Enculturation of Korean American Adolescents Within Familial and Cultural Contexts: The Mediating Role of Ethnic Identity*

Abstract: The purpose of the present study was to test a socialization model in which ethnic identity mediated the relationship between 3 domains of family processes and 1 key aspect of enculturation: native language fluency. Data from a sample of 112 Korean American adolescents living in the Midwest revealed that adolescent ethnic identity partially mediated the influence of family cohesion on their Korean language fluency. Findings suggest that ethnic identity may serve as a mechanism through which family relations influence adolescents’ native language fluency. Implications for adolescent and family adaptation are discussed within an ecological framework, including potential strategies for strengthening ethnic identity.     

Links between Adolescents' Closeness to Adoptive Parents and Attachment Style in Young Adulthood

This study examined whether adolescents' closeness to adoptive parents (APs) predicted attachment styles in close relationships outside their family during young adulthood. In a longitudinal study of domestic infant adoptions, closeness to adoptive mother and adoptive father was assessed in 156 adolescents (M = 15.7 years). Approximately 9 years later (M = 25.0 years), closeness to parents was assessed again as well as attachment style in their close relationships. Multilevel modeling was used to predict attachment style in young adulthood from the average and discrepancy of closeness to adolescents' adoptive mothers and fathers and the change over time in closeness to APs. Less avoidant attachment style was predicted by stronger closeness to both APs during adolescence. Increased closeness to APs over time was related to less anxiety in close relationships. Higher closeness over time to either AP was related to less avoidance and anxiety in close relationships.     

Family Relationships and Adolescents' Health Attitudes and Weight: The Understudied Role of Sibling Relationships

Family relationships are important predictors of adolescents' diet, physical activity, and health issues including obesity. Despite their prominence in the family, siblings have received little attention on how they may influence these health‐related behaviors. Addressing this gap, this study examined associations between sibling relationship qualities and adolescents' health attitudes, exercise behaviors, and weight controlling for other family relationship qualities. Participants included one parent and two adolescent siblings (ages 12–19) from 326 families. Multilevel models indicated that net of parent–adolescent relationship qualities and adolescents' personal characteristics, sibling intimacy was related to healthy attitudes and greater exercise behaviors, whereas sibling conflict was associated with increased risk of being overweight. Links between sibling conflict and weight status, however, were further qualified by gender composition of the sibling dyad. Results highlight the significance of sibling relationships in adolescents' everyday health attitudes and behaviors and implications for intervention efforts are discussed.     

RELATE: Relationship Evaluation of the Individual,Family, Cultural,and Couple Contexts*

The purpose of this article is to present the conceptual model underlying RELATE, a relationship evaluation instrument, and to describe how this instrument can be used by instructors, clinicians, and therapists. The RELATE model contains measures of the 4 primary contexts of a couple's experience: the individual, the family, the culture, and the couple. The model includes some of the primary variables in Gottman's marital cascade and has been evaluated for reliability and validity. Examples of how to use the instrument and model are illustrated for couples, educators, and clinicians.     

Parental Rights in Diverse Family Contexts: Current Legal Developments*

Here, we review case law as it applies to parental rights. Specifically, we examine two issues: (a) Who has been awarded the right to parent? and (b) What rights have been bestowed to parents? The review demonstrates how family law in the United States reflects and perpetuates society's ambivalence about family structure and, subsequently, parental rights and responsibilities. On the basis of this analysis, we recommend a broadened legal perspective that not only communicates society's expectation of responsible parenting but, in addition, gives legal recognition to diverse family forms in which members carry out these responsibilities.     

Gender,Ethnicity, and the Family Environment: Contributions to Assessment Efforts Within the Realm of Juvenile Justice*

Abstract: The present study examines potential variation in the family environments of African American and Caucasian males and females coming to the attention of the juvenile court. Results of initial analysis of variance (ANOVA) procedures indicated a significant Gender × Ethnicity interaction on scores from the family/parenting domain of the Global Risk Assessment Device, such that African American and Caucasian women displayed the greatest family risks and needs. Further ANOVA procedures indicated that factors related to family, gender, and ethnicity were significant predictors of illegal behavior, and the presence of a Gender × Family interaction was detected, such that the presence of higher family risk and needs coincided with African American and Caucasian women reporting relatively equal prior offenses with their male counterparts.     

Family Therapists and Religious Communities: Negotiating Dual Relationships*

Family therapists involved with religious communities as leaders, employees, or community members face unique challenges in evaluating the potential benefits and risks of dual relationships. Building on existing literature, we propose a three‐level model of factors for therapists to use to evaluate risk: (a) professional ethics codes and legal guidelines, (b) theory of therapy, and (c) contextual variables and relationships among the therapist, the client, and the religious community.     

Beyond Parenting Practices: Family Context and the Treatment of Pediatric Obesity*

Abstract: Many family‐based treatments for pediatric obesity teach specific parenting practices related to weight management. Although youth in these programs show increases in positive health behaviors and reductions in the extent to which they are overweight, most remain overweight after treatment. A recent trend is to create tailored programs for subgroups of families. We examine the possibility of tailoring based on family context, highlighting 3 aspects of family context that have been studied in relation to pediatric obesity: parenting style, family stress, and family emotional climate. We argue that family context may moderate treatment outcomes by altering the effectiveness of health‐related parenting practices and discuss the implications of this argument for designing and evaluating tailored programs.     

Adopting Children with Developmental Disabilities: A Long‐Term Perspective*

Long‐term maternal adjustment to the adoption of children with developmental disabilities was studied in a sample of 123 adoptive families using multiple measures of adjustment including depression, marital satisfaction and others. Conclusions were that adjustment was generally positive over an approximately 11‐year period, regardless of family demographic or child characteristics. Moreover, adjustment to subsequently‐adopted children was comparable to adjustment to earlier adopted children. These results suggest that adoption policy and practice should promote the adoption of children with developmental disabilities, and be flexible with regard to family and child characteristics, including placing multiple children with disabilities in the same home.     

Family Functioning and Adolescent Help‐Seeking Behavior*

Data from 196 adolescents were used to examine the relationship between help‐seeking behavior and family functioning. Results indicated that half sought help for their problem, and problem type was not associated with help‐seeking behavior. Adolescents clustered into 2 groups of families—1 high in conflict and low in democratic parenting style and 1 low in conflict and high in democratic parenting style. Complex relationships between help‐seeking behavior, type of family, and type of problem were found.     

Family Mediators of the Relation Between Acculturation and Adolescent Mental Health*

Abstract: This study of 175 Mexican‐origin families examined a mediational model linking the linguistic acculturation of mothers and adolescents with a wide array of family mediators and adolescent mental health outcomes. Family linguistic acculturation, a latent construct based on maternal and adolescent acculturation, was positively related to increased family and interparental conflict but was not related to maternal parenting practices. Family conflict mediated the link between acculturation and two adolescent outcomes, conduct problems and depressive symptoms. Family acculturation showed a complex pattern of positive, indirect (mediated) and negative, direct effects on adolescent depressive symptoms. Findings are discussed in relation to traditional cultural values of Mexican heritage families and prevailing theories about why more acculturated Mexican‐origin youth are at increased risk for problem behaviors.     

Boss and Parent,Employee and Child: Work‐Family Roles and Deviant Behavior in the Family Firm

The work‐family literature examines the degree to which work and family roles can be segmented or integrated by an individual. In the family firm, the requirement that work and family roles be integrated creates tension for family employees, particularly those who prefer higher degrees of segmentation between the roles. Integrating family firm with family relations research, this article explores potential difficulties experienced by family employees in making transitions from their family role to work role and the potential for family employees to engage in deviant behavior due to unresolved conflict and ambiguity from work‐family role integration. These difficulties, we argue, are in part due to problems in separating role expectations when they come from indistinct sources; that is, when the boss and father, for example, are the same person. We explain how the tensions between work and family can create a cycle of deviance in the family and family firm domains.     

Strategies for Racial Identity Development: Narratives of Black and White Women in Interracial Partner Relationships*

This exploratory qualitative study used individual interviews and a focus group to investigate how women in Black‐White interracial heterosexual partner relationships retrospectively described their racial identity development over the course of the relationships. Racial identity development, social constructionist, and feminist theories guided the grounded theory methodology. Participants described a process of restorying constraining narratives of racial identity into empowering racial identities through three types of strategies: blocking strategies, transforming strategies, and generating strategies.     

Navigating Interdependence: How Adolescents Raised Solely by Grandparents Experience Their Family Relationships

This study examined how adolescents raised solely by grandparents navigated their relationships with their parents and grandparents and how these relationships were influenced by the caregiving context. Forty‐one adolescents participated in qualitative, semistructured interviews. Findings suggest that relationships with parents were primarily companionate or marked by distance and distrust. Grandchildren had strong emotional bonds to their grandparents, although they also negotiated several sources of stress. Participants also reported feelings of gratitude because of the positive influence their grandparents had on their lives. Caregiving context shaped grandchildren’s interdependence with their parents and grandparents in numerous ways. Findings highlight the complexity of grandchildren’s family relationships and underscore the value of a systemic approach to understanding youth who are being raised by grandparents.     

Acculturation and Latino Family Processes: How Cultural Involvement,Biculturalism, and Acculturation Gaps Influence Family Dynamics*

Abstract: This study investigated how adolescent and parent acculturation (culture‐of‐origin and U.S. cultural involvement, biculturalism, acculturation conflicts, and parent‐adolescent acculturation gaps) influenced family dynamics (family cohesion, adaptability, familism, and parent‐adolescent conflict) in a sample of 402 Latino families from North Carolina and Arizona. Multiple regression and hierarchical linear models suggested that culture‐of‐origin involvement and biculturalism were cultural assets related to positive outcomes, whereas acculturation conflict was inversely related to positive family dynamics and positively related to parent‐adolescent conflict. Parent‐adolescent acculturation gaps were inversely associated with family cohesion, adaptability, and familism but were unrelated to parent‐adolescent conflict. Limitations and implications for practice are discussed.     

An Examination of Family Communication Within the Core and Balance Model of Family Leisure Functioning

The purpose of this study was to examine family communication within the core and balance model of family leisure functioning. The study was conducted from a youth perspective of family leisure and family functioning. The sample consisted of youth (N= 95) aged 11 – 17 from 25 different states in the United States. Path analyses indicated that family communication mediated a positive relationship between family leisure variables and family functioning variables. Implications and recommendations are discussed. The addition of communication in the Core and Balance Model is recommended.     

Genetic “Mysteries” and International Adoption: The Cultural Impact of Biomedical Technologies on the Adoptive Family Experience*

This paper argues that the increasing medicalization and geneticization of North American society may be influencing how and why adoptive families think—and worry—about their children's birthparents, their children's ‘health risks’, and about their own role as parents in genetic terms. It further discusses why these processes may be causing adoptive parents unnecessary anxieties. It suggests that family professionals and social workers should be aware of the effects of these socio‐cultural processes and of the real limitations of genetic techniques to predict, diagnose, and cure disease in order to better respond to prospective adoptive parents' need for support and information.     

Gaining a Child: Comparing the Experiences of Biological Parents,Adoptive Parents,and Stepparents

This study compares the experience of gaining a child through birth, adoption, or marriage, extending the focus of investigation beyond biological parenthood and the transition made by first‐time parents. Using a subsample from the National Survey of Families and Households (N = 204), we compared reasons for having children, parental well‐being, family relationships, and work roles among parents who gained a child biologically, through adoption, or by becoming a stepparent. Overall, there were many similarities in the impact of gaining a child across the three parental groups. Repeated measures analyses of covariance showed that across family groups, after gaining a child, respondents reported less depressed affect, more disagreements with their spouse, and more support from their own parents. The differences across groups suggest that the experience of becoming an adoptive parent or a stepparent may be less stressful than the adjustment to biological parenthood.     

Young South Asian deaf people and their families: negotiating relationships and identities1

Abstract This paper explores how various and competing identity claims are negotiated by young deaf people and their families. Our findings, based on group and individual interviews with young South Asian deaf people and individual interviews with their families, illustrate the complex realities of identity negotiation and how this process occurs against the backdrop of ethnicity, religion, gender, racism and deafness. More generally, the structures against which these negotiations take place influence the identity choices to be negotiated. Equally, the struggles to define self‐hood in meaningful and fulfilling ways show agency and ingenuity at work. This helps us to understand a fundamental tension facing young South Asian deaf people as they make sense of their deafness. Deaf culture represented a source of strength and inclusion in a community, which reaffirmed and respected their difference as deaf people, while at the same time denying and undermining their ethnic and religious difference.     

Daughters‐in‐Law and Mothers‐in‐Law Seeking Their Place Within the Family: A Qualitative Study of Differing Viewpoints

Abstract: Within the framework of individual developmental theory and intergenerational ambivalence, we examined the complex dynamics of the mother‐in‐law and daughter‐in‐law relationship. Using focus group and semistructured interview data, we explored mothers‐in‐law’s and daughters‐in‐law’s perceptions of “being part of the family.” The diversity among the perceptions of the unrelated 23 daughters‐in‐law and 19 mothers‐in‐law countered the validity of stereotypes often held about the women in these roles. The women described the ambivalence many of them felt as they searched for their place in the family. Findings suggest that women of all ages may benefit from education about this critical relationship and need to develop skills to express themselves to their mothers‐in‐law/daughters‐in‐law to facilitate adequate management of the ambivalence prevalent in this relationship.