Experiences Of Family Life Research Articles

Exploring family dynamics in living funerals: Rituals to relationships

AbstractThis study aims to analyse how internal family relationships and dynamics are manifested during funeral ceremonies in Chinese society. As an emerging farewell practice, living funerals in Chinese societies depart from traditional death rituals, challenging established funeral paradigms and providing a platform to scrutinise the inner family dynamic and experiences. The study utilises a multidimensional data collection approach, including interviews with the living funeral holders and attending family members, detailed field notes during the living funeral and whole video recordings of the event. Employing narrative analysis, it delves into the family's life experiences as narrated during the funeral, providing insight into the emotional and relational shifts that occur. The findings suggest that while living funerals allow for exploring family roles and emotional landscapes, they also highlight the complex interplay of cultural practices and familial relationships. The study contributes to understanding how traditional taboos around death may be navigated through contemporary practices. Findings underscore the profound exploration of living funerals on family dynamics within Chinese culture. The practice provides a vital lens for examining the interconnectedness and emotional underpinnings of family relationships. Participation engages families in a process of navigating collective and individual histories, aiding reconciliation and affirming familial identities. Research highlights how living funerals powerfully express love, regrets and unspoken words, fostering deeper understanding and continuing bonds before death. Living funerals represent a meaningful contemporary practice, challenging traditional death taboos and offering therapeutic benefits for family therapy and end‐of‐life care. The paper contributes to the literature by addressing a crucial gap regarding living funerals within Chinese culture and expanding family perspectives on death. By examining how these ceremonies influence familial interactions, the study offers new insights into emotional and cultural dynamics, enhancing understanding of the practice and broader death‐related family issues.

How Preschool Children Recognize Hanzi? Exploring the Impact of Home Literacy Environments on Montessori Preschool Children’s Hanzi Recognition Performance

This study explores the relationship between the Hanzi recognition performance and the home literacy environments of 351 children aged 3 to 6 based on Montessori’s philosophy of education. This study used 200 frequently spoken words in Montessori classrooms as the word set of a Hanzi recognition test, based on which studies at six Montessori preschools in middle and southern Taiwan were conducted. The results of this study revealed that girls’ scores are significantly higher than that of boys on the word recognition test, whereas no significant difference between the middle (4s/5s) and junior (3s/4s) classes children were observed. However, from the qualitative analysis perspective, the junior class children also performed exceptionally well. Parent-child shared reading and chats, directly and indirectly, affected their children’s Hanzi recognition outcome. The analysis of the interviews with the children suggested that family life experiences were indeed a crucial factor in the children’s word recognition.

Racial Discrimination and Trauma Symptoms Among Black Adolescent-Caregiver Dyads

ABSTRACT Objective Research to date has produced compelling evidence of the potentially traumatic consequences of racial discrimination among Black adolescents and adults. Seldom explored, however, is how the potentially traumatic effects of racial discrimination may be shared across the family context. To clarify the relevance of racial trauma across the family system, the current study examined the relationship between racial discrimination and trauma symptoms among a sample of Black adolescent-caregiver dyads. Method Data were drawn from a larger self-report survey study examining Black family life experiences. For this study, data from 202 Black adolescents (Mage = 14.50, 52% female) and their caregiver (Mage = 41.63, 83% female) were used to test actor-partner interdependence models examining the associations of racial discrimination and trauma symptoms. Results Significant actor effects revealed that racial discrimination was positively associated with self-reported trauma symptoms among adolescents and caregivers. Additionally, partner effects were found, such that adolescent and caregiver experiences of discrimination were positively associated with the trauma symptoms of their family member. Analyses also revealed that the association between racial discrimination and trauma symptoms among caregivers was dependent upon youth experiences of racial discrimination. Conclusion The current study lends credence to theories linking racism and trauma-related symptomatology across the life course and family system. Collectively, study findings highlight the importance of understanding the effects of racism beyond the individual and underscores the value and need for family tailored interventions that can repudiate the shared impact and potential intergenerational effects of racial discrimination across Black families.

"Caught between two worlds": Managing identity in bisexual fatherhood.

Bisexuality in fatherhood is largely invisible, with very little known about the experiences of bisexual fathers. Conducted by researchers in the United Kingdom, this study is one of the first to explore the experiences of bisexual fathers, and, using an identify-focused approach, it aims to understand bisexual fathers' experiences of managing their bisexuality and role as a father. Twenty-four bisexual fathers in Europe and North America took part in qualitative, semistructured interviews that focused on their bisexual identity, becoming a parent, experiences of family life, and community involvement. Reflexive thematic analysis was conducted, and four themes were identified: valuing different types of authenticity, seeking safety in the community, reconciling bisexuality with the traditional family, and sharing and learning across age groups. Despite describing their identity as often invisible, fathers indicated that their personal identity had a significant impact on their social interactions as well as their individual parenting and family practices. Findings contrast stage models of LGBTQ+ identity development, as fathers' identity work practices were often more important for their identity development and integration than aspiring for full "outness." Findings expand our scholarly understanding of the role of identity in parenting and highlight the need to improve representation and support for bisexual fathers. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Mothers’ experiences of family life during COVID-19: a qualitative comparison between Sweden, the United Kingdom, and the United States

ABSTRACT The COVID-19 pandemic amplified demands on parents regarding balancing childcare and working from home. How parents distribute responsibilities differs culturally, and governments undertook varied strategies to address COVID-19. Research indicates that the pandemic resulted in increased burden for mothers, but also that it created a novel situation in which parenting and working styles could be re-evaluated. However, Swedish mothers of toddlers and school-aged children were underrepresented in this research, and their voices can contribute to understanding how mothers in countries with different gender norms and lockdown statuses were affected. This study aimed to illuminate how mothers in a country with explicit commitment to gender equality in parenting and no lockdown (Sweden) experienced the pandemic, in contrast to mothers from countries that had lockdowns and different gender norms in parenting (the UK and US). Findings based on 193 mothers’ qualitative responses to open-ended questions indicated that mothers struggled with COVID-19 financial worries and concerns about family wellbeing. Support, both external and in coparenting, varied considerably among participants. Positives were reported, such as gratitude, closeness, and better quality of coparent interactions. We highlight the importance of considering emotional work, and the need to support parents both in times of crisis and beyond.

Identifying how pre-existing resources combine to shape the experiences of work and family life of a diverse sample of working parents with at least one child in primary school in Scotland during COVID-19 pandemic-related social restrictions: a qualitative descriptive design

ObjectivesThis study aimed to identify factors that shaped working parents (WPs’) experiences of COVID-19-related social restrictions and analyse the relationships between those factors.DesignA qualitative descriptive design was used to collect...

“A Wife and a Mother Has No Business to Be So Well Dressed”: Gender, Class, and Dynasty in the Revolutionary Republic

Abstract: This essay takes Angelica Schuyler—whose surname, following her husband’s, became Church in 1784—as a case study in the intersection between class, gender, sexuality, and citizenship in the revolutionary American republic. It argues that she and women like her held a distinctively dynastic attitude towards kinship, which shaped the norms of sociability that governed the emerging national state during the first decades of the federal government. Like other wealthy, well-connected, white women in this period, Schuyler Church disavowed the popular ideology of female domesticity and asserted power through the public display of feminine sexuality. The essay builds on studies of the so-called “republican court” in the United States, as well as scholarship on elite women’s role as powerbrokers in British and French society, to draw out the ways that their gendered experience of sexuality and family life interacted with strategies for reproducing and accumulating power. Like all other ruling classes, that of the United States depended upon women. That dependence drove the shifting political salience of gender and sexuality in the early republic.

Family journey in the process of recovery of schizophrenia: A qualitative study

ABSTRACT Objective: The aim of this research is to explore the life experiences of schizophrenic families in accompanying the recovery process. Methods: This study uses a qualitative method with descriptive phenomenology to explain phenomena from family experiences. The number of the participants was eight families who had family members with schizophrenia. Sampling was determined by purposive sampling. Data were collected through in-depth interviews and analyzed using the Colaizzi method. Results: The results of this study show four themes that emerged including (1) psychological burden on the family, (2) families needing support in the recovery process, (3) obstacles due to social stigma, and (4) family gratitude for being able to pass the test patiently. Conclusion: The schizophrenia family’s journey in the recovery process is very long. They are required to endure in assisting the recovery process. Experiences felt by the family include feelings, obstacles, and hopes that arise in carrying out their role to assist the recovery process which aims to improve the health of schizophrenia patients. The findings from this study provide insight for nurses to be able to pay attention to family psychological problems by strengthening families through home visits and health promotion related to the recovery process of survivor schizophrenia.

Stories from the “Pressure Cooker”: U.S. Women Navigating Motherhood and Work During the COVID-19 Pandemic

<i>The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted and exacerbated the difficult juggling act women in the U.S. have to do between parenting their children and working outside the home. The pandemic has also led to a decline in maternal mental health, particularly among mothers with young children, mothers of color, and those with previous mental health issues. The authors noted these experiences in their own lives as mothers with children and observed them in the lives of the women around them. These observations informed the design of this narrative inquiry study, in which we used semi-structured interviews to explore mothers’ shifting ideas and experiences of mothering, work, and family life during a global pandemic. We used creative analytic practice (CAP) to compose reflexive researcher conversations around the interview data that enabled us to highlight nuances in the data, show more transparently our meaning-making, make visible our researcher subjectivities, show uncertainties about aspects of data interpretation, and create a more accessible data representation.</i>

Discovering and Identifying the Lived Experience of the Affected Person and His Family in an Acute Encounter with One of the Types of Heart Diseases: A Phenomenological Study

Introduction: Accepting the fact that a member of the family has heart disease and the stress of living with a heart patient can be so effective in the family that it might change its nature. In this context, the present research was conducted to discover and identify the patient's and his family's lived experience with acute exposure to one type of heart disease.
 Methods: The present study was a qualitative research conducted through phenomenological analysis method in 2019 in Tehran. To collect data, semi-structured interviews were conducted regarding 6 patients hospitalized in the special care department of Baqiyatullah Hospital and 4 people accompanying the patients until the data saturation was reached. Data analysis was done using MAXQDA 20 software.
 Results: Based on the findings of this research, 19 sub-themes and 7 main themes were obtained regarding the initial experiences of cardiovascular problems (malfunction)and internal states related to cardiovascular disease, the initial experience of the family related to cardiovascular disease, the atmosphere of Participants' life before experiencing cardiovascular disease, life experiences before experiencing cardiovascular disease, perceived changes after experiencing cardiovascular disease, and finally, facing the experience of cardiovascular disease.
 Conclusion: The obtained results showed that suffering from cardiovascular diseases has wide psychological, social, and family consequences for the individual and their family. For this purpose, it is necessary to pay special attention to psychological aspects of these patients in addition to drug therapy.

Parenting and family life experiences of mothers diagnosed with schizophrenia within Chinese cultural context.

WHAT IS KNOWN ON THE SUBJECT?: Parenting experiences are a great challenge but also a meaningful achievement for mothers diagnosed with schizophrenia (MDWSs). Most previous studies focused on the parenting experiences of Chinese mothers diagnosed with depression rather than those diagnosed with schizophrenia, who usually experience psychiatric symptoms. WHAT THIS PAPER ADDS TO EXISTING KNOWLEDGE?: Unlike in Western society, Chinese society is characterised by a family-centred culture. This study insightfully explores MDWSs' parenting and family life experiences addressing their intrapersonal mindsets, interpersonal connections with family members across generations and extrapersonal roles such as traditional social expectations as a mother, wife and daughter-in-law. While Western studies have mainly focused on MDWSs' personal resilience, this study insightfully explored MDWSs' resilient dimensions including their personal, familial and cultural issues within the Chinese society. WHAT ARE THE IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE?: This study develops a comprehensive and professional understanding of the parenting experiences and family interactions of MDWSs who struggle to achieve their motherly role and re-establish connections with intimate family members. The findings highlight the following important considerations when offering family-based nursing cares: (1) assess power relationships, familial dynamics and cultural influences between MDWSs and their family members; (2) extend family members' involvement, such as parents-in-law, while offering psychoeducation to MDWSs and their family members. ABSTRACT: Introduction In Chinese culture, raising the next generation is recognised as a crucial family matter involving intergenerational participation. Mothers diagnosed with schizophrenia (MDWSs) usually experience high stress due to psychiatric symptoms, different parenting values across generations and traditional expectations associated with motherly roles. MDWSs need urgent professional assistance. Aim To explore MDWSs' parenting experiences and family life in Chinese cultural contexts. Method In-depth interviews were conducted with 20 MDWSs. Data were analysed using interpretative phenomenological analyses. Results The superordinate theme was identified as 'You are not a qualified mother'. Three major themes were elicited: experiencing crises in parenting, family life and self-stability; striving to be a good mother and wife under humiliation; and developing wisdom and courage to move forward. Discussion A dehumanised attitude of family members in a paternalistic culture was found. While Western society focuses on personal resilience and family-based nursing care for nuclear families, Chinese society intensively focuses on MDWSs' relationship with nuclear family members as well as extended family members such as parents-in-law. Implications for Practice The results highlighted the significance of culturally sensitive nursing care for MDWSs and family-centred psychoeducation that clarifies familial dynamics and improves effective communication between MDWSs and their family members.

Metaphor of Disease and Its Psychopathological Analysis in Eileen Chang's Novels

In modern Chinese novels, disease is a common theme, and different works also show different flavors. This paper mainly studies the metaphors behind the characters' diseases and the characters' morbid psychology in Eileen Chang's three representative works Flowers Wither, Golden Lock and Red Rose and White Roses. Through the research, the author can find that Eileen Chang's disease writing is related to her personal loveless family life experience, her love for tragic aesthetics and the aesthetic tendency of morbid things, and the popularity of medical treatment in society at that time. At the same time, this paper analyzes the cruel living situation of women revealed in the female diseases in his works. Whether it is arranged marriage or new-style marriage, women have lost the right to choice and autonomy in marriage, so the unhappiness of their marriage life is also the main reason for the disease. Finally, through the analysis of specific characters' diseases, the article shows the pathological psychological state of the characters' hearts under the disease in detail, and analyzes the relationship between them. Through the study, the author can find that the disease in Eileen Chang's works is not only as simple as the disease itself, but also shows a social style and the pathological state and psychology of the characters living in it.

Ulusötesi Ailelere Kavramsal Bir Açılım: Sıradışı Uzak Mesafe Aileler

Transnational families are among the by-products of global capitalism, the feminization of migration and the globalization of care work. Transnational families owe their existence to the rise of communication and transportation technologies, economic transformations, and cultural features in their countries of origin and destination. A transnational family is different from an ordinary immigrant family. The defining factor is not the act of cross-border movement of the family, but the dispersion of the family, nuclear or extended, across international borders, where different family members spend time in one or another country depending on various factors. The emergence of transnational family experience relates to economic, political, social, and cultural factors, and has far-reaching causes and consequences. This study offers a new conceptual approach to the discussion of transnational families departing from Judith Stacey’s (1996) “postmodern family condition”. As a family arrangement made possible in the postmodern family condition, transnational families better describe situations in which families are not visible yet not absent, not necessarily broken but separated. Transnational families require a whole new understanding and definition of familial relationships, which should focus on the fluid nature of those in the absence of a concrete family setting. The role of immigrant women in such a family structure stands as a challenge to the stereotypical “modern family” as defined by Stacey; hence, enabling the conceptualization of transnational families as part of the postmodern condition. The impact transnational family experience has on various actors involved is examined by asking some fundamental questions such as: How are the decisions concerning who migrate under what conditions taken? How does the transnational family experience affect gender relations? What are the global and local conditions that make this experience possible? This study employs a three-layered approach to analyze the issue. First, the structural backdrop to transnational families is analysed; namely, the expansion of global capitalism that feeds female labour migration and the demand for the service sector, especially domestic care services. Second, the changes in the concept of family due to societal structural transformations and the emergence of new family forms are discussed. Third, the consequences of the first two aspects of the experience of transnational family life and its impact on parties involved at various levels are analysed: providers of care work and their families (parents, children, and extended family members), receivers of care work (employers and their families), and mediators of global care work (agencies and states).

Adolescents’ Experiences of Remote Schooling and Family Life during the COVID-19 Pandemic in Australia

Adolescents’ Experiences of Remote Schooling and Family Life during the COVID-19 Pandemic in Australia

Factors Affecting the Political Participation of People with Disabilities and Their Family Life Experience in Nepal

Disability is a diverse and complex phenomenon. It affects the social, economic, and political life of PWDs. This study aims to undercover the factors that influence the political participation of PWDs and explore the family life they experience. A chi-square test and Likert scale analysis were carried out on data obtained from the sample of 200 respondents. The study found that marital status, employment, types, and severity of disabilities significantly affects political participation of PWDs. Further, still larger proportions of PWDs were not involved in family decision making process, participate in family function and gathering, family help and support, and emotional senses of belongingness within their family.

Suicide by firearm: One family's lived experience

In this paper, my nephews and I will share our individual perspectives of their father's completed suicide 30 years ago. Our intention is that the importance of recovery, hope, and support will be illuminated by telling our unique stories to describe the lived experience of a tragedy by gun violence and its longstanding effects.

“My blood boiled”: Emotional metaphors and masculinity in Mexican men

The principal aim of this communication is to describe and analyze metaphor as a narrative resource of emotional vocabulary used by men. Beside the relationship with mandates of masculinity. A qualitative ethnographic approach was used with in-depth interviews on family life and work experiences of men between age from 20 to 49 years, living with a heterosexual couple, with at least one child, being unemployed or having a recent unemployment period of time and residents of the metropolitan area of ​​Guadalajara, Mexico. Men enunciated metaphors more frequently than emotional labels. The metaphor sense of pleasure or displeasure are described, their relation with family and/or work experiences, but also linkage with some mandates of masculinity. A series of reflections on methodological and empirical aspects and questions are presented to continue the research on emotions and masculinities as a promising field of studies on the gender of men.

IDEAS ABOUT MARITAL RELATIONS AMONG WOMEN WITH DIFFERENT EXPERIENCE OF FAMILY LIFE

The paper reveals the peculiarities of the ideas of women of different ages who have different experience of family life about the specifics of their relationships with their spouses. The results of the empirical study of marital relationships at different stages of life together are presented. The conclusions based on the results of the conducted research can form a basis for the development of a programme of psychological support for married couples experiencing crisis periods. The data presented in the article are of interest to practicing psychologists working with married couples.

Caring for Schizophrenia at Relapse: Study Phenomenology

Relapse in schizophrenic patients is a challenge that must be faced by patients and their families being treated. Family, especially those who are caregivers, have an important responsibility in handling and preventing relapse in schizophrenia patients in all situations.. This study was to explore family life experiences in treating schizophrenia who had a relapse at Cianjur City. This study uses a qualitative method with a phenomenological approach. Participants in this study were 6 families with the criteria of being a Schizophrenic family, caring for and living with schizophrenia for more than 2 years, and having a minimum high school education. Family experiences were explored through unstructured in-depth interviews and data analysis using the Colaizzi method. The results of the study obtained 3 themes, namely experiencing a heavy burden, needing support, being patient, and seeking God’s help in caring for. It was concluded that the families felt the burden for taking care of members who experienced a relapse. Nurses holding mental programs need to carry out visitation programs for families who have members experiencing recurrence and carry out health promotions related to Schizophrenia care.
 Keywords: caregiver, relapse, schizophrenia

Декларированные и латентные социальные группы: феномен, эволюция, детерминанты. Часть 2

The aim of the research is to study the features of the social environment as potential conditions for the formation, functioning and evolution of latent social groups. Hypotheses: 1) there are pre-forms of social alliances of people (which can be tentatively called latent social groups); 2) different conditions of a subject’s external and internal environment (including features perceived by a person as subjectively significant for them in relation to certain life goals) might be the reasons why the pre-forms appear. The methods of the research are as follows: theoretical and categorical analysis, the study of literary sources, empirical research (questionnaires), multidimensional methods of parametric statistics. According to the author’s methodology (questionnaire “Dynamics of professional life style” – DPLS), respondents assessed the following variables: the role conditions of the social environment play as “factors of professionalism”, and the dynamics of their professionalism from 20 to 65 years (retrospectively to the current age and prospectively – predicting the dynamics of subsequent evolution); their socio-demographic and official characteristics were also recorded. 482 employees, men and women aged 30 to 50 years (132 civil servants, 129 engineers and heads of departments of manufacturing plants, 221 managers) were interviewed as participants of the study. The total sample was divided into groups several times. As criteria for division, relative characteristics (calculated by the formulas) of “career speed”, “managerial experience”, “family life experience” were used. The results of the empirical study confirm the working hypotheses. When dividing the sample according to different criteria – both obvious (men / women, specialists / managers, etc.) and relative, the groups differ significantly in a number of variables (environmental conditions marked as “factors of professionalism”). Conclusion: in one social space-time, different social alliances, structures, to a greater or lesser extent of their expression (manifestation), development, and active functioning as social groups can coexist. There are reasons to single out the phenomenon of latent social groups (LSG) as pre-forms of manifest social groups with subsequent different trajectories of their possible development. LSG are possible alliances of people who are similar to each other in a number of important aspects of life (value orientations, lifestyle, etc.), and who are potentially capable of integration and interaction (to achieve common goals, to establish comfortable interpersonal communication, to maintain typical patterns of behavior, etc.). LGS are the pre-stages of various social structures representing their possible formation and development. Representatives of some latent social groups differ from others both in terms of their preference and recognition of the role of individual environmental conditions and individual social spaces (parental family, their family, work groups, etc.). There may be some other “deep factors” behind people’s recognition of the subjective significance of different conditions of the social environment for them.