This symposium reports recent findings from a longitudinal study of family life in Denmark. The study is based on a representative panel of inhabitants in Denmark, born 1968 (N=989). Two waves of data were collected, using a structured survey questionnaire. The first wave was collected in 2003, the second wave was collected in 2014.

The aim is to study the impact of ongoing societal modernization and individualization on family life. The research focus is on the relationship between individuality and communality in everyday family life. The specific role of welfare state institutions, work-life and different modes of relating between family members and across generations, households and social networks is investigated.

The approach is social psychological, following Asplund (1983) and Dencik (2005) theories focusing on the mutual interaction and interdependence between the individual and the social. This project was also informed by theories of family practices (Morgan 1996), post-familial family (Beck-Gernsheim 1998) and a concept of network family (Bäck-Wiklund & Johansson 2003)

The symposium will comprise an overall introduction to the project followed by three individual papers, each focusing on different elements in the social life of families living in radically modern conditions. The first paper analyses what contributes to continuity and stability over time in families. The second paper analyses transformations over time with respect to intergenerational and kinship relationships. The third paper analyses the interactions of the individual’s work-life and family life over time.

The first paper is an outline of the background for the study and it’s methodological and theoretical framework.

The study, Family Forms and Cohabitation in the Modern Welfare State (FAMOSTAT), was originally funded by the National Danish Research Council for the Human Sciences.

Its focus is on the transformations of family life as a consequence of societal modernization in Denmark.

The project was informed by Dencik’s (1996) social psychological perspective on family life, arguing that the impact of modernization should be studied through empirical investigations of everyday family life. Following Asplund’s (1983) notion of the mutual relationships between individuality and communality represented by the slash in the individual/social signifier, the project set out to study how communality and individuality are lived in different households.

Based on a randomized sample (n=1600) of people born in 1968, living in Denmark in 2003, a statistical representative number were included in the panel (n=989). The panel has participated in two waves of data collection. One in 2003, collected via Computer Assisted Telephone Interviews, and one in 2014, based on a web-based survey (n=457). The original questionnaire (IFUSOFF) was adopted to the web-format (IFUSOFF II), adding more questions on the work-life/family-life balance.

This paper discusses the impact of modernization and individualization on family life. It does so by tracing changes in configurations of family life and social networks between 2003 and 2014, and by analyzing transformations of social practices of everyday life.

Initial findings from this study show that 81% of the respondents who lived with a partner in 2014 lived with the same partner in 2003. This paper analyzes this stability in couple relationship. The empirical focus is on social and emotional support, on the character of the social networks as well as gender equality among partners.

The paper discusses how emphasis on individualization can lead to new forms of we-ness and togetherness in everyday family life. The question is if data supports theories that claim that we are witnessing new configurations of familial relations and the we need to adjust our ways of thinking about the configuration of the individual/social relationship in everyday family life. The paper examines the concepts about the ‘post familial family’ as well as ‘the network family’ and their usefulness in the study of contemporary family practices.

In this paper we describe and analyze transformations of the social interaction patterns that have taken place over the years 2003 – 2014 within the three-generational span of families in Denmark. Data telling the frequency and character of parents’ – in 2014 they are 45 years old – interaction with their own parents and other kinsfolk are presented and analyzed. The role of new communication technologies is considered in this context.

One aspect of societal modernization is that people increasingly have to share life with persons with whom they share less and less of experiences. In that light we analyze our preliminary data indicating that little more than 50% of the 45-years old parents hade been in contact with their child living outside the home of the respondent during their day yesterday, 75% of them by some kind of new electronic devices such as Skype, SMS, etc. Such devices are frequently also used in our middle-aged respondents’ contact with their own parents. 20 % are in daily contact with their elderly parent and more than 50% of our respondents have such contacts at least once a week.

Our preliminary data indicate frequent and tight interactions between generations within the family and also among adult siblings. By way of conclusion these findings are analyzed and explained in relation to the impact of societal modernization on family life.

An increasing number of families has to meet the challenges of working in a 24-7 society and at the same time striving to take part in everyday family life. Research is not conclusive with respect to what degree atypical working hours has an impact on, for example, work-family balance, instable marriages or in general the intimate social activities of families. That is, some research point to the fact that having atypical working hours in families might have positive influence on family social activities, like supporting possibilities for the number of activities in which mothers and/or fathers participate in together with their children (e.g. enjoying breakfasts together). On the other hand other research shows that factors like both parents having atypical working hours and small children in the home suggests a negative impact on family life. In addition, not much research has scrutinized the impact of the introduction of atypical and long working hour in families that hitherto has had normal working hours and the other way round what happens in families that have had atypical working patterns and later come to experience normal work hours. These are examples of questions we are exploring through our longitudinal survey study of everyday family and work-life. So in short, this paper will present and discuss an analysis of the relationship between work life and intimate family life social activities as they evolve over time and across households.