Journal of Family Issues

This paper explores how surrogates negotiate the meaning of familial belonging and family identity when they discuss surrogacy with their husband, children, and other relatives. We suggest that surrogacy necessitates reflexive explication of what a family is and how this family is implicated in surrogacy. Our comparative study analyzes ethnographic data on Israeli and US surrogates to illuminate key similarities in surrogates’ strategies vis-a-vis their husband and children, pointing to the importance of daily family practices in how people understand family belonging. First, we map out the ways surrogates engage their husbands in order to gain their support and protect their nuclear family unit before entering the process. Next, we look at how surrogates explain surrogacy to their children in efforts to clarify siblingship and the boundaries between the two families, and to make surrogacy into an educational family project. We analyze the metaphors and rituals in surrogates’ family-bounding practices.

The study examined the relationship between a mother’s earning advantage over her husband, and three aspects of the parenting experience: the cognitive aspect (examined through the concept of parental self-efficacy), the emotional aspect (examined through the quality of the relationship with the children), and the behavioral aspect (examined through parental involvement in childcare). The sample included 246 Israeli Jewish participants who were not married to one another and do not share a household (85 fathers and 161 mothers). Fathers with traditional gender role attitudes whose income is lower than that of the mothers scored lower than other participants on paternal self-efficacy, and experienced less closeness and lower satisfaction in their relationship with their children, regardless of gender. The findings indicate that fathers who hold traditional gender role attitudes and do not serve as main providers constitute a particularly vulnerable group in terms of the parenting experience.

Adolescent alcohol use is a subject of concern. Despite research showing an association between parenting behaviors and alcohol use, scarce research has examined whether associations are similar across immigrant status. This question is relevant given that immigration can disrupt parent–adolescent relations. The aim of the current study was to examine the moderating role of parenting behaviors (support, parental knowledge, and communication) on the association between immigrant status and alcohol use (drunkenness and heavy episodic drinking). The study included representative samples of first- and second-generation immigrant adolescents from the Former Soviet Union (FSU; N = 1,167) and Ethiopia (N = 385), and non-immigrant (N = 6,669) adolescents in Israel. Non-immigrant adolescents reported higher levels of parenting behaviors and lower levels of alcohol use than immigrant adolescents. Parenting behaviors were negatively associated with alcohol use, but there were no interactions between parenting behaviors and immigrant status. However, differences in parenting behaviors partly explained differences in alcohol use across groups.

Division of family tasks between the members of a couple often reflects gender (in)equality in the family. Identifying how couples with different unemployment configurations divide family tasks may contribute to a better understanding of the process. In this study, we evaluated how unemployed couples (only husbands, only wives, and both; n = 291) distributed different types of family tasks (domestic, maintenance/repair, and childcare), the effects of this division on the perception of justice, and the influence of attitudes towards gender roles in their perception of justice. We verified that unemployment introduces some changes, for both men and women. Namely, individuals when unemployed start performing more family tasks. However, division is still unequal, with wives performing more domestic and childcare tasks than their husbands. Nevertheless, men and women have a greater perception of justice towards a more equal division, even after we control the effect of traditional gender attitudes.

This investigation concentrates on value similarity between parents and their children during adulthood. The interplay between gender, age, relationship quality, and frequency of contact on value similarity was analyzed. A total of 600 adult German children (53.8% women) and their parents took part in a questionnaire study. Value orientation was measured with a short version of Schwartz’s Portrait Values Questionnaire, and relationship quality with the Network of Relationships Inventory (Furman & Buhrmeister, 1992).Value similarity was higher in mother–daughter dyads compared to mother–son dyads, but in the other dyads, no significant differences were found. Regarding relationship quality, verbal intimacy was not related to value similarity. Parental satisfaction was associated with value similarity in the father–child dyads. Satisfaction, as perceived by adult children, was linked to value similarity in mother–child and father–son dyads. Furthermore, the frequency of contact related to value similarity between mothers and sons.

Flexibility in work schedules is key to helping parents with young children balance work and caregiving responsibilities. Prior research shows that work schedule inflexibility is associated with greater parenting stress and work-family conflict. Through these negative implications for parental well-being, work schedule inflexibility may also adversely influence children’s socio-emotional development. This study uses data from an urban, birth-cohort sample of children born to predominantly unmarried parents, the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study, to test the hypothesis that mothers’ perceived work schedule inflexibility is associated with children’s behavior problems at age 5 years. Results from lagged dependent variable models suggest that mothers’ high work schedule inflexibility was associated with more externalizing and internalizing behavior problems in their children, relative to experiencing low inflexibility. These associations were partially mediated by mothers’ parenting stress and depressive symptoms, and for externalizing behaviors only, these associations were concentrated among single-mother and low-income families.

This cross-sectional study on Ghanaian adolescents examined the direct and indirect associations of food insecurity, parent–adolescent relationship, and adolescent future orientation. We used structural equation modeling to examine reliability and validity of our latent constructs and our hypothesized direct and indirect relationships. Results indicated adequate fit of our measurement and structural models with the data. Results also showed a significant direct and indirect effect of food insecurity. Food insecurity was directly associated with parental connection, orientation toward success, and uncertainty about the future. Food insecurity was also indirectly associated with orientation toward success and uncertainty about the future, via parental connection. Further, higher levels of parental connection were directly associated with higher levels of orientation toward success and with lower levels of uncertainty about the future. Understanding the direct and indirect effect of food insecurity is important for the design of appropriate interventions that promote holistic and positive adolescent development.

Balancing work and family may be particularly challenging for parents of seriously ill children. This Swedish registry-based study, including 2,788 parents of children with cancer and a matched reference cohort of 27,110 parents, used regression models to analyze the division of childcare, measured as use of temporary parental leave (TPL), and how it relates to income division within couples and change in income over time. The results show that the number of days on TPL increased significantly following a child’s cancer diagnosis, particularly among mothers. Fathers’ share of the couple’s total income was not found to be a strong predictor of the division of TPL, and no association was found between TPL and income development. The study highlights the considerable time needed to care for a seriously ill child, unevenly distributed between mothers and fathers, and suggests that factors other than economic resources may influence the division of childcare responsibility.

This study uses data from a sample of 7,404 respondents from Waves I and IV of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health) to examine how the quality of relationships between parents (mother–father) and relationships between parents and children during adolescence (mother–adolescent and resident father–adolescent) influence children’s romantic relationship quality in young adulthood. This study also examined whether these family of origin factors operate similarly or differently for children raised with biological fathers and married stepfathers. Results indicate that mother–(step)father, mother–adolescent, and resident (step)father–adolescent relationship quality are all positively associated with adult children’s romantic relationship quality. However, the association between mother–(step)father relationship quality and young adult children’s romantic relationship quality was stronger for those who resided in stepfamilies.

Studies show that fathers across Western populations tend to provide more care to sons than daughters. Following a human behavioral ecological framework, we hypothesize that son-biases in fathering may (at least in part) be due to differences in fitness returns to paternal direct investments by child’s sex. In this study, we investigate sex-differences in the associations between paternal caregiving and children’s outcomes in stable, two-parent families. Using data from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children, we test whether paternal caregiving in early childhood is associated with different effects on children’s school test scores and behavioral difficulties by children’s sex. Overall, we find that paternal caregiving is associated with higher school test scores and lower behavioral difficulty scores, but the association between paternal caregiving and school test scores was stronger for boys. Our findings highlight possible sex-differences in returns to paternal caregiving for certain domains of child outcomes in England.

Understanding what explains the individual differences in adolescent self-control is crucial, given the importance of self-control to positive youth development. This research examines the extent to which mothers’ work–family conflict (WFC) associates with adolescent self-control via parenting (i.e., involvement, positive parenting, poor monitoring/supervision, and corporal punishment). One hundred and eighty-eight Chinese mother–child dyads participated in the research. Mothers reported on their WFC and parenting at T1, and adolescents rated their self-control 2.5 months later. Results of mediation model found that low involvement and poor monitoring/supervision linked the association between mothers’ WFC and adolescent self-control, net the effect of child sex, family socioeconomic status, and mothers’ marriage and working status. These findings suggest that boosting working mothers’ involvement and monitoring/supervision could be promising ways to nurture their adolescent children’s self-control, particularly for mothers with high WFC.