Globalization, migration, individualization, pluralization and demographic ageing profoundly influence family life, work and the relationship between these important life domains.

Moreover the constant changes taking place in today's context on many fronts (economic, social, political) place people in a position of having to constantly negotiate and renegotiate their life choices. In this context, life transitions become challenging for families.

The present symposium will focus on the family care – work balance in life transitions, considering transformations in men and woman identity, in motherhood and fatherhood, and the role of parents and grandparents as care-givers not only with regard to small children, but also adolescents; particular attention will also be devoted to the challenge facing today families, companies and care services on the care of elderly and dependents family members in a context in which people are involved on different fronts (family, work, care) and family networks are increasingly reduced from a dimensional point of view. Exploring the links between societal, family and individual change with a comparative perspective is relevant and especially welcome.

.

In recent years, fathers have become more visible in the parenting landscape and research indicates that fathers engage in a wider range of activities than in the past. However, as it is well-known, Italy is characterized by the persistence of gender gap.

This presentation analyzes the family and work balance model and the paternal role of Italian families with children 0-13 years, with a focus on fathers, using data from “Multipurpose survey on households: aspects of daily life” 2012, a national survey carried out by ISTAT, with both mothers and fathers interviewed. The Multipurpose Surveys on Households is carried out by the National Institute of Statistics on a national representative sample of private households. The sample of Italian families with children aged 0-13 counts 3.745 families. The research question are: how families differ according to job patterns and care/domestic activities?; which family model is emerging in Italy ?; how are contemporary Italian fathers handling their work-life balance? Through cluster analysis 5 different groups can be highlighted, heterogeneous for family structure, employment, housework, use of child-care services and leave: 1. Dual earner couples ( 43,2%); 2. Non-working fathers (both partners unemployed; 11,0%); 3. Male breadwinner/housewife model (34,2%); 4. Single fathers (1.4%) and 5. Single mothers (10,2%). The carried out analysis seem to confirm the male breadwinner model, particularly in families where only one partner is employed (the father), while the mother is homemaker and takes all the domestic work. Divorced families with single parents emerge also as a relevant issue.

To what extent does Malta’s working time regime support a change in family relations? How much do state policies assume that men and women both need time to care, as well as for paid work? Does Malta’s full-time paid work structure allow time for the equal sharing of unpaid care responsibilities between women and men, that in turn enhances gender equity in the workplace and domestic sphere? Themes that emerge in the study rest largely on women’s voices. The study finds that women need to shift their full-time economic activity to shorter and flexible working hours when they become mothers, with negative consequences of loss in income and career regression. Labour market exit and financial dependence on men is also a frequent occurrence. Findings in the study suggest that strong pressure to assume traditional roles of the male breadwinner model is embedded not only in Maltese culture and social norms, but also in the state’s own social policy.

The multicultural approach highlights the need to adapt social services for the general population to different cultural groups and minorities. The need for cultural adaptation is particularly important in Arab society in Israel, which is in a process of social and cultural transition. However, Arab social workers are not trained to provide culturally appropriate responses in this context. Rather, they usually act as representatives of the state in a context of political conflict, and this situation leads to cultural insensitivity on two levels. The article describes and examines the experience of social workers working with men in Arab society, and discusses the conflict inherent in their role as therapists on the one hand and as representatives of the Israeli establishment on the other. The study was based on in-depth interviews with 15 Arab social workers treating Arab fathers at parent-child centers in Israel. The findings indicate that the therapeutic encounter reflects the characteristics of their culture, and reflect the cultural and gender-based tensions that the social workers experience in the encounter with their clients. The findings further indicate that the social workers need to be aware of the social attitude of the fathers, and need to recognize the similarities and differences between their own cultural perspectives and the fathers' perspectives. The article contributes to the literature by focusing on the challenges inherent in the therapeutic encounter between Arab social workers and their clients, and highlights the complexity of their situation. Finally, it points to the lack of adequate academic preparation for Arab social workers in Israeli universities, as well as to the lack of support for those social workers and the challenges they face in their work.

Key words: culturally sensitive therapy, Arab society in Israel, therapeutic work with fathers, parent-child centers, social work

Unpaid household labor and the provision of care within families present an important determinant for individual and collective welfare. However, the increase of dual-earner couples and demographic shifts challenge traditional, mostly gendered arrangements of paid and unpaid labor within the household. Households are thus increasingly confronted with the decision whether to produce these ‘commodities’ by themselves or to buy services on the market. While economic explanations emphasize the relevance of time and labor costs for such outsourcing decisions, from a sociological viewpoint domestic work is deeply embedded in a normative and moral framework about family and gender which defines the very boundary between the market and the private household (Geissler, 2006; Lutz 2008).

Against this background the paper analyzes the demand for domestic services and child care in Germany and the UK during the past two decades. The central hypothesis states that the cultural framing of domestic work as “labor of love”, which plays a key role in the social construction of family life and gender identity, presents a crucial determinant whether domestic services are accepted as a substitute for own carework. The empirical analysis is based on a comparison of the UK, and East and West Germany using the German Socio-economic Panel (waves 1992-2012) and the British Household Survey (waves 1992-2008). The results indicate that in West Germany and the UK the actual demand for paid household services laggs behind „objective” needs supporting the idea that cultural and institutional framings are crucial for explaining patterns of demand.

In our paper we explore how people and families, faced with ascriptions to be the ‚migration other’, develop ways of dealing with social inequalities, asymmetrical gender relations and hegemonic racialised and gendered power structures. Our focus lies on how these ways of dealing are transmitted and/or transformed intergenerationally and within a family and how continuities, as well as modifications and disruptions in transmissions between mothers and daughters can be reconstructed.

The qualitative data for our paper – collected via group discussions with families and biographical interviews – is from a research project focusing on life strategies of families with a migration history in marginalized urban neighbourhoods in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. In our theoretical approach, family members are seen as actively dealing and negotiating with societal circumstances and social meanings (Wacquant 2006). Their strategies are analysed, with regard to enabling and hindering contexts, which shape each person’s scope of possibilities (Holzkamp 1983). Our research project aims to transcend beyond the deficit-oriented perspective without neglecting the social and societal challenges families have to deal with (Riegel/Yildiz 2011).

We ask in which ways life strategies of mothers and daughters are connected, in which way connections to the other generation are made and how gender and generation contexts are made relevant. The transmissions, transformations and disruptions in the intergenerational mother- daughter-relationship and strategies connected to dealing with gender and generation will be analysed in their societal intersections and interplay with racialised and gendered power and inequality conditions.

In this work, we contribute to research on the reproduction of social inequality by emphasizing the relevance of psyche in class-specific socialization. Applying a Bourdieusian framework, we want to show that the reproduction of class structure passes through the fundamental layers of habitus. We will argue that socialization is not restricted to the direct transmission of material goods or the impartation of cultural practices, but involves the habitus itself, including its conscious and unconscious as well as its cognitive and preattentive elements. Using representative survey data from the German National Education Panel Study (NEPS), we empirically address the psychic dimension of habitus formation in adolescents as well as the mechanisms of intergenerational transmission. We apply multiple correspondence analysis to construct a ‘social space’ of adolescents (14-17 years old) including latent indicators of personality types. In order to address the role of parents’ capital endowment and, consequently, social class position, for adolescents’ habitus formation in general and the involved personality dimension in particular, we project parents’ demographics as supplementary variables in the space of adolescents. Our analysis will establish that social class of parents is not only relevant for their children’s manifest economic and cultural resources or their practices, knowledge and skills, but plays an important part in the conditions of the development of habitus, thus affecting what psychologists conventionally label as ‘personality’.

Parents play an important role for the occupational orientation of adolescents. Previous research has shown that children with supportive parents develop higher career goals and achieve a higher socio-economic status during their early career.

But despite changing paternal and maternal role-models, it can be assumed that the father’s influence on the occupational goals and outputs might be stronger than the mother’s because the interaction between the father and the child is often focused on such instrumental topics while the interaction with the mother covers a broader range of topics. In addition, it remained unclear, if the support takes a stronger effect in same-sex parent-child-dyads or in opposite-sex-dyads. To get a sophisticated picture of supportive parenting’s influence on a successful career entry, it is necessary to take both of these dyad-types into account.

To illuminate these intrafamilial mechanisms, we ask - based on the German Socio-Economic Panel (GSOEP) –how supportive behavior of fathers and mothers affects the socio-economic status (ISEI) of boys’ and girls’ first job. We use structural equation modeling in order to take into account if this effect is mediated by the respondent’s educational level.

Our results reveal that especially fathers’ support leads to a higher ISEI during the early career. For sons, we found a direct effect on the first job’s ISEI as well as an indirect effect that is mediated by the educational level. However for daughters, the indirect effect comes to light. For the influence of mothers’ supportive behavior we found no significant effect.

We study the influence of parents’ participation in active labour market programmes, such as training, job subsidies, or workfare, on their children’s successful entry into vocational training and employment at a later point in time. In this way, we hope to gain an understanding of whether parents’ programme participation contributes to avoiding an intergenerational transmission of unemployment. The focus is on recipients of means-tested unemployment benefits in Germany. We expect parents’ employment chances and economic situation to improve as a consequence of programme participation and therefore their ability to invest in their children’s education. Parents’ employment may also have a positive effect on children’s self-esteem and can improve their scholastic achievements in this manner as well. Parents’ participation particularly in longer-term programmes that involve a regular daily schedule might also contribute to improving children’s success in school, as well as in entering vocational training or employment, in as far as parents’ function as a role model is a factor. We use administrative data and focus on teenagers who were 14-17 years old when their parents participated in a programme. We draw comparable families from participant and non-participant groups using matching methods. Preliminary findings indicate significantly positive effects of parents’ participation in further vocational training on children’s apprenticeship chances in their early twenties, and negative effects on children’s unemployment and means-tested benefit receipt. Our analyses can contribute to understanding whether and which types of active labour market programmes have particularly long-term effects, improving the situation of the next generation as well.

Intergenerational transfers of money, time and space are important manifestations of functional solidarity in contemporary societies. Previous research on solidarity patterns between family generations has revealed considerable cohesion and support in Europe. Whereas previous empirical studies have mainly addressed the causes and consequences of intergenerational solidarity patterns of natives, the population of foreign origin has often been neglected or limited to a specific (ethnic) population. However, experiences caused by migration as well as the situation in the host country can affect intergenerational relations, not least in respect to support patterns.

Against the background of contemporary multi-ethnic and transnational societies, the question of differences between natives and migrants is particularly crucial. Therefore, our proposed contribution focuses on (a) differences and similarities in functional solidarity between migrant, interethnic and native families in Europe, (b) differences within migrant families, as well as (c) variations between European countries. The empirical analyses are based on the fifth wave of the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE), which is a multidisciplinary and cross-national dataset that offers extensive information on both native and immigrant families. The data was collected in 2013 and includes 14 European countries.

Overall, the empirical analyses prove that European family generations are strongly connected via various forms of functional solidarity. Nevertheless, migration matters in many ways. In addition to significant differences between natives and migrants, we also observe specific patterns of migrant families according to household composition, duration of stay and the country of origin.

Background and purpose: The phenomenon of four-generation of families has considerably grown in recent years. The purpose of this study was to examine the role perception of great-grandparents and the meaning of their relationships with great-grandchildren for their quality of life compared to grandparents.

Method: The sample included 103 great-grandparents (mean age 81.9) and 111 grandparents (mean age 62.6). The meaning of the great-grandparents' role was examined using the multidimensional experience of grandparenthood set of inventories (Findler, Taubman-Ben-Ari, Nuttman- Shwarts, & Lazar, 2013). Quality of life was assessed using the WHOQOL of world health organization which was developed in Israel by Ben-Yacob & Amir (2001).

Results: The findings show that when the great-grandparenthood is experienced as meaningful, and regarded as a continuity of the family, and when the great-grandparents feel more positive emotions toward their great-grandchildren they are more likely to help them. However, great-grandparenthood is not as strong and meaningful as grandparenthood, and the great-grandparents give practical help less than the grandparents. In addition, positive correlations were found between behavioral dimension and quality of life both for grandparents and great-grandparents. The regression tests showed for great-grandparents that when their health and economic situations are better, they are more educated, and feel positive emotions towards the great-grandchildren, their quality of life is better

Conclusions: These results reflect a perception of the role of great-grandparenthood as meaningful, and show the importance of the relationships between great-grandparents and their great-grandchildren, and its contribution to the great-grandparents' generation.

Housing is a crucial part of a family’s welfare. In many European countries, homeownership provides this welfare. Housing becomes the most important part of the family’s wealth and asset management, it might provide additional economic welfare through financial returns and probably most important in a family context, housing might constitute an important condition for intergenerational relations and transfers.

Norway is one of the countries with the highest rate of homeownership. Apart from very few exceptions, the house prices have been increasing every years since 1993. In this way, elderly people have received an increased value of their real assets, while the younger people have met steady higher prices when their try to buy their first home.

Through a nationwide survey from the fall of 2015, we compare young people (aged between 20 and 30) with a generation on the average 40 years older (between 60 and 70). We analyze the difference in their real and financial assets, which types of assistance the younger generation has received from older family members and which type of assistance the elderly have given to younger close relatives.

Individualism has not emerged completely in Muslim societies such as Iran; like the way it’s appeared in the West. Because of the cultural, economic and structural features of these societies we could not expect an independent individualized person like those we observe in Western Europe and USA. There are many social, economic and cultural necessities that are in contrary with that. The individualism in these societies often is family-oriented. The smallest identity unit is the family before that somebody could be an individual. Therefore individuality is defined as the sub-category of family. When people say that nobody cares about them or the humanity, they do not mean their family because families are always their supporters and they define themselves along with their own families.

This paper is the result of a survey among 907residents of Tehran who are over 18 years. We tried to describe individualism status, its features and, family-oriented individualism and the factors that affect its formation. Therefore we have considered values, beliefs and behaviors and here we have presented our findings. Based on our survey 87% of respondents are living with their families. 70% believe that in case of any problem their families should help them. 70% believe that family interests are prior to their own interests. 86% believe that families should control their children’s behaviors.

This contribution reveals the associations between feelings of competence and autonomy in the parental role and mothers’ and fathers’ (positive and negative) parenting behavior in a dyadic perspective. The presented analyses consider reciprocal influences both on individual and couple level which are expected particularly from the stress theory perspective in terms of “spill over” and “cross over” effects and against the background of emotional contagion effects. Data comes from the 2nd and 4th wave of the German Family Panel (pairfam). The expected associations are evaluated using actor-partner interdependence models among a sample of N=176 mother-father dyads of 8- to 15-year-old children. Interdependencies are specified in the cross section as well as in the longitudinal perspective. On individual level results indicate that mothers’ and fathers’ feelings of competence and autonomy in the parental role are positively associated with their current parenting behavior towards their child. Longitudinally, only feelings of competence in the parental role affect later parenting behavior. On couple level cross sectional and longitudinal effects can be proven significant as well. Especially, by means of autoregressive models that prove cross-lagged effects significant interdependencies among couples can be revealed: Fathers’ experiences of competence and autonomy in the parental role affect mothers’ later experiences, while otherwise mothers’ parenting behavior affects fathers’ later parenting behavior. Results highlight the importance of considering characteristics of both mothers and fathers when researching dynamics within families. The findings are discussed with regard to their relevance for practice and research in family psychology.

Introduction: Parental traits can have major influences on family relationships. The objective of this study is to explore the impact of parental self-efficacy on the coparental relationship. A dyadic approach was adopted with the aim to analyze the influence of each parent’s self-efficacy on one’s own perception of the coparental relationship and on the perception of the other parent.

Method: The sample was composed of 126 Swiss couples (M age = 37.05; SD=4.75) having at least one child of maximum 10 years. The French versions of the Parenting Sense of Competence Scale (Gibaud-Wallston, 1977) and of McHale’s coparenting scale (1997) were used to evaluate parental self-efficacy and the coparental relationship. An actor and partner interdependence model was used.

Results: Parental self-efficacy positively predicted the perception of the coparental relationship with a small size effect for mothers (β = .188, p < .05) and a medium size effect for fathers (β = .414, p < .01). A dyadic effect was also found, indicating that in families where fathers had a high parental self-efficacy, mothers were more satisfied of the coparental relationship (β = .217, p < .05). The reciprocal was not significant.

Conclusion: Self-efficacy appears to be a positive trait for satisfactory coparental relationships. However, only fathers’ self-efficacy had a dyadic effect on mothers’ coparental satisfaction. These results indicate that fathers’ perception of their parental role is particularly important for the coparental team. As such, it might be an interesting target for family prevention and therapy.

Having children has been largely associated with reduced relationship satisfaction. This study investigates relationship satisfaction among persons with and without children, with further analysis comparing findings across parents by the age and gender of their children. Findings are based on data from the Sustaining Relationships research, carried out by the National Centre for Family Research in Malta. A semi-structured questionnaire was administered through computer-assisted telephone interviewing with a random stratified sample. This study considers the subset of 1369 participants in couple relationships. While high levels of relationship satisfaction were reported by both groups, respondents with children yielded slightly lower scores than those without children. Significant differences among parents emerged with respect to their children’s gender and age range. Parents reporting highest levels of relationship satisfaction had daughters below age 9 (p=0.021). Relationship satisfaction decreased among parents with male offspring aged 10 to 19 (p=0.045). A greater tendency to seek relationship support was associated with having offspring aged 10 to 19, while having children aged 20 and over was associated with decreased help-seeking behaviour (p=.000). Such findings indicate that parenting adolescents may bring challenges to the couple relationship, while shedding light on the complex processes within the couple system and its wider context. A significant difference was found with regards to demonstration of affection (p=0.16), with parents reporting poorer partner agreement. Having children also impacted couples’ employment situation (p=.000) and perceived income adequacy (p=.000). Participants with children were less likely to have both partners working full-time and reported lower income adequacy.

Self-perceived health has been studied in terms of somatic illness, and socioeconomic inequalities. Mental well-being has been associated with better self-perceived health, family being a reported driver of mental well-being.

A cross-sectional study has been carried out on a nationally representative sample in Malta during 2015 to investigate life satisfaction in Maltese society and drivers and inhibitors thereof. A net sample of 2469 adults (89% response) drawn, from a population register, was recruited through quota sampling, stratified by gender, resident with partner or not, and the presence of dependent children. A semi-structured questionnaire was administered through computer assisted telephone interviews (CATI). A question on self-perceived health was also included.

On univariate analysis, self-perceived health was positively associated with a graduate level of education (p<0.001), being in a relationship (p<0.001), and satisfaction with one’s financial resources (p<0.001), career (p<0.001), and life generally (p<0.001). It was however negatively associated with increasing age (p<0.001), being female (p<0.001), being married (p=0.039), having children (p<0.001), having mental health problems (p<0.001), facing big problems currently (p=0.048). A mixed picture appears with children of different age groups and gender.

Independent associations were sought using multiple linear regression. Self-perceived health is independently positively related to educational level (p<0.001), career satisfaction (p<0.001) and life satisfaction (p<0.001). Adverse associations include being female (p=0.002), older (p<0.001), or facing mental health problems (p=0.023). Having male children aged above 20 is negatively associated (p<0.001).

Therefore, while factors affecting life satisfaction affect perceived health, age, being female and adult male offspring can be threats.

Throughout the recent decades, several child-based interventions regarding children of divorced families have been developed. Nevertheless, research on these interventions is scattered and lacks a conceptual framework, needed to interpret their results and put them in context. This literature review assesses 25 interventions and provides a conceptual framework. We focus on previous research addressing child-based interventions that aim to improve children’s well-being and are directed towards children (6-12 years old) of divorced parents. Based on the previous literature, we construct a conceptual framework that consists of five dimensions based on the characteristics of these interventions. These dimensions are: origin, modality, target group, actor and location. Origin refers to interventions from an academic or practice-based background. Modality refers to group, family or individual interventions. Target group refers to a general group of children of divorced families or to a specialized group of children with a specific demand. Actor(s) refers to persons included: only children or children and parents. Location refers to where the intervention takes place: school, clinic, community center or court. Each dimension is explained and interventions are located within this conceptual framework. Subsequently, each dimension is discussed regarding its benefits and future challenges. This paper concludes that some dimensions are strongly elaborated, whereas others are poorly assessed. Therefore, it provides a clear view on blind spots of current intervention, like the low diversity within the modality dimension. Stakeholders in family practice might benefit from this study and develop child-based interventions starting from the gaps in our conceptual framework.

The aim of our study is to investigate the process of child custody in Hungary; especially in cases where the visitation of the parent is against the child’s mental or physical well-being and safety. The violence does not decrease but in some cases increases after the relationship breaks up. The visitation can offer an opportunity for the perpetrator for maintaining power and control over the mother and their child as well. Our hypothesis is that in those relationships where intimate partner violence could be found the fathers continued their violate behaviors throughout their child's visitation with institutional and judicial utilities. Our study uses mixed methods: we conducted 30 deep interviews with mothers who experienced problematic child custody cases and we reached also 1000 persons with an online survey. Our quantitative analysis shows the institutional processes, structures and the conceptualization of relationships and parent-child relations related data focusing on the institutional pathways of mothers and their children throughout the period of child custody. The deep interviews showed how non-custodial fathers could control and influence the everyday life of their ex-partner and so as their children’s as well. With the support of agencies and institutions and with the ensuring of the rights of the father perpetrators could intimidate their former partners and children while deprive their safety and autonomy.

Although previous research on family structure and children focused mainly on differences between family structures, recently, family research has concentrated on the accumulative effect of the various family transitions children experience, known as the multiple-transition perspective (Amato, 2010). Nevertheless, most studies have either concentrated on the number of family transitions children experience (e.g. Lee & McLanahan, 2015) or on a specific change in family structure (e.g. Ryan et al., 2015). We add to this literature by investigating how maternal and paternal family trajectories affet the subjective well-being of children, including various family structures changes as well as the duration of a specific family structure. By concentrating on maternal and paternal trajectories, gender differences can be investigated.

Therefore, we analyze two dyadic subsamples of the ‘Divorce in Flanders - DiF’ study: one of mothers and children (n=515) and one of fathers and children (n=365). Children are between 14 and 21 years old. Two methods are used: First, sequence analysis based on the relationship history of both mothers and fathers is used to construct family trajectories. Second, structural equation models (SEM) are carried out to investigate the influence of maternal and paternal family trajectories on children’s life satisfaction, self-esteem and depressive feelings. Results reveal that children report a lower well-being if mothers never repartner, have a LAT relationship or have had several relationships after their divorce. For fathers, the opposite effect was found: children report a lower well-being when their fathers are remarried or living with a new partner after their divorce.

Family researchers have long been concerned with the implications of the division of labour and gender role attitudes in families. This research adds to the literature by investigating associations between parental gendered attitudes and behaviours with children’s socio-emotional difficulties, within the context of household socio-economic and demographic characteristics. Additionally we consider whether parents’ psychological distress mediates this relationship.

This research uses the UK Millennium Cohort study, a nationally representative longitudinal study of 18,552 children born during 2000-2002. Data is analysed using multilevel mixed linear regression where children’s scores over time from the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) are modelled with parental gender attitudes, division of labour and other parental characteristics as exposures, analyses were also stratified by child gender.

Parental gender attitudes at baseline were associated with children’s SDQ throughout childhood, negative attitudes towards maternal employment predicted greater difficulties for children. In unadjusted and partially adjusted models both boys and girls were similarly affected by gender attitudes. More egalitarian divisions of labour were also associated with lower difficulty scores for children. After adjusting models for a variety of household and parent characteristics, parental gender attitudes remained strongly associated with SDQ scores in girls while the division of labour remained important for boys.

By exploring family gender dynamics as predictors of well-being, this research demonstrates interesting links with childhood socio-emotional health in a recent UK cohort. Furthermore, certain associations between parental gender attitudes, division of labour and SDQ were robust to multiple adjustment for family demographic and mental health variables.

Outcomes of adolescence can be seen as individual and social developmental tasks that prepare one to become a productive, healthy, responsible, well-functioning adult. This includes a minimal level of personal competence, personal relationships, personal well-being, the capacity for intimacy and social bonding, a healthy lifestyle and the avoidance of problem behaviour.

The Romanian sample of 3509 nationally representative high school students in their final school year (12th grade) was surveyed in Nov 2012-Jan 2013 in the first wave of "Outcomes of Adolescence. A longitudinal perspective on the effect of social context on successful life transitions" project. The 2nd wave of the longitudinal study took place in Dec 2014-Jan 2015.

The first wave questionnaire evaluated the educational situation (results, the intention continuation of the studies), the orientation toward the labour market (the entry on the labour market, their long-term work-related aspirations as well as their representations regarding career possibilities), their social capital (relations with family, peers from neighbourhood, friends), their well-being, health and risky behaviour. The second wave is oriented toward measuring specific outcomes of adolescence and toward taking into account life-course events and other social circumstances that could influence young people on their path to adulthood.

We intend to present the outcomes of adolescence for the socially excluded youth and to assess if the worsening of specific outcomes can be attributed to family characteristics.

tba

tba

Balance in the sibling-mother-sibling triad.

A study into the negative consequences of loyalty conflicts for the sibling relationship.

Studying triads between two siblings and their mother, makes it possible to

1) test enforcement and compensation mechanisms, and

2) a loyalty conflict hypothesis based on balance theory (Heider, 1958).

In 1) it is investigated whether higher intergenerational relationship quality and more contact or conflict between sibling and mother enforces relationship quality, contact or conflict between siblings and/or whether a lack of these three relational aspects is compensated by the sibling relationship.

To study 2) a discrepant intergenerational relationship is defined as the presence of one positive and one negative sibling-mother relationship. This imbalance is expected to negatively affect the sibling relationship.

Multilevel analyses of sibling-mother-sibling triads from the Netherlands Kinship Panel Study show that perceived intergenerational relationship quality and contact with mothers enforces relationship quality and contact between siblings. Discrepant intergenerational relationships indeed decreases perceived relationship quality and contact between siblings, no similar pattern was found for conflict.

Future research should investigate more precisely how these patterns develop over time, and should involve more family members. An interesting possible extension is to study how intergenerational and/or intragenerational loyalty conflicts affect the well-being of family members, especially after the family experienced negative events such as loss or divorce.

References

Heider, F. (1958). The psychology of interpersonal relations. John Wiley & Sons.

It is evidence of the increasing number of foreigners in Spain for two decades. If we look at the figures recorded by the National Institute of Statistics, the magnitude of this change in population structure is observed. Moreover, this change has meant that most European societies have become multicultural societies. One of the most important phenomena because of its size, complexity and relevance, mainly caused by globalization and migration is that of binational marriages. This article focuses on binational marriages in which one spouse is of Spanish nationality and in marriages formed by Spanish spouses. So based on data from the Natural Population Movement National Statistics Institute, we will make a comparative analysis between them to find out if there are differences between the two types of marriages in relation to theirs sociodemographic characteristics. However, the purpose is not to understand the phenomenon of mixed couples related to immigration, but to analyse the social impact of their increasingly frequent presence has on the structural basis of the society concerned. The aim with this research is to quantitatively explain the increase and the impact of mixed couples, and their comparison through selected sociodemographic statistical variables. The results determined that there are differences in the geographical distribution of marriages, the age of spouses and preferences in choosing the nationality of wives and husbands.

This paper explores the legal delimitation of parenthood on surrogacy arrangements. I ask: How are ‘normal’ reproduction and mother-child relationship constituted and framed in legislative process of gestational surrogacy in Finland. I operate with the concept of normal by Michel Foucault. I investigate how ‘normal’ parenthood is made through law by promoting particular family types and forms of assisted reproduction.

Finnish law has prohibited gestational surrogacy since the year 2007. In 2010–2013 Ministry of Justice produced report on surrogacy arrangements in Finland and requested statements on legal aspects of surrogacy from stakeholders and interest groups. After all, the law was not amended. The research data consists of these legislative documents including 58 stakeholder statements from Finnish experts and authorities on health care, reproductive medicine, child welfare and psychology, for instance. To analyse the data, I used frame analysis that is adapted on the analysis of legislative materials. I use the concept of frame to indicate the interpretative space with which the legislative delimitations become understandable and justified. Consequently, framing is a way to establish and normalize particular forms of parenthood and reproduction.

Three frames were formulated: 1) Exclusivity of embodied motherhood, 2) Cognitive aspects of parenting, and 3) Threat of biological origin. Based on this empirical research, normal mother–child relationship is seen to be founded on gestation. I argue that exclusivity of embodied mother-child relationship – that includes concern over surrogates psychosocial well-being, family dysfunction and identity problems of the child – operates as motive to prohibit surrogacy in Finland.

Intergenerational relationships are characterized by reciprocal transfers and solidarity over the shared life span. Population aging, arising from continuous low fertility and increasing life expectancy, results in a prolonged shared life time between generations and underscores the relevance of work regarding this topic. This project postulates that demographic shifts are creating new opportunity structures for intergenerational connections and new late life potential, acknowledging the delay of grandparenthood and not neglecting the importance of friendship networks. There has been little explicit theoretical nor empirical analysis in previous research of how intergenerational relations may impact physical health outcomes such as mortality in later life. Therefore this contribution investigates empirically if different characteristics of grandparenthood affect mortality risk. This relationship is theoretically conceivable since research concerned with social relationships in general suggests such health effects. The objective is to investigate whether grandparenthood predicts mortality risk after adjustment for relevant confounders. Empirical tests are carried out by analyzing several waves from the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA). Statistical Analyses comprised of multivariate Cox proportional hazard regression models. Findings are expected to suggest lower mortality risk for older adults who are fulfilling the grandparent role. Furthermore theoretical arguments regarding mechanisms linking intergenerational ties to physical and mental health are discussed.

This article tries to answer to following questions - How everyday life maternity practices in the Czech Republic are transformed in three generations (50s and 60s, 70s and 80s and Present = mothers born in the 60s, 70s and 80s)? What aspects of motherhood made individual projects in these generations? To answer these research questions was used problem centered interview (eg. Witzel 2012), which provides unique data collection techniques, which allow the preservation of our own construction of reality and taking into account the impact of social and cultural norms and aspects. In each generation was interviewed 8-10 women. At the theoretical level research builds on the concept of reflexive project of “I” from Anthony Giddens, which assumes variability of our identity based on our experience. Furthermore, I refer to the concept of the project of motherhood and general culture of motherhood (Thomson, Lauder, Hadfield, Sharpe 2011), which also highlight the influence of context on maternity practices, but cautioned that, especially in maternity, exists in a certain period of time a specific ideal of mother to which women relate and then they may or may not integrate it into their own project of motherhood. Selected combination reveals how they are or were individual projects of motherhood shaped by social and cultural norms (eg. in combination of work and family, in the concepts of good and bad motherhood, in the approach to pregnancy, etc.), which were in each generation different.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), infertility is a growing problem in developed countries: approximately every fifth couple has to face it at some point in their lives. The use of infertility treatment is also increasing and in Finland every year nearly 3000 children are born trough infertility treatments. The purpose of this study is to describe, how the motherhood is constructed after long term infertility in the light of the narratives of women, who achieved pregnancy through successful infertility treatment and after many years by making considerable emotional and other investments to fulfil their long-awaited dream of motherhood. The aim is to provide new and valuable knowledge for professionals in health sector and peer support for the mothers.

A narrative approach was utilized in data collection, analysing and reporting. The participants were recruited through writing request in social media, different societies and health clinics. The data included mothers’ written (N=33) and spoken (N=26) narratives. The data were analysed with narrative analysing methods, mainly with the method called “analysis of expectations”. Preliminary results introduced five different expectations mothers relate to their motherhood paths. Motherhood was constructed via these expectations. It also seems that many of the expectations mothers described of having, were actually cultural or social expectations.

Keywords: infertility, motherhood, infertility treatment, expectations, narrative research

In Finland, shared parenting is widely supported through family policies and legislation. It is also evident in daily parental practices, as fathers’ share in childcare has increased notably since the late 1980s. Unfortunately, this is not the whole picture of Finnish fatherhood. Finland, like the other Nordic countries, also has its share of fathers with problems in, e.g., parenting skills and general life management. The existing Finnish and Nordic research, however, does not enable a proper understanding of the role and position of real-world fathers in relation to the mainstream ideals of engaged and active fatherhood.

In this presentation we ask, what is it like to be a father, when you don’t know how or are unable to fulfil the demands of contemporary fatherhood? We explore this issue through interviews with fathers who in one way or another are marginalized, e.g. undergoing a crisis involving a mental disorder, alcohol/drug abuse, domestic violence and/or have been convicted of a crime and are in prison. We present a tentative analysis based on 20 interviews with fathers from different challenging backgrounds. According to these fathers, support from a spouse or (prison) social worker is crucial for their acquisition of the appropriate parenting skills and for enabling them to believe in a better future. Such support also give fathers the will to survive, despite their burdensome and difficult current situation. However, according to the fathers, there’s no other way forward than to wait and hope and try to cope.

Parenting stress is a crucial construct that influences parent-child relationships, family functioning, and children’s development. Very few studies examined parenting stress in adoptive families during early parenthood, especially in association with couple and social relationship quality. The current study intended to investigate predictors of parenting stress in a community sample of adoptive parents from Italy. Specifically our goals were: 1) evaluating parenting stress among adoptive parents during the first post-adoption year, comparing with the normative Italian sample; 2) identifying predictors of parenting stress, exploring the role of four dimensions: parental individual characteristics (presence of depressive symptoms), couple characteristics (quarreling, satisfaction for sexuality, and tenderness shared between the partners), social context characteristics (real and potential social support), and child’s characteristics (adjustment, gender, age at adoption, years of institutionalization, health status on arrival). In all the analyses parents’ gender effect was taken into account, exploring differences between mothers’ and fathers’ perceptions. Participants were 56 adoptive couples, for a total of 112 parents. Analyses are still in progress and results will be discussed in relation to implications for practice.

Value transmission between parents and children is usually considered the hallmark of successful socialization (Barni et al., 2011). It has been widely discussed but surprisingly little researched, especially with reference to core values, such as political values (e.g., law and order, equality, and free enterprise) and sport values (e.g., enjoyment, sportsmanship, obedience). In this study, we focused on adolescent athletes’ sport values. In particular, according to Grusec and Goodnow’s Two-Step Model of Value Acquisition (1994), we aimed at: 1) measuring adolescents’ acceptance of the sport values their parents want to transmit to them; 2) analysing the influence of parental involvement in children’s sportive activity on value acceptance.

One hundred and seventy-two Italian adolescents (48.3% male, 51.7% female; mean age: 15.41, SD: 1.73), practising team sports, were asked to fill in the Youth Sport Values Questionnaire – 2 (Lee et al., 2008) to assess their own sport values (moral, competence, and status values) and the sport values their parents wanted to transmit to them. The Parental Involvement in Sport Questionnaire (Lee & MacLean, 1997) was used to measure how young athletes perceived their parents’ involvement in their sport activity in terms of active involvement, praise and understanding, directive behavior and pressure. From the relative weight analysis it emerged that a parental involvement characterized by praise and understanding and pressure are the most important predictors of adolescents’ acceptance of their parents’ sport values.

Implications of these results and further expansion of the study are discussed.

The paper analyses some issues concerning the character of children play activity in modern Russia.

The theoretical grounds of the research are the social theories of Russian scientists concerning the playing process (Lev Vygotsky, Dmitry Elkonin).

The author presents the results of two empirical researches. 216 formal interviews with children aged 10-17 and 15 in-depth interviews with mothers of pre-school children were conducted.

The interview were focused on different dimensions of play activity correlated with the family size. The author distinguishes two main dimensions: the play as collective activity when a child plays with others and the role-play. The paper discusses the most popular plays and games as well as those games, which are no longer popular. In-depth interviews with mothers were aimed at spotting the trends of disappearing and new playing practices.

The finds are that the family size influences children’s play activity. Family composition forms children’s worldview and affects their relationships with relatives as well as their peers and siblings, influences different types of their activity, including the play activity, which is the most significant ones in child’s socialization. The findings point out that modern children play trend to play outdoor group games much less frequently in comparison with their parents. The virtual reality becomes more and more important and influential even for pre-school children. However, theme-play remains the most significant factors of socialization. Play activity determines children’s reality, helps them to understand the social world order and rules, they have to live by, teaches them behavior patterns.

In Finland families have a legal right to municipal childcare at times when they need it, that is, also during evenings, nights and weekends. Consequently, about 7 per cent of Finnish children in municipal childcare are taken care in day-and-night care units (THL, 2014). Because of their parents’ atypical work schedules children spend on average longer hours per day in day-and-night care compared to children in childcare with standard opening hours, and this may also include spending nights in the unit.

This study examines collaboration of families and childcare personnel in this special context of childcare and focuses on the following questions. How do parents and personnel experience collaboration? What are the main challenges and strengths from their points of view? Do the evaluations of families-personnel collaboration differ between parents with a child in day-and-night care and parents with a child in childcare with standard opening hours?

The study utilizes several data sets. In the Families 24/7 -project interview and questionnaire data were collected from three target groups: 227 employees of day-and-night care units; 197 parents with a child in day-and-night care; and 140 parents with a child in childcare with standard opening hours. In the OHOI-project interview and questionnaire data were collected from 199 employees in day-and-night care units in Middle Finland. Data will be analysed using mixed methods. The study will increase understanding of this unique type of childcare service, day-and-night care, by spotting the special characteristics of families-personnel collaboration.

INTRODUCTION

Because of the current preponderance of the dichotomous model ‘Homosexual VS Heterosexual’, there is little room for more open sexual orientations such as experienced by bisexual people. This lack of knowledge can be an obstacle for an adequate clinical support among this population. The present study explores bisexual’s own lived experiences with a focus on their intimate relations.

METHOD & SAMPLE

A qualitative-explorative research design :

Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 10 participants self-identified as bisexual (5 women & 5 men aged from 25 to 64 years)

Data were analysed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (Smith, J. A., 1995)

RESULTS

Major themes

No criteria of sex or gender in the choice of a partner

Faithfullness VS unfaithfullness : different ways to organize affective and sexual relationships in link with one’s own representations of bisexuality

Negative impact of the stereotypes of bisexuality on their relationships

Perception of a positive influence of the communication within the relationship on individual’s and marital’s well-being

Difficulties to find an adequate support among the health’s professional

CONCLUSIONS

These results provide an initial overview about some specific dynamics among bisexual’s intimate relationships. To achieve significant results, it would be interesting to collect a larger sample among bisexual population. This is the second step of this research. Moreover, a focus group could be an interesting direction for future research to specify the influence of the communication on the bisexual’s affective and sexual relationships.

The purpose of this study is to examine how much responsibility for the care of their parents respondents feel and what its determinants are. This study utilized data collected in Sapporo, Japan, in January 2015. Respondents to the survey were men and women from 35 to 60 years of age whose parents were still alive (n=510). A dependent variable was the answer to the question: Taking everything into the consideration, what percentage of responsibility for the care of your parents do you feel? The independent variables consisted of basic attributes of the respondents, ADL and living arrangements of their parents, the number of siblings and the respondents' consciousness concerning family. The results of the analysis using the OLS regression models are as follows. First, the respondents who are older, women, the eldest child and strongly bound by the notion of 'family', feel strong responsibility for the care of their parent which is in accordance with traditional discourses concerning family care in Japan. Second, the feeling of responsibility was not related to the distance to the parents' house and their living arrangement. This study revealed people still feel a strong obligation of the care of their parents, although the socialization of care-giving has advanced in Japan.

How are family relations and bonds thought in today's German and Polish society so that the interpretative figure of the rich and happy single mother is still missing. In my PhD thesis I examine with the sociology of knowledge approach to discourse (SKAD) the construction process of single motherhood in the juridical-political discourse concerning the maintenance advance law in Germany and the law on family benefits in Poland. The heteronormativity critical approach serves me as a tool of thought and as an analytical line. The focus is on the following questions: what does the heteronormative family order in the respective German and Polish discourse mean; which power relations are made and/or maintained through the heteronormative family order; how is single motherhood interpreted under the heteronorma-tive family order regime and what role does social work with single mothers who apply for state benefits play in all this. The aim of the thesis is the elaboration of the interdependencies between heteronormative family order and single motherhood. In my poster presentation I present the research design of my PhD thesis, the theoretical and methodological approach to the research subject "single motherhood" and the research questions and the first results of my study.

Background: Labour market mobility and changing family patterns are increasing while the number of family carers of elderlies in close proximity decreases. These trends result in a rising demand of insights on „dis-tance caregiving“. So far, there is limited research on a) characteristics of distance carers and their interge-nerational relationships, b) concepts on communication structures and behaviour, and c) challenges at the workplace and in the health care system.

Objectives: The binational „DiCa“ project (BMBF-Silqua, 2016-19) with an interdisciplinary German and Swiss research team aims to explore challenges for distance carers and implications for family relationships. It also aims to identify strategies for the labour market and health care systems in order to foster carers‘ workplace continuity. Therefore, research questions refer to a triple actors: employers, health care system, and family and friend carers.

Methods: In order to establish a strong empirical data basis, the applied project is embedded in a framework of primary and secondary data generation and analysis. It also includes a cooperation with employers that are engaged in developing, piloting and evaluating interventions to support the situation of distance carers. Therefore, secondary data from SHARE and the German Ageing Survey (DEAS) will be analysed. Also, qua-litative interviews with distance carers and expert interviews with representatives from employers and health care services will be conducted.

Results: At the conference, preliminary results will highlight challenges of distance caregiving with a focus on intergenerational relations, and how the research design contributes to evidence-based interventions and implementation.

There is an extensive body of literature showing a multitude of consequences of partnership dissolution, including decreased political involvement, but little is known about the impact it has on political preferences. We explore whether relationship dissolution affects political views and party preferences. Findings from cross-sectional studies conducted in the US show that divorced individuals tend to be more left-wing, which was explained by divorced individuals having fewer resources and hence a stronger interest in more state provisions and having less traditional family values.

Using longitudinal data from the Swiss Household Panel, this study examines whether going through separation from cohabitation or marriage is associated with a change in political preferences, such as self-placement on the left-right continuum and political party preferences.

First results from group comparisons controlled for background characteristics show that the separated group is indeed more leftwing, but that this difference with partnered individuals already exists prior to relationship dissolution. Fixed effects models based on the group who experiences separation further show that any changes following separation are to the right rather than the left in terms of self-placement on the left-right continuum and party preference.

n the next step of this study we will explore whether changes in political preferences can be attributed to decreases in resources, changes in social networks or to a decreased influence of the former spouse.

Divorces are nowadays very common in all western countries. Divorce, as a life change, is a usually hard experience for both spouses. Cultural changes and tolerant atmosphere in many modern societies have made the coping with divorce easier compared to history. Nevertheless the coping with divorce is a stressful process and often takes a long time to process.

This research gives answers to the following questions: how does the ex-spouses cope with divorce? How do the stories from the same divorce differ from each other? What kind of similarities are found with the same divorce?

This research examines the stories of the coping with the divorce by ex-spouses. The participants of this research are Christian ex-couples. They have gotten married ecclesiastically, the divorce is a new life transition to both ex-spouses and time from the juridical divorce has lasted a maximum five years. The data comprehends eight ex-couples. The interviews are kept individually. The data has been collected by the interviews in the spring 2016.

This study is narrative based qualitative research. The data consists by narratives and the type of analysis is narrative. The first expected results will be completed at the 8th Congress of the European Society on Family Relations. This research gives new and profound information about coping with divorce. This research gives also new understanding of the similarities and differences from the same divorce and its coping. The results of this research are needed for many clinicians like psychologists and therapists.

The purpose of this paper is to interpret the diversity in the meaning “family” in different countries with different sociocultural backgrounds based on the meaning family formation. In so doing, it is especially important to get a holistic understanding of the family, going beyond a fragmentary analysis on trends in forms. Even though the same demographic megatrends of the family may be seen both in Germany and South Korea, how each society looks at changes in the family will differ according to each country’s sociocultural characteristics, and the direction of pertinent policies will also differ.

Accordingly, in this paper, in analyzing the concepts of family formation currently taking place in Germany and South Korea, the policy stance of each country will be taken into account, focused on the timing and the perceptions of family formation. Suppose timing of family formation are as follows:T1(marriage);T2(marriage/cohabitation);T3(childbirth). Then, depending on what each society regards as being a family, the kind of themes that each society and its citizens will have to focus on will differ.

To address this, this paper will take the 2016 doctorate thesis(in review) by the present author that has analyzed the ISSP 2012data and reorganize parts of it for reporting, and the meanings of the results will be interpreted by reviewing the literature and the data from the national statistics offices of Germany and South Korea. This paper has significance in that it has presented the possibility of correctly interpreting the same phenomena in different societies with different cultures.

To understand the dynamics of contemporary intimate relationships and families, we have to understand the incentive and opportunity structure of our postmodern society. Postmodernity demands agentic decision makers (Dykstra 2009), as modern norms loose their guiding character and new tasks along the life course arise (Frankenberger 2008, Giddens 1992). Postmodern actors face „risky freedoms“ in the constant need of decision-making within dilemma situations (Beck 1993, Lewis 2006). Individuals themselves are the agents and locus of change. Therefore, individuals and dyads have to flexibly adapt to changing, uncertain, even precarious contexts. Couples thus have to negotiate how to synchronize, compromise and “link” their needs within their dyad and furthermore within society (Elder 1987). This potentially leads to fragile 'individualized' relationships (Burkart 1991).

Accordingly, society affects profoundly intimate life (Bulcroft 2000). However, also the latent macro-level can be understood via the affected micro-level life course (Huinink 2012). Therefore, I propose an interdisciplinary research design on dyadic life course decision-making. Along the stages of 1) couple formation, 2) couple enlargement, 3) couple dissolution. Three cases of decision-making specific to postmodernity along this dyadic life course should as focal points of the interrelations of macro and micro dynamics (Bronfenbrenner 1986). 1) Long-distance relationships and couple formation (Jimenez 2010; Sahlstein 2006); 2) entrepreneurs of the self and fertility decisions (Ajzen 2013; Henninger 2008; van der Kaa 2001); 3) successful aging and end-of-life decisions (Baltes 2003; Korporaal 2013). These cases provide key insights into postmodern intimate relationships, and in synergy into postmodernity itself.

The poster is intended to present the qualitative research conducted in Poland in 2014 and 2015 among parents engaging in the creation of an educational environment for their children.

Research questions: centered on 1) the identification and analysis of parenting practices, 2) the ensuing social construct of parenthood and 3) the broader social contexts of these practices and their meanings.

The research is founded in the poststructural, constructivist perspective. Data is collected by means of individual, theme, in-depth interviews.

Study group: mothers and fathers of preschool and schoolchildren who actively seek or create (in their opinion) appropriate educational environments for their children. The subjects are well educated. They live in a large city. They are interested in acquiring and developing new parenting competence. The economic, social and cultural capital accumulated by the parent study group provide them freedom of shaping their own and their children’s reality. Some of the parents establish educational environments constituting alternatives to systemic schools.

Grounded Theory Methodology and critical discourse analysis are employed for case studies.

The poster will briefly present the study methodology and then proceed to describe selected analyzed categories (of parental learning) related to the context of educational decisions and the construction of the parental role.

I hope for a constructive critique of my study plan - in which I use the GTM as a foundation to be complemented and completed with other research strategies enabling the exploration of parenthood construction context – the discourse in which parenting constructions are rooted.

Spanish male behavior against unpaid household work was studied and also compared with men from other countries (Norway, UK and France). It should be taken into account different Gender Contracts existing in these countries without forgetting the differences between different types of Welfare State. A key aspect was the figure of the male breadwinner. Time-use data collected by the MTUS were be used. The results show that the man is less participatory than women in unpaid domestic work; however there are very important differences between countries.

Loneliness and social isolation are significant afflictions of Europe’s older population. The lack of social network is detrimental for human health. Hence, it is important to understand who is at risk of social exclusion. Although several authors criticised the exchange theory of social connections, a large body of research suggests that distribution of material resources (an “asset portfolio”) is a crucial element in understanding why some people have bigger networks than other. This paper asks what is the “asset portfolio” that is responsible for social exclusion of older adults. Data: the Survey of Health, Aging and Retirement in Europe (SHARE). Methods: OLS and Linear Probability Model. Selected first findings: Men are more likely to have no friends in their networks and no confidants at all, and yet they are less likely to report loneliness. Except the main residence, ownership of economic resources contributes to having friends. Although physical attractiveness (eg., BMI or height) is noted as one of the key determinants for connections of younger people, these variables are not correlated with my measures of older adults’ networks. Further research should establish the direction of causation, as well as address the issue of changes in 20th — early 21st century Europe that might affect the “asset portfolio” behind friendship.

Poverty, defined not only as a significant lack of economical capital but consequently as the restriction of the scope of action of individuals and their families, is a reality for many families within Europe. Poverty can be acknowledged as a multi-dimensional concept which includes the idea of vulnerability. That means that the precarious circumstances faced by families living in poverty have significant effects on their possibilities to participate in society. ‘To be (called) poor’ can challenge and affect families in multiple ways. Within Europe we can find both similarities and huge differences regarding not only the different levels of (relative) poverty between countries and the different living circumstances these levels refer to but also in the challenges the families face, the experiences they have and the different debates in which these issues are addressed.

Therefore the central question of the symposium will be: In which ways do these challenges, experiences and discourses materialise under different circumstances? The analysis will be focused on parents and debates about ‘poor families’, their ‘parenting methods’, as well as on children and their process of growing up. The broad topic of ‘families in poverty’ will therefore be discussed from different theoretical backgrounds and will highlight different aspects regarding discourses and experiences. By doing so, we want to open up a broader look on how families and family relations are shaped in modern societies and how these are challenged by poverty, taking perspectives from and on families into account.

.

In recent years it has become common in some East and Central European countries that people migrate to more well-off countries to find a better income. Often these people are parents, who leave their children back home with their grandparents, close family friends or all alone. According to ISCWeB Study funded by the Jacobs Foundation, 22% of twelve years old children in Estonia have experienced one or both parents’ absence from their daily lives due to parent(s) transnational commuting between home and job. The Survey revealed lower wellbeing level among children who had experienced parental job migration compared to those without this experience. The presentation will discuss the transnational job migration of parents as a familial poverty alleviation strategy in terms of costs paid with wellbeing of children and ‘good’ parenting. The presentation will draw data from a small-scale study about children’s attitudes concerning the transnational job migration of parents, from qualitative interviews with children left them behind by both job-migrating parents, and fathers who commute transnationally between job and home. The presentation will demonstrate how transnational job migration can revive traditional family roles and activate children to save family wholeness.

Looking at field experience as well as at media shows it can be observed that being called ‘poor’ for those families are concerned seems to be more of an imposition then a descriptive or critical analysis of their living conditions. In fact most people try to defend themselves against the addressing as ‘the poor’. The paper is based on a discourse analytic study which analyzed how pedagogical-scientific journals speak about ‘poor parents’. Starting with its results it asks how the addressing as ‘poor’ can be understood, why it is maybe dangerous for families to be (called) ‘poor’ and what this means for a perspective on ‘families in poverty”.

The paper is based on an empirical study that includes narrative-biographical interviews with people in a state of poverty. The central question is: What does it mean to people and their construction of subjectivity when they live in poverty? The empirical data shows that parents see their ability to be responsible parents questioned. They are constantly confronted with the need to prove themselves as ‘good parents’. For these parents, poverty is an obstacle from fulfilling their own normative beliefs about ‘good parenting’. This results in emotions of shame, which are a constant attack on their subjectivity.

This symposium focuses on value development from early adolescence to adulthood and on the vertical transmission of values between adults and younger generations. Viewed as desirable abstract goals that apply across situations, values are used to characterize individuals and societies, and to explain the motivational bases of attitudes and behaviors (Schwartz, 2005). Theories of developmental aging suggest that patterns of value priorities and of value influences between adults and children change across the life cycle. In particular, research is consistent in showing that children become very sensitive to parental value messages in adolescence, more than at any earlier time during childhood. One controversy in the literature instead concerns the degree of parents’ influence on children’s values from the period of young adulthood, during which the parent-child relationship becomes less asymmetric and children are faced with further sources of influence (Barni et al., 2013; Roest et al., 2009).

As a whole, the three studies of this symposium provide a developmental and context-sensitive picture of socialization and transmission of values. They showed the unstable nature of early adolescents’ value priorities and analyzed the transmission processes between, on the one hand, teachers and adolescent students and, on the other hand, ageing parents and adult children in conditions of rapid and deep sociocultural change (i.e., migration context).

Adolescence is the formative period of values. Nevertheless, longitudinal research on adolescents’ value priorities is scarce. The present study aims to fill this gap in the literature by examining value change from early to middle adolescence. 329 Estonian adolescents were asked to fill out a 21-item version of the Portrait Values Questionnaire in three consecutive years: in the beginning of 7th, 8th, and 9th grade (aged 13, 14 and 15 respectively). The results showed that adolescents’ value hierarchy differs considerably from that of adults (see Bardi, Lee, Hoffmann-Towfigh, & Soutar, 2009), but differences seem to decrease as adolescents grow older. In 7th and 8th grade adolescents considered hedonism – value type that is on 8th place in the pan-cultural value hierarchy – the most important. By the start of 9th grade, however, hedonism had become less important and ranked as the second most important value type. Benevolence – value type that is on the top of adults’ value hierarchy – increased significantly in importance over the years and moved from being on the third place to the first place. Compared with 8th grade, the importance of self-direction and security had also increased by the start of 9th grade. Similarly to adults, adolescents considered power the least important in all three years. Furthermore, during all three assessments boys considered power more important than girls. Girls, in turn, rated stimulation and benevolence higher than boys. The results of the longitudinal study highlight the unstable nature of early adolescents’ value priorities.

In Western countries adolescents spend a lot of time at school, daily in contact with their teachers and classmates. Although models of socialization at school are not well developed, researchers consistently consider the school as a significant social context providing adolescents with experiences of plurality, consistent or discrepant with respect to what they have learned within their family. The school provides social interactions that represent a level of stimulation and negotiation that may not be available from parents at home, and teachers hold a key position in determining the activities and discussions in the classroom (Kiousis & McDevitt, 2008; Wentzel & Looney, 2007).

Relying on Schwartz’s Value Theory (1992), this study aims at analyzing teachers’ socialization values (i.e., the values they would like their students to endorse) and their teaching styles (authoritarian vs. authoritative), as well as their students’ personal values. It involved 122 high school teachers and 677 students (41.6% males; aged between 14-18), selected from 39 classes of 15 different high schools in Italy. In particular, we tested a mediation model with teaching style as a single mediator between teachers’ socialization values and students’ personal values.

Data analysis is still in progress, and results will be discussed in relation to teacher-student relationship and socialization processes. Indications to implement values education in the school will be also provided.

Most studies on intergenerational value transmission in migrant families have focused on adolescents, whereas not much is known about value similarities and differences between adult children and their ageing parents in the acculturation context. Earlier research has shown that adult children and their parents become in general closer in their value orientations as they share similar life situations and roles as adults; however, intergenerational gaps in value orientations might increase due to intergenerational differences in status or educational attainment, and this might be especially pronounced between first and second generation in migrant families.

The present study focusses on a sample of n = 65 couples of Luxembourgish and n = 66 couples of Portuguese adult children and their parents, all living in the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg. Portuguese adult children were born resp. had grown up in Luxembourg. General value orientations, perceived value similarity and the motivation to transmit or take over parental values were assessed by use of a standardized questionnaire. Our data structure allowed taking into account both perspectives of adult children and their ageing parents.

First analyses show similarities between Luxembourgish and Portuguese families with regard to intergenerational value congruence; however, results suggest different mechanisms in Portuguese migrant compared to Luxembourgish families with a more prominent role of motivational processes in the transmission of values in the acculturation context. Gender, age and socio-demographic factors will be taken into account.

Results will be discussed within an integrative framework on intergenerational relations in the light of migration and ageing.

Empirical research comparing life satisfaction among both couples and singles is sparse. This study investigates the life satisfaction of couples and singles in diverse life situations in Malta.

A net sample of 2,469 adults was recruited through quota sampling, stratifying by sex, residing with partner or not, and whether one had dependent children. A semi-structured questionnaire was employed to collect data through computer assisted telephone interviews (CATI).

No significant differences were found between life satisfaction scores for men and women (p > .05); whether one has children or not (p > .05); and one’s region of residence (p > .05). Those with tertiary education reported higher life satisfaction than those with primary level (p = 0.011). Significant differences also existed by civil status (p <0.001) where the married reported highest levels of satisfaction, followed by single, separated, widowed and divorced persons.

Income adequacy predicted life satisfaction for both those in relationship (p <0.001) and those who were single (p<0.001). Satisfaction for those in relationship was also predicted by relationship quality (p < 0.001) and being married (p = 0.008). Satisfaction for singles was also predicted by ‘everything is going well for me and my family’ (p < 0.001) and type of lifestyle.

Dissatisfaction with life was predicted for both groups by conflict in personal relationships, problems at work, and facing big problems at present (all p <0.001). Insufficient financial resources, problems with health and mental health also predicted dissatisfaction for those in relationships (all p <0.001).

Financial hardship is a well known stressor for relationship harmony. This study explored the link between perceived income adequacy, demographic factors, and lifestyle and relationship satisfaction and management of couples and singles resident in Malta. It was part of a larger 2015 relationships study, conducted by the National Centre for Family Research, where a random stratified sample of 2469 adults aged 18 to 81 completed a 33-item questionnaire using computer-assisted telephone interviews. Descriptive and relational analyses revealed that 46% of the respondents claimed to have adequate or more than adequate income to cover daily expenses, with older adults (p<0.001), men (p=0.001), and those who were married (p<0.001), in a relationship (p<0.001), childless (p<0.001) and from the Northern region (p<0.001) declaring higher adequacy levels. Perceived income adequacy predicted life satisfaction among both singles and those in a relationship (p<0.001). Specifically, 25.8% of couples where both partners were on unemployment benefits reported being dissatisfied or very dissatisfied with their life. Significant differences also emerged for relationship satisfaction. 28.4% of those reporting serious financial difficulties rated their relationship as negative or very negative, compared to 3.4% of those reporting minor financial difficulties (p<0.001). Indeed, financial insecurity was among the top five features considered by couples as detrimental to their relationship. Perceived income adequacy was also positively related to level of agreement between couples on family finances, recreation and child-rearing practices (all p<0.001), as well as the extent to which the couple felt they neglected their relationship due to heavy work pressures (p=0.015).

In this research, we hope to gain valuable information on identifying the phenomenon of men suffering unwanted singleness. The effects of couple relationships on health are widely acknowledged. Eija-Maarit Ojala's and Osmo Kontula's (2002, 99) research on Finns living alone states that specially women have difficulties in finding an appropriate partner and establishing a relationship. Pakarinkangas (2004;2007) states that men find partners more easily and are more willing to establish new relationships. For men, living alone is more challenging than it is for women. This leaves men without relationship as the odd ones breaking the norm. This can further worsen the experience of unwanted singleness. Especially for men, a relationship predicts enhanced physical health and prolonged lifetime. Earlier studies have often focused on individual differences and qualities. In this study, the viewpoint is sociological; we focus on identifying both the structures and attitudes supporting and possibly preventing the forming of relationships. We ask who is suffering from unwanted singleness, what are the relationship expectations and how loneliness and unwanted singleness are interconnected. We also investigate the trends in the past 25 years. The sample for this study consists of representative 2500 Finnish men who took part in The National Study of Human Relations, Sexual Attitudes and Lifestyles in Finland (FINSEX). The respondents are asked a wide range of subjects including their relationship status, experiences of loneliness, ideal relationship type and difficulties in finding a partner. The analysis is restricted to men between the ages of 25 and 64.

Expectations from partner is one of the factors plays an important role in the quality of the couples’ relations and their satisfaction of marital lives. This study aimed to understand the Iranian women’s expectations from their husbands and discover generational differences. Using grounded theory method and qualitative deep semi-structured interviews, we investigated the differences between 9 mothers and 9 girls. The sample, that at least one year of their marriages has passed, was selected from one of the areas of Tehran, Iran.

The phase analysis of the respondents indicated that their expectations were based on underlying and intervention conditions, such as individualism, family circumstances, the way of their marriage and normative-structural pressures, employment condition, group relations and social-cultural capitals. Finally, after comparing the actions and coping strategies, theoretical paradigms were obtained separately for mothers (first generation) and daughters (second generation), for mothers the concept of "trying to survive" and for girls “transition from a lower social status to the superior one" were important.

Results showed that mothers, due to the minimal available resources, have adopted a passive approach to preserve their lives. While girls with a pronounced generational transition, due to changes in methods of accessing to sources of power, have thought about higher levels for their personal lives and planed for social status transition. This means that new generation’s expectations can be specified in a tangible shift and is due to broader social changes.

The sociodemographic transformations which occurred in the last decades (e.g., growth of life expectancy, increased participation of women in the labor market) have had a profound impact in family life. Intergenerational solidarity constitutes today, more than ever, a valuable resource to family functioning, especially in countries characterized by familistic values and where the State does not provide the necessary support to families, such as Portugal. Furthermore, family research has been characterized by heteronormativity and studies with families with nonheterosexual children have mainly focused on specific variables associated with the sexual identity of these individuals. Thus, there is gap in research about intergenerational solidarity processes between nonheterosexual adult children and their parents. Relying on the conceptual framework of the Intergenerational Solidarity Paradigm (Bengtson & Roberts, 1991), we focused on relationships between adult children and their parents. More specifically, we investigated how perceptions of different types of solidarity (e.g. functional, normative, conflictual) vary according to adult children’s gender and sexual orientation. We used a quantitative approach and our sample is constituted by 530 participants: 50.6% women and 54.9% heterosexuals. Results suggest that LGB participants perceived less intergenerational solidarity from their parents than their heterosexual counterparts. Moreover, LGB individuals reported higher levels of conflictual solidarity with their fathers than with their mothers. Results are discussed taking into account (i) scholarship on gender norms and expectations, (ii) research on family processes in families with LGB members, and (iii) characteristics of the Portuguese cultural context.

Intersexed bodies and secrecy are intertwined historically through the medical system's practice. The medical professionals since 1950's ought to quickly normalize intersexed bodies through surgeries and hormonal treatments, in order to fix and conceal the bodily ambiguity and maintain the sex/gender socially order. We will describe the differences between parents who disclosed and speak openly about their children's bodies and parents who conceal their children intersexed bodies in varied ways. This is a collaborative narrative research; still in develop process, which includes 17 parents, 8 parents from Israel and 9 from Germany. There are three main parental strategies we are focusing on in our research, bodily dialogue, gender/sex framing and concealing/revealing practices. In this paper we will describe and demonstrate the concealing/revealing practices of the parents, how they maneuvering between private/public spheres and in which inter-relation spaces they conceal/reveal their children's' bodies.

The present paper provides insights into the experiences of partners of transgender people. Existing research on this topic shows us that coming out as transgender by one partner during marriage or a long term relationship can be a shock for the other partner and often results in relationship dissolution. When the couple has children together this brings additional challenges. Various studies suggest that partners may need to feel that they are involved in the disclosure process towards their children and that they play particularly a decisive role in the way children react on the transition of their transgender parent. Current paper addresses the topic of being partner and at the same parent when your partner comes out and decides to transition. We ask the question which different role conflicts play. Consistent with the multi-actor method and in the tradition of Grounded theory, in-depth interviews were conducted and analysed. At the moment we have interviewed 10 cisgender partners and ex-partners about their experiences during the coming out of their transgender partner or ex-partner. Additional interviews were conducted with their transgender partner or ex-partner (n=8). More interviews in the spring and summer of 2016 will follow. Until now, Various experiences and roles of these partners and ex-partners were observed which can conflicting with each other: Being a supportive ally, a hurt and disappointed romantic partner, an intimate partner with a certain sexual orientation, and a protective parent for their children.

In Spanish law, the mother is the woman who gives birth to the baby. Surrogacy contracts are null and void in Spanish law; nonetheless, Spanish citizens often go to other countries where commercial surrogacy is practiced in order to form their families. How do these Spanish citizens who form their families through surrogacy configure the woman who gives birth as not the mother?

Based on ethnographic research with people involved in surrogacy arrangements from an ongoing research project, and using both interviews with families formed through surrogacy and narratives from the media, this paper will discuss how both heterosexual and homosexual Spanish couples deconstruct the motherhood of the woman who gives birth and reconstruct the parenthood of the commissioning couple. Specifically, this paper will deal with: 1) how role of the woman who gives birth is either strongly downplayed or specifically configured as a kinship but non-mother role, 2) how genetics is emphasized or discounted as a basis for kinship, and 2) how intention, desire and choice are used to create kinship. I will draw on concepts from theory in the anthropology of kinship such as “conception in the heart” and “intention” (Ragoné 1994, Teman 2010), “choice”(Weston 1997), “innkeepers” and “gifts” (Teman 2010, Mauss 1925) and the “other mother” (Bharadwaj 2012), as well as concepts of genetics and kinship (Edwards and Salazar 2009) to try to understand the processes carried out by Spanish commissioning parents.

In Finland, a Nordic country, fathers are expected to share childcare with the mother of their child from the very outset of their parenthood. In line with these expectations, fathers’ share of care work has increased significantly during recent decades, and thus, equal and shared parenting has become a widespread practice in contemporary Finnish family life. However, research on father involvement in decision-making on childcare responsibilities and arrangements, especially from their point-of-view, is scarce. We aim to address this issue by analyzing the personal accounts of Finnish first-time fathers. Our qualitative analysis investigates how decisions on childcare are made in families, and to what extent mothers and fathers, respectively, are involved in this process. We draw on three different sets of narrative interviews: the first set comprises accounts by 28 fathers interviewed in 2003 (and re-interviews with four fathers in 2011), and the second set longitudinal interviews (2 waves) with 16 fathers conducted in 2008-2011. The third set, comprising accounts by about 30 fathers, will be gathered in autumn 2016. According to our initial, tentative analysis based on the first two data sets, the fathers’ accounts indicate significant involvement in childcare practices rather than in the decision-making process. Some changes were also observed in fathers’ accounts over time, in step with the prevailing discourses on the family in Finnish society. The presented study is a part of the project Finnish Childcare Policies: In/Equality in Focus (2015-2020) funded by the Strategic Research Council of the Academy of Finland.

The amendment of the German Parental Leave legislation in 2007 can be seen as a further step in establishing new forms of fatherhood in Germany. By introducing two ‘partner months’, fathers are encouraged to raise their com-mitment in household- and child-caring activities. Recent data from the federal office of statistics show that between 2006 and 2013 the percentage of fathers, who took parental leave, increased from 3.5% to 32.0%– a historical peak. Nevertheless, related to differences and inequality in terms of education, income, ethnic affiliation or region, fathers make demands on parental leave in very different ways, which influences e.g. the length of the leave or the amount of money they’ll get during that time.

With a qualitative-reconstructive approach, we focus on these (and further) differences in Interviews with couples and reconstruct – based on a comparative and sequential analysis – their negotiations and decision-making concerning the leave of the fathers.

First findings reveal that the couples’ arrangements concerning the fathers parental leave are influenced by anticipated problems within the workplace, as well as attitudes and cultural images about mothering, fathering and parenting. Further new conflicts potentially emerge about the entitlement who defines the standards and quality of family work.

Parental leaves policies have increasingly aimed fathers to use leave to childcare in several European countries. Among other elements, the design of leave schemes is a way to promote fathers to get more involved in reproductive activities. In this study we have researched Spanish rural police since this profession is mainly developed by men and it is linked to macho stereotypes. We have dug into fathers’ discourse about their experience, motivations, reactions and consequences of taking a leave alone. This paper is framed in a wider project about fathers on leave alone funded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (CSO2013-44097-R). We have performed fifteen in-depth interviews to fathers who work as rural police which have been on leave at least during a month while their partners were on a paid work. Sample method has been snow ball sampling and, the fieldwork has been carried out in 2014. We have analyzed the interviews using codes and families with the software Atlas.ti. Our preliminary findings show rural police fathers did not considered taking a leave alone as a form to change roles but as a tool to balance the familiar strategy. When advantages are perceived in taking a leave alone, the traditional father role is not a key to decide. Reactions at the work place were heterogeneous, ranging from disapprovement to indiference.

Numerous studies have focused on how and why parents share parental leave or care work in a gendered way, and how they experience their parenting tasks. So far, relatively little is known about how couples rationalize and justify their division of employment and care work when they become parents. The study focuses on Austrian first-time parents’ negotiation, implementation and evaluation of distributing care responsibilities when arranging their parental leave. Austria provides a comparatively flexible and long paid parental leave, thus favours traditional gender roles. Through a lens of social constructivism and by acknowledging the multidimensional character of parental responsibilities, I delineate different types of rationales behind the parents’ leave arrangements and examine how they alter throughout the transition to parenthood. Empirically, this research is therefore rooted in a qualitative longitudinal study in Austria. Semi-structured interviews (n=66) were conducted with mothers and fathers separately before the birth of their child, as well as six months and two years after (2013-2015). The sample covers parents from diverse educational and socio-economic backgrounds, with different forms of family status and use of parental leave. After a thematic analysis of all interviews, an in-depth sequential analysis following a hermeneutic approach was applied to the data on a case-level with a subsequent cross-case analysis. Preliminary findings suggest that parents tend to negotiate their arrangement of parental leave mainly from an economic point of view and seek to maximize their financial resources. However, the rationalization strategies are strongly underpinned by gendered ascriptions of caring abilities and responsibilities.

One of the most significant societal changes of the past decades is the rise in female labor force participation. However, still the labor force participation of women lags far behind that of men, when the degree of employment is considered. Thus, time restrictions due to family responsibilities seem to still present one of the main obstacles for women’s employment.

Against this background the question arises, to what extent the outsourcing of domestic labor, for example by hiring a household help, might present a viable solution for women to reconcile family responsibilities with employment.

The investigation of the interrelation between household gender arrangement, domestic labor and employment promises specific insights into how structural and normative aspects interact to produce the observed employment patterns. Using an unique representative dataset collected for evaluation of a program of the German Federal Ministry for Families, Senior Citizens, Women and Youths (N= 1312) this article seeks to provide theoretical and empirical evidence on the effects of hiring a household help for female labor market decisions in Germany. In particular the dataset contains several items that were specifically included into the survey for addressing outsourcing issues. Moreover, we exploit the quasi-experimental design of the study and qualitative data collected during the program participation to access the normative components of household labor.

The results reveal that outsourcing, program participation and work attachment are closely interrelated and that for all three processes beside economic determinants gender roles and gender identity play a crucial role.

In Germany, availability of institutional child care is still limited and lower than in several other European countries. Although in recent years there have been improvements, particularly in the Western part of the country (where provision rates were traditionally lower than in the Eastern part), institutional child care for children under three years of age is not available for the majority of children. Since child care is a prerequisite for maternal employment, it is also important for families’ financial status.

In this paper, we investigate the relationship between attitudes towards maternal employment and institutional child care with actual market behaviour, the extent of labour supply and usage of institutional child care. Do these attitudes shape behaviour or do other socio-economic (e.g., qualification) and structural factors (e.g., service provision, region) limit maternal employment and therefore leave families at risk of poverty?

In the analysis we use the fifth wave of the German panel study “Labour Market and Social Security”, a representative sample of individuals and households, which includes specific questions on these attitudes. We pay special attention to household contexts (lone parents, number of children, partners’ employment status) and regional differences, since East and West Germans traditionally differ with respect to gender-role attitudes, provision of institutional child care and labour market conditions. The aim is a description of the aforementioned attitudes and their differences among population subgroups as well as an estimation of their effects on behaviour vis-à-vis other determinants in a series of regression analyses.

The concept of ambivalences has been introduced in family research as a tool to widen the perspective, not only considering different relationship characteristics and perceptions separately but taking into account the potential role of the simultaneous occurrence of conflicting emotions, perceptions, and behavioral tendencies. Ambivalences are assumed to play an important role in relationship dynamics, personal development, in the processes of individual adjustment and with regard to subjective well-being. About half a decade ago, a group of researchers used the opportunity of the ESFR conference to present and debate the particular potential and implications of the concept of ambivalences for family research. Based on evermore growing attention to the apparent relevance of ambivalences in intergenerational relationships, it is now the task to scrutinize the emergence, the handling, and the outcomes of ambivalences taking into account the complexity and the dynamic quality of social life.

This symposium offers new insights into the diverse social and personal contexts, specific occasions and individual tracks of ambivalence experiences across the human life course. It also presents a set of different analytical strategies bearing specific potential to identify ambivalences, and to examine their antecedents and implications for personal development as well as relationship processes.

The first two contributions provide insights into the significance of ambivalences for the dynamic nature of relationships and personal development, modeling change using longitudinal data. The following two contributions focus on the multitude and the interplay of social, cultural, and individual factors potentially promoting ambivalence experiences and allowing for different ways to handle them. Finally, the discussion will explore new achievements and implications for future family research, paying special attention to the developments in the field of ambivalence research during the past decade.

Although family relations have been extensively studied, previous research has often examined the various aspects of family relations in isolation from each other. However, in order to capture the complexity of family relations, researchers should consider multiple characteristics of family relationships simultaneously. The current presentation will show how latent class models provide the means to conduct such a multidimensional approach. Using data from two longitudinal panel studies on family relations (the U.S.-based Longitudinal Study of Generations and the Netherlands Kinship Panel Study), it is shown how a typology of relations can be derived from the most common combinations of characteristics in family relations and how the latent class model can be extended into a latent transition model to study dynamics in relation types over time. Both in the U.S. and Dutch data, and both among intergenerational and intragenerational (sibling) relations, a (behaviourally) ambivalent type was identified among a total of five relation types. While the majority of relations showed great stability over time, ambivalent relations were more apt to transition into a different type than others – which is in accordance with ambivalence theory. Moreover, when transitions in relationship types occurred, it was primarily structured by factors affecting the availability of either family member, as well as circumstances that elevated the dependency of family members and promoted both positive and negative reactivity (i.e., ambivalence) in the other party.

Adolescence is typically marked by individual growth of action capacities and self-esteem. During this period, offspring is likely to “oscillate” between the aims to become autonomous and to stay intimately affiliated with the parents. The latter face the challenge to provide their child with options to realize self-reliance while remaining a “safe haven” to turn to. These developments imply the fundamental restructuring of the adolescent-parent relationship. Although previous research suggests that conflicting desires and changing relationship structures are likely to come along with ambivalence experiences, the associations of ambivalences with individual development and relationship characteristics in adolescence are largely understudied. This paper examines the dynamic relations between parenting characteristics, adolescents’ ambivalence experiences, and their self-esteem development. The analysis is conducted with panel data of a representative sample of Swiss adolescents (N = 1.258) surveyed at the ages of 15, 18, and 21 in 2006, 2009, and 2012 (COCON). We employ latent change modeling techniques, with parental responsiveness, ambivalence experiences, and self-esteem defined as multi-item factors based on the adolescents’ self-reports. The results show a declining intra-individual trajectory of ambivalence experiences between mid- and late-adolescence. We also find negative correlations between the levels and rates of change of adolescent ambivalence experiences and parental responsiveness and self-esteem, respectively. Self-esteem is negatively affected particularly when ambivalence persists across the adolescent years. Altogether, the findings suggest that ambivalence experiences are dynamically interrelated with relationship characteristics and individual development. The study thus highlights the significance of investigating ambivalences in the eventful period of adolescence.

Re-constituted families are a form familial living together that became more relevant in the past few decades within changing conditions. Those “patchwork-family-figures” are emerging because of divorce or the separation of both biological parents and the following decision to be in a new relationship, again. I expect that the specific structure stimulates the genesis of the phenomenon of ambivalent experiences in various forms (e.g. role and dyad according to the constitution of familial relationship).

The focus, then, is the question of how people in re-constituted families are living their everyday lives, cope with ambivalent situations and find new arrangements. Furthermore, there is the issue of how they arrange their relationships in a modified family frame.

Although research interest regarding intergenerational ambivalence has steadily grown in the last years, not much is known yet about how young adults deal with feelings of ambivalence towards older parents within the context of migration. Also, it is still an open question whether grown-up sons and daughters experience ambivalences towards both of their parents differently.

The present study focused on gender, generation and culture effects regarding the experience of ambivalence in the relations of young adult children to their parents in migrant compared to non-migrant families. The sample was part of the project IRMA (“Intergenerational Relations in the Light of Migration and Ageing”) and comprised N = 86 Luxembourgish and N = 68 Portuguese young adult children, all living in Luxembourg. About 62% of the Portuguese participants were already born in Luxembourg, the remaining arrived to the host country with an average age of M = 4.84 years (SD = 4.14).

First results show different patterns of gender effects in Portuguese immigrant compared to Luxembourgish families. Whereas PT young adult children tended to report a higher felt ambivalence towards mothers compared to fathers, this was not the case for their LUX counterparts. Further, PT sons reported significantly higher feelings of ambivalence towards their fathers compared to PT daughters. A similar tendency was found for LUX sons.

Results will be discussed within an integrative framework regarding ambivalence as well as subjective well-being in the light of migration and aging taking into account the relative effects of gender, generation and culture.

In recent years family arrangements have pluralised and the traditional bourgeois family model has lost much of its former force. At the same time, normative images of fatherhood and motherhood have started to shift, too.

With regards to men, the changing societal norms become especially evident in the clash between traditional bourgeois understandings of masculinity and new imaginaries of fatherhood. On the one hand, gainful employment is still a key constituent of men's identities and of how men care for their families. One the other hand, a growing number of men reject the traditional bourgeois family model and strive to have more time to care in their families.

With regards to women, we find a parallel trend from a different starting point. While men try to reconcile occupation with family, women seek to reconcile family with occupation. For many women, being a mother and caring for family members are still key constituents of their identity. However, growing numbers of women do not want to give up their gainful employment when they become mothers and strive to continue their careers.

In their attempts to combine occupational and family life in new ways, women and men are confronted with institutional constraints of the labour market. New forms of parenthood are often difficult to reconcile with dominant occupational cultures. Additionally, people mostly don't see difficulties with reconciling occupational and family life as a structural problem. Adopting a neoliberal logic, they assume that it is the responsibility of the individual family to make their preferred family arrangement work.

Taking this social diagnosis as a starting point, our symposium analyses the everyday practices of mothers and fathers in a postindustrial, capitalist work environment that often clashes with the needs of families.

In our research project "Anticipated parenthood and vocational pathways" we explored the question, how relevant is gainful employment for the identities of women (and men) all aged around 30 and to what extent does its meaning change with the anticipation of motherhood (resp. fatherhood). Our analyses clearly show that the women we interviewed have a strong conflict between a high ideal of motherhood on the one hand and a professional orientation in a lifelong perspective on the other. A difficulty seems to be to formulate self-consciously the right to employment during motherhood. Presenting first results, I will show how difficult it is for women to develop new female identity forms in which motherhood is not the only feature. We will discuss the question what the persistence of traditional gender stereotypes causes and why women in Switzerland seems so little adventurous finding new forms of sharing care work.

Based on decades of feminist and masculinities scholarship it is increasingly clear how hegemonic masculinities are underpinned by a carefree gender ideology and related social practices which write out nurturing and primary caring relationality from the script of masculinity. Many ongoing economic, political and cultural inequalities experienced by women are facilitated by persistent inequalities in affective relations (Lynch et al., 2009). Numerous constraints shape both the affective inequalities experienced by men whilst supporting male domination in society overall. How can the hegemony of carefree masculinities be challenged? How are men positioned within relations of (un)caring? How do men negotiate nurturing masculinities within the context of the hegemony of carefree masculinities? This presentation addresses some of these challenges based on the author’s own research as well as other contemporary studies (Hanlon, 2009, Hanlon and Lynch, 2011, Hanlon, 2012).

Based on our research project "Anticipated parenthood and vocational pathways" my presentation explores the meanings that 30 years old men in different occupational fields attribute to fatherhood and gainful employment. My analysis focuses on how the interviewees reconcile the conflicting demands of being an engaged father and the main provider of the family at the same time. The question which will be examined is, which strategies do fathers adopt in these contexts? Why are some attempts at reconciling work and family sucessful while others fail? How do gender norms matter in this respect and how are they connected to contemporary societal structures?

The emotions that intimate partners’ feel and express have a profound impact on relationship quality and stability. Emotions influence the course of an interaction, by shaping one’s behavior and therefore the course of an interaction (Niedenthal & Brauer, 2012). To respond appropriately to an interaction partner's emotional signals and needs, emotions need to be reactive to significant interpersonal experiences. Interpersonal adaptation may be compromised if individuals emotional states are little susceptible to interpersonal events and also if emotions are highly reactive, but in an unpredictable manner. To date, both dynamic patterns have been related to affect-related pathology or maladjustment (e.g., Kuppens, Allen & Sheeber, 2010; Ebner-Priemer et al., 2007), whereby the latter has even been associated with interpersonal maladjustment (Tolpin, Gunthert, Cohen & O’Neill, 2004).

81 university students recorded their emotions and their interpersonal experiences 4 times a day over the course of 1 month with an electronic ambulatory assessment procedure. Following this, a subsample took part in a laboratory interaction with their intimate partners. Using a multilevel analysis we examined how individual emotional dynamics are linked to event-related emotional responses and interpersonal adaptation. We aimed to map individual differences in emotion dynamics onto emotional responses to interpersonal events. We report about associations between interindividual differences in emotion dynamics and reactivity to interpersonal events based on our repeated measurements and our laboratory data.

Introduction: The Mayer-Rokitansky-Küster-Hauser syndrome (MRKHS) is a congenital malformation characterized by aplasia or hypoplasia of the uterus and vagina that occurs in a phenotypically normal female with normal ovaries and with a normal female karyotype 46XX.

Objectives: The aim of the study was to explore whether MRKHS women differ from control group when characteristics of dyadic intimate relationship are taken into account.

Material and methods: 32 women with MRKHS (M age=22.9) and 32 matched healthy controls (M age=24.75) were examined. Psychosexual biography by M. Beisert was used to gain information on: dyadic sexual behaviors, number of sexual partners, type of a relationship and age of the first relationship. Statistical differences between two groups were examined with the U Mann-Whitney test.

Selected results: Women with MRKHS initiated dyadic sexual activity at higher age than the controls (petting U=182.00; p<0.01; req=0.41; vaginal intercourse (U=64.00; 0<0.001; req=0.59; oral contact (U=91.50; p<0.05; req=0.56) with exception of anal intercourse, where the age of initiation was the same in both groups (U=30.50; ns). Gynecological patients had less sexual partners than their peers (U=267.00; p<0.01).

Conclusions: Differences in characteristics of intimate relationships constituted by MRKHS patients create complex image. Intrestingly, differences in dyadic sexual activity are not limited to vaginal intercourse as would be suggested by the description of MRKHS Syndrom. Thus, they are probably determined both by biological conditions and their psychological implications.

The paper explores marital partners’ personal conceptions of family and investigates the extent to which husbands and wives living in an in-tact family include same people in their family. The study draws from the configurational approach to family relations and discusses the multifaceted nature of contemporary kinship. We ask whether subjective understandings of men and women, collected in individual interviews, confine to the immediate nuclear family, and if not, who are those included: members of woman’s or man’s family of origin, her or his friends, or someone else? The data includes 32 qualitative interviews with women and men from 16 married couples, aged 25–41, living in Finland. The information on partners’ views on family was collected with Family Network Method (FNM) questionnaire. The results show that in all couples the woman’s and the man’s understanding of who belongs to the family differs. In the analysis we investigate the emerging patterns of convergence and divergence co-existing in a first-time family and discuss the contemporary family as constituted by interplay between emotional closeness and structural hierarchies of kinship.

Associations and organizations supporting parents during and after separation are an emerging phenomenon in Italy. They aim at helping separated parents to be effective in their parental tasks.

Studies on the role played by such associations for separated parents’ well-being and parental abilities are still lacking. The goal of the present study is to investigate whether and how the perception of being supported by the association together with the different level of engagement in the life of the association impact parents’ well-being and co-parenting abilities.

Three-hundred eighteen parents belonging to different Italian associations of separated parents participated in a web survey. They completed a self-report questionnaire containing several measures tapping different aspects of well-being and parental abilities. Data were preliminarily explored through analyses of variance comparing three groups of parents (based on the level of perceived support by the association and on the level of engagement in the association). First results showed differences among the groups in terms of well-being and co-parenting, indicating that associations may play a protective role during the separation. Further analyses are in progress.

Altruism is a voluntary action aiming to help others without reward expectation. In this type of action, the individual cares for others’ interests rather than those of his own. This type of behaviour goes beyond social norms and social relations which are in the area of social responsibility and falls into the sphere of morality. In other words, a person behaving in altruistic manner puts himself in another person’s shoes. The frequency of such actions in the society promises ethical behaviour and the lack of it is a threat to social order. In this regard the role of the family as one of the most important agent of socialization is highlighted. Children mimic many right and wrong behaviours of their parents in observational learning. Therefore parents with altruism among the Iranian families and show its process of change over a decade (from 2005 to 2015). The findings of a longitudinal study were used to achieve this objective. That is a survey done in 2005 for the first time and 2015 for the second time in two developed and less developed regions of Tehran by using multi-stage cluster sampling the size of sample in 2005 was 419 and in 2015 was 400 and descriptive- explanatory approach was used .

Key words:altruism,socialization,ethical behaviour,voluntary action,family relation.

Background: Over 70% of children in Germany grow up with at least one other child living in the same household (Statistisches Bundesamt 2014). During childhood, sisters and brothers are companions, teachers, role models but also rivals to each other (Walper et al. 2010). Growing up, siblings make very similar, but not the same experiences, and share the same family history (Zukow 1989). Yet, very little research exists on risk for siblings to experience similar types of maltreatment, their effect on the quality of the sibling relationship and long-term consequences in adulthood.

Method: Participants were recruited using an online survey. Through the course of the online survey participants were asked to invite one of their siblings to take part in the study as well. Both siblings answered the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire and further questions about critical life events, questions regarding their relationship with their siblings and parents during childhood as well as a short measure on their own well-being during the last two weeks.

Results: A total of 4568 participants completed the online questionnaire, in 870 cases both siblings participated in the study. Differences and similarities between childhood maltreatment experience and their implication for the quality of the sibling relationship as well as links to well-being in adulthood are reported.

Discussion: Implications of the results for research and practice as well as limitations of the study are discussed.

In Germany – like in most European countries - children are still at greater risk of poverty and of social benefit receipt.

In this paper, we compare the situation of children in low income families with families with a secured financial position (no income poverty or benefit receipt).

For our analysis we use the eight wave of the panel study “Labour Market and Social Security” (PASS), which is an annual household panel survey for research on unemployment, poverty and the welfare state in Germany. The questionnaire includes more than 20 deprivation items to measure economic deprivation which can be defined as the non-availability of goods considers essential for an appropriate standard of living in a society, e.g. having an apartment with balcony, having television, having a hot meal per day, inviting friends for dinner at home.

The analyses show that the living conditions of children in low income households in terms of availability of goods and opportunities to social and cultural participation are characterized by an undersupply in almost all areas considered. Furthermore it is also apparent that financial reserves can hardly be formed and unexpected expenses can rarely be overcome However, in the availability of basic goods only slight differences occur.

This congress looks at megatrends and how they influence families today. Mentioned in the call are several key factors, all of which challenge families “to find their own ways to deal with the consequences of these megatrends”. This paper starts from a slightly different perspective, as it suggests that there are regional and cultural contexts in which families are not challenged to find their own way, but as parts of larger units, namely communities, which serve as factors of resilience and as political actors to enforce interests that will benefit both family and community life. A good example for this close connection between community and family and its benefits in times of transformation are dockland communities in Dublin who have held their own ground against developers amidst regeneration of the former port area. Generally welcome by the residents, many aspects in the master plan have been heavily criticised, particularly if activists see the functioning community/family structure threatened. In the context of these debates, this presentation analyses the close relationship between family and community and how a close community structure can serve as a beneficial and resilience factor for families in disadvantaged areas and times of urban regeneration. The results are based on ethnographic fieldwork in the Dublin docklands between 2002 and 2010, comprising more than 200 structured and semi-structured interviews, supplemented by local archive documents. However, the most detailed insight in community and family life I gained as an anthropological participant observer by becoming part of the communities studied.

The concept of agency is widely used in the social sciences, but what might it mean in the context of family relationships? Gender and child-parent relationships have been claimed to be relationships involving strong cultural ideals and embodying power asymmetries. The family identity categories of mother, father and child, created by societal and cultural factors, shape the possibilities for agency of the individual family members. The picture is complicated by the changes that have taken place in the relations between women and men in families, and by the advent of children’s rights and their increasing voice in the family, which have made relations between parents and children more reciprocal and egalitarian.

This presentation applies a relational perspective on agency to explore the position of mothers, fathers and children in present-day families and how the concept of agency could help in understanding family relationships. The presentation utilizes data gathered with multiple methods from young children and their parents (18 children, 15 mothers and 10 fathers) in Finland, and shows how the family identities of mothers, fathers and children and their possibilities for agency are manifested in everyday life. Gender and generational orders along with power affect how the everyday, pragmatic agency of different family members is negotiated. Examples are given of identity categories and of agency with respect to, e.g., power, initiative, creative adjustment, negotiation and resistance, by different family members in everyday family life.

What emotion first springs to mind when you think about your everyday (family) life? This research initiative aims to find out what different family members think about their daily family life, how they conceptualize it and describe their actions and, above all, emotions.

Emotions may be seen as irrational, unreliable subjective states, but they are nevertheless highly meaningful. They highlight the kinds of meanings that occupy the foreground in practical, everyday life, while also revealing new insights into cultural beliefs and prejudices (González 2013).

This presentation focuses on how individuals in the same family experience their everyday lives. The data consist of interviews with six nuclear families (12 parents, 8 children) and three divorced families (6 parents, 8 children). Each family member was individually interviewed twice (overall 68 interviews). The second interview was a so called photonarrative interview, for which each participant took photographs pertaining to their daily life (approx. 300 photos).

Content analysis of the data revealed that the everyday life of the different family members appears to be divided into three categories: personal, family and spousal. Each category consists of both pleasurable and burdensome elements. Surprisingly, the interviewees highlighted the importance of their ‘own daily life’, which was characterized by various emotions from pleasure to irritation. At its best, having one’s own time was seen as the foundation for wellbeing of both the individual and the family as a whole.

Many families in Finland and other European countries face difficulties to adapt their life with all demands and expectations of the society and surrounding communities like working life, schools and day-care system. The timing is essential and you need e.g. to be able to plan all your duties according to opening and service hours. The family work services aim to help families that are under risk of becoming marginalized or that have difficulties because of sudden illness or other unexpected situations.

The so called sequence method aims to empower family members so that they could find their capacities and that they would be able to seek help outside the home if needed. The key element in the sequence method is doing together (family members and family workers) all kinds of household work that are difficult for family members. The doing is based on the using of the sequence map, where daily and weekly chores are planned for certain time periods of the day. Discussions are the third element to support and to help the family. The discussions contain evaluation of the co-operation process, reflections about targets and achievements, as well as listening of all family members.

The objective of my paper is to give an overview of the working method and the dimensions and capacities of the sequence map tool. As a multi-dimensional tool it carries more functions than expected at first sight. The analysis base on qualitative methods.

By everyday practices and routines, the family can be defined as a largely stable unit which is the basis for the experience and the management of individual and interpersonal everyday life and the familial relationship constellations (Sabla 2015). Family rituals, normalized shared sequences of actions (Keddi 2014), are understood as way of doing family. Their meaning can also be shaped by the influence from outside parties and institutional work processes.

In different contexts families are involved in socio-educational institutions delivered by Social Work. Here families are accompanied in their everyday life by social-education professionals. The professionals are biased by social norms and values and their own perceptions and evaluations of families they work with. This mental image affects the work with certain families and can thereby affect the design and implementation of family dynamics and everyday practices and routines.

Through an ethnographic approach (participant observation) in selected families a deeper understanding about the family realities can be achieved. The pilot study focusses on the importance of everyday action processes for individual family members and the role of family rituals on educational processes within families. Another focus of the research project is on the relationship between the production and realization of family rituals and the existing institutional assistance. The guiding question is in what way family rituals stand out as an resource available for socio-educational services carried out by the institutional framework and how they are shaped and even used by the socio-educational professionals as a support for coping with everyday family life.

Seen as a contextual organism, dwelling configuration and family syntaxes are being determined in relation to its multiple influential spheres: macrosystem, exosystem, mezosystem, microsystem and chronosystem (Bronfenbrenner 1979). Focusing from macro to microresidential system, there can be identified a diversity of space affinities and space privatizations, belonging to different family members, constantly filtered by family syntaxes, by family dynamics and by family life cycle.

Using a wide pallette of methods to collect relevant examples and data,

from documentation to direct observation, from questionnaire to cohort study, the present study is aiming to translate different residential gestures, relating them to distinct roles inside the family. Preliminary results of the study revealed that classic paradigm of the family comes along for example with a pronounced teritorializations of the father, with wife's appropriations of the kitchen and attenuated appropriations of the child. There are also cultural variations of the classic paradigm, where for example the wife is being isolated inside the home and in extreme cases, the house became a negative environment. And afterwards, western cultures are facing an intense de-traditionalisation of family models, where for example children appropriations are becoming alued and prioritized, identifying intensified personalisations of the child’s area. Equalizations of father's and mother's role inside the family is also reverberating into residential configurations, a lot of activities being externalized because of female decreasing internal role. The house is adapting all these changes inside the family roles configuration and is reflecting the pattern of gender role and family syntax.

This article analyses the generation gap in the duration of long-term career interrup-tions due to childcare among mothers of two children and how are these differences moder-ated by a country’s dominating family policy regime. The outcomes of the multilevel analysis reveal that mothers born after 1960have significantly lower odds of interrupting their career for longer than ten years compared to older women. A country’s dominating family policy model plays a significant role in explaining propensity of long career breaks. Mothers from countries with post-socialist, Southern European and pro-egalitarian models exhibit lower odds of experiencing long-term career interruptions than those in pro-traditionalist countries. Differences between generations are moderated by countries’ family policy models. Among younger generation, the propensity of experiencing long career breaks is smaller in the post-socialist and non-interventionist regimes than in countries with a pro-traditionalist family policy legacy.

The focus of this study is on women and men managers’ career-spouse dynamics. A narrative approach is utilized to investigate how the managers make meaning of the support they receive from their spouses for their careers and how they produce discursively gender relations between the spouses. In particular, we are interested in how the women’s and men’s narration is similar and different. The research data consists of 58 interviews of Finnish women and men who both are having a demanding managerial career and are parents. A narrative analysis provided by Gergen and Gergen (1988) is applied. In the analysis, four groups of narratives by women managers were identified: quitting deficient spousal support, harmoniously flourishing support, inconsistent spousal support, and irrelevant support. The same analysis procedure with male managers produced three groups of narratives: negotiated spousal support, enriching spousal support and declining spousal support. The results indicate that both women and men managers construct their spousal support as changing along the course of their career, however the spousal support is constructed more often non-existent in the narratives of women managers. It is suggested that spousal support in which traditional gender relations are produced seem to be less problematic for male managers’ careers than for those of women managers. Additionally, more fluid and equal gender relations seem to be advantageous for subjective career success and work-family integration for both women and men managers. More information about the work-family relationship in top levels of organizations is needed.

In recent years, productive and reproductive work have become subject to demographic and social changes that are embedded in neo-liberal policies and framings. Neo-liberalism articulates demands, standards and expectations due to new forms of political government and a revaluation of societal values (Lemke 2006) - following Foucault practices of ‘self-governance’. Entrepreneurial universities as increasingly and highly competitive institutions and work places follow neo-liberal interests, p.ex. when fighting to keep the best researchers in their country, when implementing New Public Management strategies, when addressing women to activate female ‘human resources’ and when implementing so called dual career services.

The mixture of neoliberal economic interests in academia and of family interests and concerns becomes important when scientists decide to have children. Based on processes of transformation and reconfiguration within work and family spheres this paper deals with neoliberal modes of the subjectification of dual career parents engaged in science. Using an analytical governmental perspective, discursive and biographical research results of two projects are linked and assessed to trace the interdependencies between the spheres of production and reproduction and current developments of gender relations concerning the compatibility of scientific work and family. More specifically, the empirical data of a discursive analysis and of an interview analysis are intertwined (Tuider 2007), leading to findings concerning the subject and identity formations (of scientists and parents) and adressing the question how gendered subjects locate themselves within their specific subject positioning.

Subject positionings are defined as discursive effects within a social field, while discourses as practices systematically shape the objects they are talking about (Foucault 1973). Current principles of economization guide and instruct (often indirectly, unconsciously) the subject as a neoliberal self in private and work contexts to act independently, autonomously and self-sufficiently (Sauer 2008) – to use the neoliberal rhetoric as an entrepreneurial self (Bröckling 2012). At the same time, neoliberal invocations and requirements seem to carry a subtext of restoring traditional gender relations (Sauer 2008). After analysing the discursive process and enforcement of neo-liberal modes of subject constructions of parenthood in academia, the insights and findings obtained will be discussed and evaluated in terms of its interdependencies between the spheres of production and reproduction in neo-liberalism.