Journal of Family Issues

Religion is an important cultural institution that shapes family ideologies and behaviors. Although previous research has documented religious differences in parenting behaviors and parent–child relationships in adolescence, how religion influences parental support of young adult children is not clear. Using data from the Transition into Adulthood Supplement (TAS) of the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID, 2005–2017; N = 9,754 person-years), we employed mixed-effect logistic and linear regression models to examine the impacts of young adults’ religious affiliation, religious salience, and parent–child religious concordance on parental coresidence and financial support. The results show that mainline Protestant and Catholic young adults are more likely than nonreligious youth to live with their parents. Catholic and Jewish young adults receive more financial support from their parents than nonreligious youth did when they are religiously concordant with their mother. The associations between religious affiliation and parental support are strengthened by young adults’ religious salience and religious concordance with their mother.

Harmonious family relationships are integral to well-being. Given that family relationships are fundamentally interdependent, parents’ well-being may be shaped not only by satisfaction with their own relationships with their family members but also by their perceptions of their family members’ relationships with each other. This study examines how parents’ mental health is shaped by satisfaction with (their perceptions of) the relationships among their children (i.e., perceived children–sibling relationships) and between their spouses and their children (i.e., perceived spouse–child relationships). Analyses using HILDA survey data (N = 43,913 person-years) suggest that parents’ satisfaction with their children’s relationships with each other and their spouse’s relationship with their children are indeed associated with better mental health, primarily through their roles in shaping satisfaction with parent–child and spousal relationships, respectively. Parent–child and spouse–child relationship satisfaction are especially important to mothers’ mental health. Findings contribute to family systems research and offer practical implications for promoting family well-being.

The perception of the value of children (VOC) can elucidate why individuals consider it beneficial to have children by uncovering their subjective intentions and experiences regarding their fertility decisions. Using VOC perceptions to understand fertility change in the modernization process, this qualitative study explores how parents’ VOC change meshes with China’s socioeconomic and cultural contexts. This article examines intergenerational VOC evolution under the support and constraints of socioeconomic environments and cultural norms. Grandparents, embedded in the rural economy and traditional culture, exhibit economic/utilitarian and social/normative VOC. Young parents, living, and having grown up in urban economic and modernized cultural contexts, recognize emotional/psychological VOC for fertility intention. Migrant parents living in urban economies but bound by traditional culture believe that social/normative VOC is important for fertility intention. The results advance understanding of the integration of individuals’ psychological intentions with the socioeconomic-cultural contexts that influence their fertility and VOC.

The purpose of this article is to determine the predictors of positive and negative parenting practices among mothers of two-to-three-year-old children in Tirana, Albania. Cross-sectional data were obtained from a representative sample of 328 mothers of two-to-three-year-old children recruited through eight randomly selected public nurseries in Tirana. Results from bivariate regressions showed significant associations between the key relevant maternal characteristics and maternal parenting practices, in line with previous studies conducted in Western societies. Results from multiple regressions showed that maternal attitudes towards child maltreatment were a dominant significant predictor of negative parenting practices (punitive parenting, inconsistent parenting, and child maltreatment) and that maternal sense of parental competence was a dominant significant predictor of positive parenting practices. The findings suggest a strong, consistent link between maternal belief systems and parenting practices among mothers of toddlers in Tirana and call for the implementation of parent training programmes that address attitudes towards child maltreatment and sense of parental competence in the Albanian society.

I investigated subjective well-being (SWB)—happiness, meaningfulness, sadness, stress, and tiredness—of 7,087 mothers, engaged in 11,154 cases of activities in which their children were present, using the Conservation of Resources theory. Results of OLS analysis of data from the American Time Use Study suggested that the presence of her parent(s) during the activities was associated positively with the mother’s happiness and negatively with her stress. Total time spent with her parent(s) was positively associated with the mother’s tiredness. Co-residence with parents was not significantly related to the mother’s SWB. The association between the mother’s SWB and her involvement with parents was positively moderated by demographic variables that may have increased her need for core resources in the form of kin support. The focus on sandwiched activities in which a mother engaged with her children and parents permitted direct assessment of how those activities affected the mother’s SWB.

Intimate partner violence is a major impediment to gender equality in developing countries like Pakistan, which requires thorough analysis to ascertain the extent of prevalent violence and identify its underlying causes. Consequently, this study aims to empirically examine the factors associated with women’s attitudes toward violence in Sindh province (the second largest by population, income, and employment in Pakistan) using Sindh Multiple Indicators Cluster Survey data. The province presents an ideal candidate for studying intimate partner violence as it is quite uneven in terms of development. Our results reveal a high prevalence of intimate partner violence, with 55% of married women providing an affirmative answer to any one scenario of wife beating in the Sindh province. Multivariate regression analyses results of our study found that higher education, access to media, and the wealth status of both partners are protective factors against attitudinal acceptance of violence.

This study investigated the mediating role of sense of coherence between family harmony and well-being in high school students. The study was conducted with 405 students, 226 (55.8%) females and 179 (44.2%) males. The participants’ age ranged between 14 and 18. Data were collected through the Family Harmony Scale, the Sense of Coherence Scale, and the Adolescent Well-being Scale. Structural equation modeling and Bootstrapping procedures were performed for the analyses. Results showed that family harmony predicted well-being positively. Sense of coherence predicted well-being positively. Family harmony predicted sense of coherence positively. Sense of coherence had a mediating role in the relationship between family harmony and well-being. Bootstrapping results showed that sense of coherence had a partial mediating role in the relationship between family harmony and well-being. The results were discussed in line with the literature, and recommendations were made for practitioners and researchers.

This study examines whether persistent exposure to work family conflict (WFC) is longitudinally associated with depressive symptoms and this association differs by age. Using eight waves of a nationally representative study of Korean women (N = 6,544), individual fixed effects models were used to account for unobserved individual-level heterogeneity. Depressive symptoms increased immediately following exposure to WFC and peaked during the second wave of exposure. Since the peak, depressive symptoms have decreased and returned to the pre-exposure level by the fifth wave of exposure. While older women in their 60s experienced an increase in depressive symptoms only until the second wave of exposure, younger women in their 30s continued to experience an increase in depressive symptoms up to the fifth and subsequent waves of exposure. The results of this study inform the development of interventions to mitigate the long-term mental health effects of WFC among working women.

Bonding, as parental feelings and thoughts toward a child, can be challenging for employed parents due to work-family role conflict. This study aimed to investigate concurrent associations between work-to-family conflict dimensions (time-, strain-, and behavior-based) and father-infant bonding, with marital satisfaction as a potential mediator. Employed fathers (N = 170) from Croatia who had infants (1–12 months old) completed questionnaires on work-family conflict, marital satisfaction, bonding, and questions on demographic and job-related data. Path analysis showed that the time-, strain-, and behavior-based conflict did not have direct effects on father-infant bonding. However, strain-based work-to-family conflict indirectly affected father-infant bonding through marital satisfaction. Fathers who experienced higher strain-based work-to-family conflict reported decreased marital satisfaction, negatively impacting father-infant bonding. To improve the bonding experience for fathers, the spousal relationship should be taken into account. Additionally, family-friendly policies at work should focus primarily on reducing the fathers’ strain-based work-to-family conflict.

Measures of father involvement have predominantly comprised quantitative/frequency measures of direct engagement activities with children. Such measures tend to show that non-resident fathers are less involved than resident fathers and limit our understanding of non-resident fathering. This study’s purpose was to identify a construct of non-resident fathering that included an affective dimension, father–child closeness, among racially/ethnically diverse fathers and their nine-year-old children (N = 1267). A confirmatory factor analysis using data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study was conducted using father- and mother-reports of paternal direct engagement and child reports of father–child closeness. Results indicated a good model fit and that father–child closeness and direct engagement were appropriate indicators of non-resident father involvement. Results suggest that researchers should consider including both affective and frequency measures when studying father involvement, and practitioners should attend to the potential value of promoting father–child closeness among racially/ethnically diverse, low-income fathers.

This study uses data from a retrospective survey of the life history of participants from five cohorts born between 1930 and 1979, to analyze the role of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs). We found that ACEs have significant effects on the transition of young Chinese people into adulthood. Young people who have experienced more ACEs were more likely to transition to adulthood earlier, and accelerate their acceptance of adult social roles, and young adults with a high incidence of ACEs also have an increasing probability of falling into the disadvantaged or least successful trajectory to adulthood. More ACEs are associated with a decreased probability of being classified into the delayed and advantaged trajectories into adulthood characterized by high education and stable work, and an increased probability of being classified into the early and disadvantaged trajectories into adulthood characterized by unemployment, early marriage, and more children.