Extended Family Relationships Research Articles

Predictors of psychosocial adjustment and its subdomains in young adults with hematologic malignancy: A cross-sectional study

PurposeThis study aims to identify the factors influencing psychosocial adjustment and its subdomains. MethodsA descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted with 176 young adults (men 55.7%, 30.5 ± 5.9 years) diagnosed with a hematologic malignancy in South Korea. Psychological adjustment, symptom experience, and type D personality were assessed using self-report questionnaires. Clinical characteristics were extracted from the medical record. Stepwise multiple regression was conducted to identify the factors influencing psychosocial adjustment. ResultsThe predictors of difficulties in psychosocial adjustment were high symptom experience, type D personality, being unemployed, low functional status, and short time since the last chemotherapy. By subdomain of psychosocial adjustment, predictors of low healthcare orientation were high symptom experience, woman, and type D personality, and predictors of low vocational environment were high symptom experience, being unemployed, short duration of disease, low functional status, and diagnosis. The factors influencing low domestic environment were high symptom experience, being unemployed, and low functional status, and the factor influencing low sexual relationships was high symptom experience. The predictor of low extended family relationships was high symptom experience; predictors of low social environment were high symptom experience and short duration of disease; and predictors of low psychological distress were high symptom experience, type D personality, and being unemployed. ConclusionAs young adults with higher symptom experiences, type D personality, low functional status, and shorter time since the last chemotherapy, and who are unemployed experience difficulties in psychosocial adjustment, healthcare professionals should evaluate their psychosocial adjustment and develop strategies to improve the same.

Risks and representations: Creating consensus narratives about risk with pregnant women involved with child protection systems in Aotearoa New Zealand and Scotland

Social work aspires to empowerment ideals, including taking a ‘non-expert’ position of professional curiosity, and validating the perspectives of people in contact with services. Yet in child protection, social workers are involved in practice that refutes the views and opinions of people and are positioned by their role as an identifier of abuse and risk manager. Social workers and people who are subject to child protection services can be locked into meaning battles regarding the effect of parental behaviour and the representation of risks to children. These negotiations over meanings are especially difficult in the pre and perinatal period, where who controls the representation of the baby's voice or best interests is fundamental to decision outcomes. Using Fricker's concept of ‘testimonial injustice’ as an analytical lens, this article draws on studies in two different contexts: Aotearoa New Zealand and Scotland, to examine the implications of the intense mediation of meanings that affect child protection practice. We find that concepts relating to the importance of mothering, love for children, and extended family relationships were sources of mother's disagreements with professional views of risk, but that through qualified agreement or advocacy from community workers, a shared risk narrative could be constructed.

A cross-sectional observational study to estimate the psychosocial adjustment in patients with schizophrenia

Abstract Context: Psychosocial dysfunction is the dysfunction in the various psychosocial areas, such as personal, vocational/occupational, familial, and social, which ultimately depends on the cognitive functioning of an individual. Any disturbances and failure to adjust in one or more areas have a sufficient impact on the patient’s quality of life and daily living. For everyday living and maintaining a good quality of life, the influence of the level of dysfunction in different areas needs to be understood, and psychosocial interventions and rehabilitation programs must be designed accordingly to facilitate better psychosocial adjustment. Aims: The aim of this study was to estimate the psychosocial adjustment of individuals with Schizophrenia presenting at the psychiatry outpatient department (OPD) of a teaching hospital. Materials and Methods A cross-sectional study was conducted at the psychiatry OPD of a tertiary care teaching hospital. Eligible subjects were aged between 18 and 65 years and diagnosed with Schizophrenia according to the International Classification of Diseases-10. Sociodemographic characteristics and current treatment details were obtained. The psychosocial adjustment was assessed using the Psychosocial Adjustment to Illness Scale-interview version. Results: Sixty subjects were included, all with some impairment in one or the other social functioning domain. The domain with the highest proportion of subjects showing marked/severe degrees of disability is the vocational environment. Moderate-to-severe impairment of functioning is seen in the domains of domestic environment, social environment, sexual relationship, and extended family relationships. In the health-care environment, mild impairment is seen among most subjects. Only mild psychological distress was found among those with impaired functioning in this domain. It was also found that individuals with mild adjustment problems had a shorter duration of illness. Variables that showed significant statistical associations (P < 0.05) with poor/severe social adjustment were marital status and duration of illness. Age and Gender had a statistically significant association with psychosocial dysfunction in the social environment domain. Conclusion: This study shows that there is definite and substantial psychosocial dysfunction in definitive areas of personal, familial, social, and vocational spheres in patients with schizophrenia. Psychosocial interventions, along with antipsychotics, are needed to target these areas to improve the overall quality of life of patients with schizophrenia.

Setting the Agenda: Focusing on Extended Family Relationships

ABSTRACT We call on family communication scholars to take a renewed interest in extended family relationships, including grandparents, in-laws, and aunts and uncles. Further, we encourage scholars to employ a racial-ethnic and global diversity perspective when studying extended kin to understand nuances and variations in these important family ties. We review current literature on these relationships and provide broad considerations and specific suggestions as a springboard for research on extended family relationships.

The Use of Qualitative Methods to Guide the Development of the Border Resilience Scale in a Participatory Research Study.

U.S.-Mexico border residents experience pervasive social and ecological stressors that contribute to a high burden of chronic disease. However, the border region is primarily composed of high-density Mexican-origin neighborhoods, a characteristic that is most commonly health-promoting. Understanding factors that contribute to border stress and resilience is essential to informing the effective design of community-level health promotion strategies. La Vida en La Frontera is a mixed-methods, participatory study designed to understand factors that may contribute to border resilience in San Luis, Arizona. The study's initial qualitative phase included interviews with 30 Mexican-origin adults exploring community perceptions of the border environment, cross-border ties, and health-related concepts. Border residents described the border as a Mexican enclave characterized by individuals with a common language and shared cultural values and perspectives. Positive characteristics related to living in proximity to Mexico included close extended family relationships, access to Mexican food and products, and access to more affordable health care and other services. Based on these findings, we co-designed the 9-item Border Resilience Scale that measures agreement with the psychosocial benefits of these border attributes. Pilot data with 60 residents suggest there are positive sociocultural attributes associated with living in border communities. Further research should test if they mitigate environmental stressors and contribute to a health-promoting environment for residents.

An observational study of domestic violence in Greece during COVID-19 through police records: The profile of heinous crimes between nuclear and extended family relationships

Abstract In Greece, the frequency of serious crimes within families has been alarmingly high during COVID-19; nonetheless, no study has systematically investigated this subject at a national level. The current study aims to estimate the crime rates of family violence across the country and explore the profile of perpetrators and victims based on their sociodemographic characteristics and relationship status. Out of 372 crime cases reported to the Hellenic Police during 2020–2021, the highest crime rate is observed in the geographical area of the Ionian Sea with 13.45 per 100,000 population. Overall, there were 372 perpetrators with 89.5% of them being males and 386 victims with 83.6% of them being females. The majority of both groups (perpetrators and victims) were Greek, whereas the prevalent age group for perpetrators was 46–60 (31.2%), and for victims was 36–45 (28.5%). Nuclear relatives outnumbered the extended ones regarding all groups of family violence crimes; however, there were no statistically significant differences. Lastly, our multivariate regression model indicated that the likelihood for Greeks to commit sexual abuse instead of rape was 3.27 times greater than immigrants. Younger perpetrators were 0.30 times less likely than elders to murder a relative rather than rape them, whereas they were 10,833,846.63 times more likely than elders to severely injure a victim as opposed to rape them.

Couples relationship standards and satisfaction in Pakistani couples.

Relationship standards are beliefs about what is important in a satisfying couple relationship, which vary considerably between cultures, and might mean that what couples seek from couple therapy differs across cultures. We assessed the standards of n = 49 Pakistani couples and whether those standards predicted couple satisfaction. To provide referents for the Pakistani standards, we also assessed selfreported relationship standards in n = 33 Western couples and n = 30 Chinese couples. Pakistani couples endorsed couple bond standards (e.g., expressions of love) as similarly important, and family responsibility (e.g., extended family relations) standards as more important, than Western or Chinese couples. In Pakistani couples, Couple Bond predicted couples' relationship satisfaction, but family responsibility and Religion predicted only wives' satisfaction. Modest sample sizes necessitate caution in interpreting results but suggest existing couple therapies might need modification to address the distinctive relationship standards of Pakistani couples.

Koroner Arter Hastalarında Tanrı Algısının Psikososyal Uyum Üzerine Etkisinin Değerlendirilmesi

Amaç: Bu araştırma, koroner arter hastalarında Tanrı algısının psikososyal uyum üzerine etkisini belirlemek amacıyla yapılmıştır. 
 Yöntem: Tanımlayıcı olarak yapılan araştırma, bir devlet hastanesinin Kardiyoloji kliniklerinde yatarak tedavi gören 138 hasta ile yürütülmüştür. Verilerin toplanmasında, ″Tanıtıcı Özelikler Formu″, ″Tanrı Algısı Ölçeği″ ve ″Psikososyal Uyum Öz-Bildirim Ölçeği″ kullanılmıştır. Veriler SPSS 21 paket programı ile analiz edilmiştir. 
 Bulgular: Araştırmaya alınan hastaların Tanrı algısı puan ortalamasının 100.2±6.7, hastalığa psikososyal uyum-öz bildirim puan ortalamasının 35.3±18.1 olduğu ve %52.2’sinin hastalığa “iyi” düzeyde psikososyal uyum gösterdiği tespit edilmiştir. Hastalığa psikososyal uyum-öz bildirim ölçeğinin geniş aile ilişkileri, aile çevresi ve psikolojik distress alt boyut puan ortalamaları daha düşük bulunmuştur. Tanrı Algısı Ölçeği ve Psikososyal Uyum Öz-Bildirim Ölçeği puanları arasında istatistiksel açıdan anlamlı bir ilişki bulunmadığı saptanmıştır (p>0.05). 
 Sonuç: Bu çalışmada, koroner arter hastalarının seven/sevgi yönelimli Tanrı algısına sahip oldukları ve hastalığa orta düzeyde psikososyal uyum sağladıkları, hastalığa psikososyal uyumun geniş aile ilişkileri, aile çevresi ve psikolojik distress alanlarında daha yüksek olduğu ve Tanrı algısının hastalığa psikososyal uyumu etkilemediği bulunmuştur.

African Immigrant's Women Experiences on Extended Family Relations.

African immigrants are increasingly migrating to high-income countries, including Canada, in search of a better life. These immigrants often face several challenges, such as keeping healthy ties with their extended families back home and in a new socio-cultural context. We present findings from a participatory action research (PAR) study of Sub-Saharan African immigrants and refugees (SSAIRs) living in Alberta, Canada. Using the theoretical framework of postcolonial feminism and transnationalism, in this study we investigated how cultural roots and transnational ties affect newcomer transition and integration to provide information on the female perspectives of SSAIRs. The results of the study indicate that maintaining relational ties with one’s extended family in the homeland has been highlighted as both a source of support—providing moral, social, religious, and cultural support during the integration processes—and strain, with participants noting its impact on their integration processes, such as delaying the ability to restructure life and to successfully plan their life financially. Our findings outline various implications of the existing gaps and recommendations for policymakers and community stakeholders for future improvement. Overall, our study findings affirm the importance of extended family relations for African immigrants living in Canada.

The Demographic Drivers of Grief and Memory After Genocide in Guatemala.

Mortality crises are relatively common demographic events, but we know little about how they affect local populations beyond excess mortality. I argue that using a kinship perspective to study mortality crises provides valuable insights into (1) how excess mortality affects the exposure to kin loss and (2) how family bereavement may contribute to the reproduction of historical memory in the long term. I explore these two processes using a unique genealogical database that records the complete demographic history of Rio Negro, a genocide-affected population in Guatemala, between 1982 and 2015. The analysis shows that deaths from the 1982 genocide were balanced by age, sex, and socioeconomic status. One third of the population were killed, but two thirds were left bereaved (the top 10% most affected individuals lost 30% of their nuclear family relatives and 23% of their extended family relatives). Notably, the proportion of the population related to a victim did not change between 1983 and 2015. The persistence of family bereavement can be interpreted as a prolongation of grief or as a driver of historical memory. These demographic dynamics have implications for the study of historical events beyond mortality crises.

Racial/Ethnic Variation in Family Support: African Americans, Black Caribbeans and Non-Latino Whites.

This study examined racial and ethnic differences in the receipt and provision of instrumental family support. Extended families provide significant levels of emotional and instrumental support across the life course. Despite their importance, extended family relationships and the assistance they provide are largely neglected in the literature. Further, questions remain concerning cultural variation in family support relationships and inconsistent findings on racial differences in family support in prior investigations. This study relied on data from the National Survey of American Life-Reinterview (n=3,483) to investigate the provision and receipt of instrumental support from extended family among African Americans, Black Caribbeans, and non-Latino Whites and within high- and low-income categories for each group. Eight key measures of instrumental family support are examined: receiving and providing transportation, help with chores, financial assistance, and help during an illness. African Americans and Black Caribbeans share similar profiles of providing and receiving instrumental family support. Both populations receive and provide assistance more frequently than do non-Latino Whites. Similarly, analyses stratified by income indicated that for low-income and high-income groups, African American and Black Caribbeans are similar to one another, and at each income category, both groups received and provided support more frequently than non-Latino Whites. Study findings are discussed in relation to conceptual and methodological differences in assessing Black-White differences across studies of family support. Attention to these issues and the specific contexts for receiving/providing family support (emergency vs. routine; intergenerational vs. extended) will help clarify inconsistent findings across studies.

Psychosocial Adjustment to Illness among HIV-Positive People from Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Objective.To analyze the process of psychosocial adjustment to illness in a sample of people living with the Human Immunodeficiency Virus from Buenos Aires, Argentina.Methods.Cross-sectional analytical study. The sample consisted of 144 HIV-positive people chosen by simple random sampling. The PAIS-SR questionnaire was used to measure the Psychosocial Adjustment process, which is made up of 46 items organized into 7 domains, whose final score ranges between 0 and 100, interpreted so that the higher the score, the worse the psychosocial adjustment process.Results.The respondents reported were mostly male (82.63%), single (61.80%), with university studies (50.00%), without children (74.30%), and with a steady job (88.19%); the mean age of the participants was 43.8 years. The median global score was 51.4 (IQR: 12). The domains with the worst perception of psychosocial adjustment were: Health care orientation (Me: 56, IQR: 20), extended family relationship (Me: 55, IQR: 20), and Sexual relationship (Me: 54, IQR: 14), while those who had a better perception of adjustment were: Domestic environment (Me: 48, IQR: 8), Psychological distress (Me: 48, IQR: 17), Social environment (Me: 50, IQR: 18) and Vocational environment (Me: 50, IQR: 12). It was found that patients with a poor psychosocial adjustment process had low adherence to treatment, higher frequency of smoking, and sedentary lifestyle (p<0.001), while male sex, older age, and employment were related to a better psychosocial adjustment process (p<0.001).Conclusion.The process of psychosocial adjustment to illness in the study group is medium; adjustment was positively related to self-care habits such as better adherence to pharmacological treatment, physical activity, and not smoking.

Maternal closeness, kinship ties, and future orientation among rural African American youth: The mediating role of ethnic identity.

Few studies have considered the importance of kin or extended family relationships on future orientation. Additionally, some of the underlying processes linking social bonds to future orientation remain poorly understood. Based on theoretical work focused on attachment and identity, this study tested the potential mediating effects of ethnic identity on the links between close relationships (maternal closeness and kinship ties) and future orientation over time. Specifically, the study tested the extent to which ethnic identity mediated the relationship between maternal closeness and future orientation, and the relationship between kinship ties and future orientation. In addition, it tested whether sex moderated the relationships between maternal closeness/kinship ties and future orientation measures (education and career) as well as between ethnic identity and future orientation measures. Self-report data were collected twice, approximately 6 months apart, during a school year from a sample of rural African American adolescents (n = 274, Mage = 14.81, SD = 1.48). Findings provided evidence of mediation effects by ethnic identity on the relationships between maternal closeness and future orientation measures, and the link between kinship ties and future orientation measures. In addition, sex moderated the associations between ethnic identity and future education orientation as well as between maternal closeness and future education orientation; no moderation effects were found for the links with future career orientation measures. Maternal closeness and kinship ties appear to be critical for supporting ethnic identity and for developing educational and career future orientation among rural African American youth.

Attitudes of Arab Immigrants toward Welfare

The effects of welfare assistance and dependency on family structure in the United States has been discussed extensively in regard to different ethnic groups, particularly African Americans, Hispanics, and Anglo-Americans. [1] What is its effect on Arab American families? In most countries of the Middle East, extended family relations rather than welfare has been the traditional means of support, and in previous years in the Dearborn immigrant working class Arab community, welfare was not common or accepted. Many who were eligible in those days did not have access to it because of language and transportation problems, or they felt shame for their family if they accepted it. However, this pattern is changing, with more persons accepting it in this community.

The Role of Extended Family Relations and Rituals in Family Resilience Following Loss of Mother to Cancer: A Case Study in Turkey

The loss of the mother leads to many changes in the family. The loss might have negative effects on the ones that are left behind. However, some family members do not show pathological symptoms; rather, they have healthy functioning despite their sad loss. Guided by the resilience perspective, this study illuminates the case of a Turkish family after the mother dies due to stomach cancer. The whole picture of a family after this loss was examined through using various data sources. Transcribed interviews with family members and teachers of two children in the family were investigated through thematic analysis, and five major themes were identified. Extended family relations and rituals, such as funeral services, meals after the funeral, or visiting the grave of the lost one, were found to be helpful toward positive grief experiences and resilience of the family members in the aftermath of the loss. This study was important in the sense that it gave an in-depth perspective of a Muslim family who lost the maternal parent, which is considered a person's most important attachment figure.

A hard slog road: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women talk about loving and supporting their autistic children

This article draws on the first qualitative research on lived experiences of autism in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities in Australia. Twelve women supporting 16 autistic children living in remote, regional and urban areas of Australia participated in a semi-structured interview. Through thematic analysis, we identified four focal themes in women’s conceptualisation of the practical work of mothering autistic children. These are (i) navigating a complex autism system to ‘achieve’ diagnosis and connect to culturally-safe services and supports; (ii) helping children to learn to live in the big world by engaging in everyday care and enhancing capacities; (iii) protecting children by keeping them safe, dealing with stigma and respecting individuality and; (iv) asserting family belonging by emphasising children’s strengths, encouraging extended family relationships and advocating for others. Listening to these marginalised voices is vital to establishing a participatory research agenda in a field that has received inadequate attention. Points of interest This is the first research on lived experiences of autism in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities in Australia. Twelve women from remote, regional and urban areas spoke about their experiences of loving and supporting their autistic children. Women talked about the practical work of mothering their autistic children including achieving autism diagnosis, trying to access culturally safe services and supports, undertaking everyday care needs and enhancing capacities and abilities. Women emphasised children’s strengths and their belonging in community; they were very concerned with protecting them and keeping them safe in the context of intersecting racist and ableist attitudes. More participatory research on autism within Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities is urgently needed.

Household dynamics and the bargaining power of women in artisanal and small-scale mining in sub-Saharan Africa: A Ghanaian case study

With the increasing participation of women in artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) across many sub-Saharan African countries, the ASM sector offers women artisanal miners considerable income that gives them better opportunities at household decision-making. While the existing literature has widely studied intrahousehold dynamics in domains such as agriculture and health, very little is known about the bargaining power of women in ASM and their household dynamics. Through in-depth interviews with 49 women artisanal miners in Prestea-Bondaye mining area in the Prestea-Huni Valley Municipality of Ghana, this paper considers how women's engagement in ASM changes the dynamics within their households and impacts their bargaining power. Findings showed that most women artisanal miners were not in support of pooling income with their husbands with most of them using their income to alter the dynamics of household decision-making concerning food to cook for the family, children's education and family size. Extended family relations as a form of social norm were found to determine women artisanal miners' decision not to pool income with their husbands. The findings, therefore, problematise the unitary model of household decision-making and provide a nuanced analysis of rural household power dynamics in a mining context, which is grossly unexplored. However, various aspects of intrahousehold bargaining models – cooperative, non-cooperative and collective – were found under different circumstances depending on the household needs and artisanal women miners' relations with husbands and their extended family. Findings also showed that women's participation in ASM was changing household dynamics, particularly sexual interactions with their partners and childcare responsibilities. Although women's participation in ASM results in higher levels of bargaining power, the Minerals Commission of Ghana, gender advocacy institutions and other relevant stakeholders must engage in policy discussions to streamline women's activities and find possible ways of dealing with their challenges in the sector.

Conflicts in Private Family Firms

We use Norwegian household-level data and full structures of family relationships to understand how family firm inheritance decisions are made when the family has multiple potential heirs. We argue that the decision on whether the family firm is bequeathed to one or a few heirs is related to the potential of future family conflicts. We rely on the observation that heir conflicts are more likely if the founder has experienced a divorce or a separation, and instrument the founder’s divorce with the frequency of divorces in the extended family relationships outside of the nuclear family, which makes the founder’s divorce more socially acceptable. Our findings suggest that anticipated heir disagreement shapes ownership distributions in the family firms but also defines how long the firms remain in the family’s hands, their investment, and growth.

Kurt Vonnegut Remembered

Kurt Vonnegut Remembered

The Persistence of Traditional Cradle Board (Beshik) Usage among Post-Soviet Central Asian Mothers: Survey Analysis from Southern Kyrgyzstan

This paper investigates the attitudes, knowledge of, and usage of the traditional Central Asian cradle board (beshik) by Kyrgyzstani mothers residing in the southern region of the Kyrgyz Republic. Socio-economic factors, such as level of education or household income, appear to exert little influence on the likelihood of usage of the traditional Kyrgyz beshik. Rather, dynamics associated with extended family relations appear to be critical in maintaining the practice of infant swaddling long after the widespread cessation of nomadism in the region. Quantitative and qualitative survey data were collected from 481 randomly selected mothers and statistically analyzed to develop an understanding of beshik usage in southern Kyrgyzstan. More than 90% of the mothers used the traditional Kyrgyz cradle board. The most common reason (33%) cited by mothers for choosing to use the beshik relates to practicality (“Baby will not get cold”). Mothers opting not to use the cradleboard in childrearing expressed broad skepticism of the beshik, with 38% responding “All of the above” to a list of five separate options. Knowledge of the effects, beneficial as well as adverse, of swaddling were statistically low among the surveyed mothers: Only 11% were consulted by a health practitioner about the beshik. If information about the risks of using the cradleboard was provided to new mothers, changes in attitudes regarding the beshik could take place. Based on our data, however, it may have little short-term effect in a region where most mothers adhere closely to the recommendations provided by elders, especially mothers-in-law.