen Anderson and Ronald Sabatelli, Family Interaction: A multigenerational developmental perspective, Pearson Education (01279 623626)
Links: Summary
Date: 2006-Sep
A study examined how family members got on together, what affected family life both in and outside the home, and the role that family relationships played in the developing well-being of children in the age range 4-8. Children provided meaningful accounts of family life, and had a role to play in decisions that affected their life at home, such as contact and residence; children benefited from what they saw as fair treatment from parents; and brothers and sisters had the potential to teach one another socially appropriate behaviour.
Source: Alison Pike, Joanne Coldwell and Judy Dunn, Family Relationships in Middle Childhood, National Children s Bureau (020 7843 6029) for Joseph Rowntree Foundation
Links: Findings
Date: 2006-Aug
A report examined how children created kinship in their everyday lives - the range of relationships which mattered to children, and how children experienced, shaped, and gave meaning to these relationships.
Source: Jennifer Mason and Becky Tipper, Children, Kinship and Creativity, Morgan Centre for the Study of Relationships and Personal Life/ University of Manchester (0161 275 0265)
Date: 2006-Aug
An article examined the growing tendency for family law and policy to favour exposing 'genetic truths' in family relationships as crucial to child welfare and equality. It explored the changing contexts of family secrets (using data drawn from the Mass Observation Archive) and placed these secrets in their cultural and historical context.
Source: Carol Smart, 'Family secrets: law and understandings of openness in everyday relationships', Journal of Social Policy, Volume 38 Issue 4
Links: Abstract
Date: 2006-Jan