Conducting a multi family member interview study

Linked Lives and Cumulative Inequality: A Multigenerational Family Life Course Framework

Growing social and economic inequalities in the United States have been accompanied by shifts in family structure. Social and demographic changes may make multigenerational family ties (e.g., between grandparents, parents, and children) an even more important contributor than ever in perpetuating inequality. The family life course framework, which considers how dimensions of individual (age), sociohistorical (period, cohort), and processual (generation) time intersect, provides a useful structure for thinking about how multigenerational families matter for inequality today. We integrate these dimensions of time with the ideas of linked lives and cumulative inequality to propose ways in which advantage and disadvantage are transmitted and grow across multiple generations. In particular, we propose an integrative model of linked lives and cumulative inequality that extends the family life course framework into a multigenerational perspective. We conclude by identifying data sources and methodologies useful for family scholars interested in pursuing a multigenerational family approach to inequality.

Translating Basic Research on the Aging Family to Caregiving Intervention: The Case of Within-Family Differences

Since its inception, the field of gerontology has sought to establish optimal connections between the scientific activities of researchers and the real-world concerns of practitioners and clinicians. The concept of translational research has emerged in recent years as a model for bridging the gap between science and service. This article provides an example of how basic research findings can be translated to provide guidance for intervention in the area of family caregiving. We review findings from an innovative program of research on within-family differences, which extends theory and research from the developmental psychological study of children to the family in later life. The within-family difference perspective focuses on how the individual parent-child dyads in a particular family differ from and are affected by other dyads. Basic research on this topic has revealed the extent of parental favoritism in later life, factors related to parental differential treatment of offspring, and the consequences of such favoritism and treatment on sibling relationship quality and psychological well-being. Four examples are provided of ways in which attention to within-family differences research could enhance caregiving interventions.

Marital Expectations in Strong African American Marriages

The current exploratory study utilized a family strengths framework to identify marital expectations in 39 strong African American heterosexual marriages. Couples reflected on their marital expectations over their 10 or more years of marriage. Three themes emerged through qualitative analysis and the participants' own words were used in the presentation of the themes. African Americans indicated that there was growth in marital expectations over time, with marital expectations often beginning with unrealistic expectations that grew into more realistic expectations as their marriages progressed. Participants also indicated that core expectations in strong African American marriages included open communication, congruent values, and positive treatment of spouse. Finally, participants explained there is an "I" in marriage as they discussed the importance of autonomy within their marital relationships. Results are discussed in association with existing research and theory.

Influences on Infant Feeding: Perceptions of Mother-Father Parent Dyads

PURPOSE

The purpose of this study was to examine interrelational-, organizational-, and community-level influences on how coparents collaborate about infant and toddler feeding.

STUDY DESIGN AND SAMPLE

Using qualitative methods, we interviewed mother-father parent dyads to explore the potential influences on infant and toddler feeding. Participants were purposively recruited from two Midwest, rural, university-system pediatric clinics. Thematic analysis was used to code the data.

MEASURES

Mother-father dyadic interviews were conducted using a semistructured interview schedule. Twenty-four mother-father dyads who had a child between the ages of 6 and 36 months were interviewed together.

RESULTS

Major themes include interpersonal factors (peer behavior reinforcement, dyad and important others infant feeding conflict, conflict resolution proactiveness), organizational factors (healthcare provider infant-feeding support, workplace flexibility), and community factors (public perception on breastfeeding and social media influence).

CLINICAL IMPLICATIONS

Community-based collaboration can be a platform for mother-father dyads, researchers, public health nurses, and other healthcare providers to proactively create interventions that include opportunity for building coparenting skills and infant-feeding knowledge that promote team management of common early childhood feeding challenges.

Constructing and enacting kinship in sister-to-sister egg donation families: a multi-family member interview study

Although intra-familial egg donation has been practiced for more than 15 years in several countries, little is known about family relationships in this family type. Framed within the new kinship studies, this article focuses on the experiential dimension of kinship in sister-to-sister egg donation families: how is kinship 'unpacked' and 'reconstructed' in this specific family constellation? Qualitative data analysis of interviews with receiving parents, their donating sisters and the donor children revealed six themes: (1) being connected as an extended family; (2) disambiguating motherhood; (3) giving and receiving as structuring processes; (4) acknowledging and managing the 'special' link between donor and child; (5) making sense of the union between father and donor; and (6) kinship constructions being challenged. This study showed the complex and continuous balancing of meanings related to the mother-child dyad, the donor-child dyad and the donor-father dyad. What stood out was the complexity of, on the one hand cherishing the genetic link with the child allowed by the sisters' egg donation, while, on the other, managing the meanings related to this link, by, for instance, acknowledging, downsizing, symbolising, and differentiating it from the mother-child bond. (A Virtual Abstract of this paper can be accessed at: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_979cmCmR9rLrKuD7z0ycA).

The Meaning of the Sperm Donor for Heterosexual Couples: Confirming the Position of the Father

In the literature, relatively little attention has been paid to the meaning of donor involvement in the intimate couple dyad. The current study aimed to enrich our understanding of couples' meaning-making regarding the anonymous sperm donor and how they dealt with the donor involvement. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with nine couples, who had at least one child conceived through sperm donation. Our thematic analysis showed that the donor conception was seen as a different path to create a normal family. Once the family was formed, most couples avoided talking about the donor because it was perceived as disrupting men's growing confidence in their position as father. Participants tried to confirm the position of the father to protect the family relationships. Uncertainties about how they were perceived as parents showed the continuing dominance of genetic ties within our social discourse. Participants also dealt with reminders of the donor in their daily life. Overall, they tried to manage the space taken up by the donor and to protect the position of the father. We relate our findings to literature on topic avoidance and shared obliviousness in families. For counseling practice, it could be useful to explore couples' meaning-making about the donor as this seemed to serve family functioning.

The family accompaniment of persons with dementia seen through the lens of the capability approach

Using the capability approach initially developed by A Sen as a theoretical framework, this paper analyses both what people with dementia and their families do in response to difficulties in their daily life brought about by the disease, and the reasons they give for acting as they do. Individual and collective interviews and ethnographic observations with 15 persons with dementia and one or more of their family members were conducted. Follow-up interviews were possible for nine families. Results highlight a great diversity in ways of doing things and in accompaniment by family members. Daily adjustments are often hidden or minimized, at least at the onset of the dementia. Later, they become more frequent, repetitive and indispensable but remain influenced by the social and gender roles that existed prior to the illness. The inventiveness of families, in a context marked by various kinds of constraints, is primarily motivated by their desire to maintain the apparently intact abilities of the person with dementia but especially to preserve forms of liberty and what counted for the person, what that person valued before the disease. There are some ways of living with dementia, even when accompanied, which may long remain preferable to others, which better answer to the past and present aspirations of persons with dementia and the purposes of the accompanying persons. It is thus essential that health professionals, as well as society in general, recognize and address this issue.

Ambivalence in Gay and Lesbian Family Relationships

Intergenerational ambivalence-the simultaneous presence of both positive and negative dimensions of a parent-child tie-is a concept widely used in family studies. Scholars have clarified the measurement of psychological ambivalence, or an individual's own feelings of ambivalence towards others. Yet research has yet to demonstrate whether-and, if so, how-individuals characterize others as ambivalent. Moreover, relatively little is known about ambivalence in gay and lesbian families. In the present study 60 in-depth interviews were analyzed to identify what the author calls perceived ambivalence in the parent, sibling, extended kin, and "in-law" relationships of gay and lesbian adults. Perceived ambivalence is revealed through gay and lesbian adults' characterizations of family members' simultaneous positive and negative overt and covert beliefs and behavior. In addition, the author refines the concept of collective ambivalence, wherein perceived ambivalence typifies an entire family unit. The findings further revealed the importance of broader sociological factors, such as homophobia, in structuring perceived ambivalence.

Multiproblem Families Referred to Youth Mental Health: What's in a Name?

The purpose of this study was threefold, namely (1) to differentiate between multiproblem families and control families on characteristics and processes within the family based on a theoretical framework, (2) to identify multiproblem families by establishing cut-off scores on various questionnaires, and (3) to categorize multiproblem families into subtypes by cluster analyses. Various questionnaires were administered to multiproblem families (n = 85) and control families (n = 150). Results showed that what we propose to refer to as multiproblem families present a broad range of problems on seven domains: (1) child factors, (2) parental factors, (3) childrearing problems (inadequate or inconsistent parenting), (4) family functioning problems, (5) contextual problems, (6) social network problems, and (7) mental health care problems. Further, reliable cut-off scores were established for various questionnaires. Finally, three types of families were found: (1) community-problem families, (2) multiproblem families, and (3) child-focused mild-problem families. This paper looks to advance an evidence-based definition and assessment of "multiproblem families" suggesting the possible value of defining and assessing multiproblem families in relation to these seven dimensions. Moreover, the classification of multiproblem families stresses the importance of providing tailored treatments.

Relationship dynamics around depression in gay and lesbian couples

Research on intimate relationship dynamics around depression has primarily focused on heterosexual couples. This body of work shows that wives are more likely than husbands to offer support to a depressed spouse. Moreover, when wives are depressed, they are more likely than husbands to try and shield their spouse from the stress of their own depression. Yet, previous research has not examined depression and relationship dynamics in gay and lesbian couples. We analyze in-depth interviews with 26 gay and lesbian couples (N = 52 individuals) in which one or both partners reported depression. We find evidence that dominant gender scripts are both upheld and challenged within gay and lesbian couples, providing important insight into how gender operates in relation to depression within same-sex contexts. Our results indicate that most gay and lesbian partners offer support to a depressed partner, yet lesbian couples tend to follow a unique pattern in that they provide support both as the non-depressed and depressed partner. Support around depression is sometimes viewed as improving the relationship, but if the support is intensive or rejected, it is often viewed as contributing to relationship strain. Support is also sometimes withdrawn by the non-depressed partner because of caregiver exhaustion or the perception that the support is unhelpful. This study points to the importance of considering depression within gay and lesbian relational contexts, revealing new ways support sustains and strains intimate partnerships. We emphasize the usefulness of deploying couple-level approaches to better understand depression in sexual minority populations.

Conceptualising psychological distress in families in palliative care: Findings from a systematic review

BACKGROUND

Adult palliative care patients and their family members experience significant psychological distress and morbidity. Psychosocial interventions adopting a systemic approach may provide a cogent model to improve the psychosocial care of families in palliative care. To facilitate design of these interventions, the construct of psychological distress in families in palliative care should be empirically derived.

AIM

To ascertain how psychological distress is conceptualised in families receiving palliative care.

DESIGN

A systematic review of the literature; this was followed by a thematic analysis and narrative synthesis.

DATA SOURCES

Using pre-defined search terms, four electronic databases (MEDLINE, CINAHL, PsycINFO and Behavioural Sciences collections) were searched with no date restrictions imposed. Pre-determined inclusion and exclusion criteria were then applied.

RESULTS

A total of 32 papers were included in the review. Two findings emerged from data synthesis. First, distress is conceptualised as a multi-dimensional construct but little consensus exists as to how to capture and measure distress. Second, distress in the families within these studies can be conceptualised using a tiered approach, moving from individual non-interactive depictions of distress through gradations of interaction to convey a systemic account of distress within the family system. Thus, distress shifts from a unitary to a systemic construct.

CONCLUSION

Currently, there is a paucity of research examining distress informed by family systems theories. This review proposes that distress in families in palliative care can be conceptualised and illustrated within a tiered model of distress. Further research is merited to advance current explanatory frameworks and theoretical models of distress.

Gendered emotion work around physical health problems in mid- and later-life marriages

The provision and receipt of emotion work-defined as intentional activities done to promote another's emotional well-being-are central dimensions of marriage. However, emotion work in response to physical health problems is a largely unexplored, yet likely important, aspect of the marital experience. We analyze dyadic in-depth interviews with husbands and wives in 21 mid- to later-life couples to examine the ways that health-impaired people and their spouses provide, interpret, and explain emotion work. Because physical health problems, emotion work, and marital dynamics are gendered, we consider how these processes differ for women and men. We find that wives provide emotion work regardless of their own health status. Husbands provide emotion work less consistently, typically only when the husbands see themselves as their wife's primary source of stability or when the husbands view their marriage as balanced. Notions of traditional masculinity preclude some husbands from providing emotion work even when their wife is health-impaired. This study articulates emotion work around physical health problems as one factor that sustains and exacerbates gender inequalities in marriage with implications for emotional and physical well-being.