Yining Milly Yang, Emma Zang, Jessica McCrory Calarco
{"title":"Patterns in Receiving Informal Help With Childcare Among U.S. Parents During the COVID-19 Pandemic","authors":"Yining Milly Yang, Emma Zang, Jessica McCrory Calarco","doi":"10.1177/0192513x241257242","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/0192513x241257242","url":null,"abstract":"Pandemic-related school and formal childcare closures have increased the demand for informal (i.e., unregulated or unpaid) childcare, including care from nannies, tutors, extended family members, siblings, friends, neighbors, and pandemic pods. Drawing on a novel survey of 1954 U.S. parents, we are the first to examine U.S. parents’ use of informal childcare during the pandemic. During the early stages of the pandemic, approximately 60% of US parents received informal support with childcare, mostly from older children and extended family members. The types of informal care that parents used differed by socioeconomic status and race/ethnicity. Among parents employed pre-pandemic and mothers of young children who had a job exit during COVID-19, receiving informal childcare was associated with longer work hours in December 2020. We discuss the implications of these patterns for maternal employment and the roles of grandparents and teens in providing informal care during the pandemic.","PeriodicalId":48283,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Family Issues","volume":"100 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.7,"publicationDate":"2024-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141188394","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Is Everyone “Looking for Love?” Trends in Romantic Relationship Interest Among Singles During COVID-19","authors":"Hannah Tessler, Meera Choi, Grace Kao","doi":"10.1177/0192513x241257232","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/0192513x241257232","url":null,"abstract":"Using data from the Dynamics of Social Life During COVID-19 Survey (DSL-COVID), we examine dating and romantic relationship interest among singles amid a global pandemic and loneliness epidemic. This study provides a gendered life course perspective to understanding the heterogeneity of singles’ low romantic interest. We find larger gender differences among the previously married than never married singles. In addition, we document a stronger age gradient for single women than men in low romantic interest. We demonstrate that previously married single men’s romantic interest may be more responsive to loneliness than that of single women. These results suggest that lonely single men express the strongest desires to seek romance, net of controls, while single women express lower romantic interest. Overall, we argue for the possibility that a non-trivial segment of singles may exhibit low romantic interest, and their inclusion is important for social science research on union and family formation.","PeriodicalId":48283,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Family Issues","volume":"16 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.7,"publicationDate":"2024-05-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141188102","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Charting Work Arrangements and Family Configuration over Our Working Lives","authors":"Wen-Jui Han, Julia Shu-Huah Wang","doi":"10.1177/0192513x241257243","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/0192513x241257243","url":null,"abstract":"Using the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth-1979, we used sequence analysis to chart couples' work schedules and family configuration clusters between ages 22 and 53 ( n = 5263) to examine the association between family demands from marriage and childrearing and work arrangements between partners via a life course perspective by focusing on nonstandard work schedules, a vital indicator of precarious employment. We also explored whether such an association differs by race–ethnicity. Our sequence analyses uncovered six joint work schedule arrangements and six family configurations between ages 22 and 53, demonstrating the heterogeneity of family and work trajectories over working lives. We found married couples with two children later in life had relatively stable work patterns, whereas married couples with three or more children had the most diversified work patterns between ages 22 and 53. Furthermore, non-Hispanic Blacks were more likely to have relatively vulnerable work patterns than their non-Hispanic White counterparts.","PeriodicalId":48283,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Family Issues","volume":"21 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.7,"publicationDate":"2024-05-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141166033","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Elisabetta Listorti, Margherita Silan, Elisa Ferracin, Mirko Di Martino, Giuseppe Costa
{"title":"Spouses’ Health: What Happens Beyond the Widowhood Effect?","authors":"Elisabetta Listorti, Margherita Silan, Elisa Ferracin, Mirko Di Martino, Giuseppe Costa","doi":"10.1177/0192513x241236549","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/0192513x241236549","url":null,"abstract":"Objectives. We focus on married couples, and we analyse how the susceptibility and survival of individuals can be influenced by the illnesses and death experienced by their spouses. Methods. We perform a cohort study following married couples (age 65–75 years) from 2001 to 2013. We monitor individual’s susceptibility status and three spouses’ illnesses (i.e. diabetes, cancer, and mental diseases). The methodology used is the Cox regression. Results. The initial cohort is composed of 22,639 couples. During the follow-up, 24% of the individuals dies, 91% experiences at least one susceptibility increase and 43% experiences one spouse’s illness. Results from the Cox regressions report a change in the individual health that is specifically related to the occurrence of the spouse’s diseases and death. Moreover, the three diseases hit individuals differently. Discussion. What emerges from this work is the importance of considering the mechanism of the widowhood effect with an extensive approach.","PeriodicalId":48283,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Family Issues","volume":"27 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.7,"publicationDate":"2024-03-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140169980","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Topics of Conflict Across Family Subsystems","authors":"Noah B. Larsen, Allen W. Barton","doi":"10.1177/0192513x241237601","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/0192513x241237601","url":null,"abstract":"The present study investigated topics of conflict across multiple family subsystems (i.e., the romantic couple, parent–adolescent, and parent–younger child) in present-day American families. Research questions were addressed from a nationwide sample of 593 adults parenting at least one child. Findings highlight the heightened severity of conflict in the couple relationship relative to equivalent topics appearing in parent–child subsystems as well as topics with greater conflict severity between parents and adolescents (e.g., being distant) and topics with greater severity between parents and younger children (e.g., food/picky eating). Salient sources of conflict in present-day families (e.g., technology/phone use in the parent–adolescent subsystem, mood and tempers in all subsystems) were also identified. Findings from the study illustrate ways in which conflict topics appear similarly and differently across distinct family subsystems as well as which conflict topics have changed in families over time and those that have remained constant.","PeriodicalId":48283,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Family Issues","volume":"37 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.7,"publicationDate":"2024-03-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140156300","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Ashley Larsen Gibby, Kevin J. A. Thomas, Maihcen Ware Metcalf
{"title":"Racial Disparities in Socioeconomic Status Among Adoptive Parents","authors":"Ashley Larsen Gibby, Kevin J. A. Thomas, Maihcen Ware Metcalf","doi":"10.1177/0192513x241236550","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/0192513x241236550","url":null,"abstract":"Parents of color are underrepresented in adoption research and as adoptive parents. Consequently, there is limited understanding of racial disparities in socioeconomic status (SES) among adoptive parents. We test two hypotheses: (1) racial disparities in the United States will be reflected in the adoption community (social stratification) and (2) adoptive parents of color may need to overcome additional barriers to adoption, thus having higher SES than White adoptive parents (overcoming barriers). Using 2019 American Community Survey data, we predict adoptive parents’ ( n = 65,556) SES by race and then compare the SES of adoptive and non-adoptive parents of the same race. Across-race results support a social stratification perspective—White adoptive parents have higher SES than adoptive parents of color. Within-race results, alternatively, show that adoptive parents have higher SES than non-adoptive parents across racial groups. Therefore, although adoptive parents experience socioeconomic advantages, parents of color navigate adoption with fewer resources.","PeriodicalId":48283,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Family Issues","volume":"32 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.7,"publicationDate":"2024-03-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140036661","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"What Happens When Family is Forced Together: Conflict, Intimacy, and Distance in Queer and Trans Youth’s Family Relations During the Pandemic","authors":"Amy L. Stone, Allison Powell, Chiara Pride, Guadalupe Rivera, Pekam Njowo","doi":"10.1177/0192513x241237613","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/0192513x241237613","url":null,"abstract":"During the COVID-19 pandemic, many lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) youth lived with family members in forced togetherness. Using the Texas Queer Youth COVID Study, a longitudinal qualitative study of 26 LGBTQ youth in Texas, we argue that the social conditions of the COVID-19 pandemic impacted relationships between LGBTQ youth and their family in dynamic ways, including cultivating intimacy and magnifying new or existing conflicts. LGBTQ youth could not use their preferred strategies of avoidance to handle relatives’ conservative pandemic politics and conspiracy theories. For Latinx LGBTQ youth, the intensified familism required during the shelter-in-place of the pandemic cultivated more intimacy but also became a justification for distance for youth trying to avoid homophobic relatives. These findings contribute to the study of LGBTQ youth and family relations, along with the impact of social isolation on family life.","PeriodicalId":48283,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Family Issues","volume":"40 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.7,"publicationDate":"2024-03-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140055890","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Michaela Šťastná, Júlia Mikolai, Nissa Finney, Katherine Lisa Keenan
{"title":"Diverse Early-Life Family Trajectories and Young Children’s Mental Health in the UK","authors":"Michaela Šťastná, Júlia Mikolai, Nissa Finney, Katherine Lisa Keenan","doi":"10.1177/0192513x241236561","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/0192513x241236561","url":null,"abstract":"Past research suggests that children from two-parent married families fare better than children from other families on many outcomes. Only fragmented evidence on diverse family trajectories in association with child mental health is available. Using multi-channel sequence analysis and data from the UK Household Longitudinal Study, we jointly capture maternal partnership trajectories and type of father co-residence between birth and age 5. We then assess the association between these family trajectories and child mental health at age 5 and 8 using random effects regression. Children whose trajectories include the entrance of a non-biological father or parental separation have the lowest levels of mental health. However, children of never partnered mothers and those who repartner with the biological father have comparable mental health to children of stably married biological parents. Thus, not all types of family complexity or instability appear to be equally detrimental to children’s mental health.","PeriodicalId":48283,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Family Issues","volume":"31 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.7,"publicationDate":"2024-03-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140035905","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Experiences With Deportation and Mexican-Origin Fathers’ Parenting Practices and Stress","authors":"Henry Gonzalez","doi":"10.1177/0192513x241236545","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/0192513x241236545","url":null,"abstract":"For many Mexican-origin families in the U.S., a deportation can be a familiar sighting. Threats of deportation can infringe on parent-child bonds and the activities parents are able to participate in with their children. Using data from a community sample of 85 Mexican-origin fathers, this study utilized a culturally adapted family stress model to examine the role of fathers’ experiences with deportation in undermining positive parenting practices and heightening parenting stress, and then test whether fathers’ perceived access to informal social support moderates these associations. Multiple regression analyses showed the complexity of the role of social support in family stress processes. Findings suggest fewer positive parenting practices were reported by fathers with more deportation experiences, but only in conditions where fathers perceived lower-than-average social support. Also, fathers perceiving higher-than-average social support reported parenting stress if they were also experiencing greater depressive symptoms. Practical implications of state-sanctioned family separations are discussed.","PeriodicalId":48283,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Family Issues","volume":"24 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.7,"publicationDate":"2024-03-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140035906","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Coparenting Quality During COVID-19: Exploring Gender Differences Using a Mixed Methods Approach","authors":"Sabrina Douglas, Katherine Morrison, Alison Miller, Jess Haines","doi":"10.1177/0192513x241236555","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/0192513x241236555","url":null,"abstract":"The aim of this study was to examine potential differences in coparenting quality during the COVID-19 pandemic among mothers and fathers using an embedded mixed methods approach. The objectives were to compare mothers’ and fathers’ scores on the Coparenting Relationship Scale among 150 mother–father dyads, and to examine mothers’ and fathers’ perceptions of how COVID-19 influenced their coparenting quality using thematic analysis of 159 mothers’ and 75 fathers’ responses to an open-ended coparenting survey question. While total coparenting quality scores did not differ among mothers and fathers, fathers had significantly higher scores on the division of labour and endorsement subscales, and mothers had significantly higher scores on the undermining subscale. The qualitative thematic analysis identified five key themes: gendered changes to division of labour, increased hostility, increased teamwork, less alone time, and increased stress. Efforts to mitigate adverse pandemic outcomes on families should address coparenting quality.","PeriodicalId":48283,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Family Issues","volume":"55 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.7,"publicationDate":"2024-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140056285","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}