Kinship Practices Among Alternative Family Forms in Western Industrialized Societies

Projections of human kinship for all countries

Demographers have long attempted to project future changes in the size and composition of populations, but have ignored what these processes will mean for the size, composition, and age distribution of family networks. Kinship structures matter because family solidarity-a crucial source of informal care for millions of people around the world-is conditional on kin being alive. Here, we present innovative projections of biological kin for the 1950 to 2100 period and discuss what they imply for the availability of informal care. Overall, we project that the number of living kin for individuals will decline dramatically worldwide. While a 65-yo woman in 1950 could expect to have 41 living kin, a 65-yo woman in 2095 is projected to have just 25 [18.8 to 34.7] relatives (lower and upper 80% projection intervals). This represents a 38% [15 to 54] global decline. The composition of family networks is also expected to change, with the numbers of living grandparents and great-grandparents markedly increasing, and the numbers of cousins, nieces and nephews, and grandchildren declining. Family networks will age considerably, as we project a widening age gap between individuals and their kin due to lower and later fertility and longer lifespans. In Italy, for example, the average age of a grandmother of a 35-yo woman is expected to increase from 77.9 y in 1950 to 87.7 y [87.1 to 88.5] in 2095. The projected changes in kin supply will put pressure on the already stretched institutional systems of social support, as more individuals age with smaller and older family networks.

Stretched Kinship: Parental Rejection and Acceptance of Queer Youth in Chinese Families

Kinship has been the primary concern among young queer people in today's China and other parts of Asia under the strong and ongoing familism, who often find it challenging to come out and negotiate their sexuality with their parental family. This paper adopts the concept of stretched kinship to critically analyze the digital videos released by PFLAG China (Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays in China) from 2015 to 2020, focusing on the experiences of the parents in their responses to young people's coming out. It both extends and challenges the concept of stretched kinship by turning the spotlight from queer youth to their parents-a topic often overlooked in queer Asian and Chinese studies-to examine how Chinese parents reject and accept their queer child contextualized in the rapid and ongoing social change in twenty-first-century China and Asia.

Communication with Kin in the Wake of the COVID-19 Pandemic

This study investigates patterns of communication among non-coresident kin in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic using data from the New York City Robin Hood Poverty Tracker. Over half of New Yorkers spoke to their non-coresident family members several times a week during the pandemic and nearly half increased their communication with non-coresident kin since March 2020. Siblings and extended kin proved to be especially important ties activated during the pandemic. New Yorkers were most likely to report increased communication with siblings. A quarter of respondents reported that they increased communication with at least one aunt, uncle, cousin, or other extended family member. While non-Hispanic White respondents reported the highest frequency of communication with kin, it was those groups most impacted by COVID-19 - foreign-born, Black, and Hispanic New Yorkers - who were most likely to report that they increased communication with kin in the wake of the pandemic.

The Role of Kinship in Racial Differences in Exposure to Unemployment

Most studies on unemployment have assessed its individual-level costs. However, beyond its effects on individuals, unemployment incurs costs for their immediate families and extended kin. Close kin provide the majority of social support for unemployed adults. Applying demographic and statistical techniques to official statistics and using COVID-19 survey data on kinship and labor force experience, we assess the unemployment level and exposure to unemployment in the United States from a kinship perspective. The results indicate dramatic racial disparities in the number of unemployed kin and the number of kin affected by an unemployed person. Specifically, during the pandemic-induced recession, Black Americans had 1.7 unemployed people in their extended family compared with 1.2 among Whites. Further, every job loss in a Black extended family affected approximately 23 related members of the family through kinship ties, compared with approximately 20 among Whites. The racial gap in the number of unemployed kin is evident in all age-groups and escalates with age. This study's findings highlight the need to understand unemployment and its demographic implications, which are stratified by race.

Intentional Kinship through Caring Relationships, Heritage, and Identity: Adoptive Parents’ Inclusion of Non-Biological and Non-Affinal Relationships on Family Maps

Structural open adoption has been beneficial to adoptees in integrating their birth heritage and identity. Adoptive parents also may sometimes seek out others who are neither related biologically nor through partnership to support their child in developing an integrated sense of identity. To what extent do these intentional kinship relationships become incorporated within the adoptive family network and how do adoptive parents view their role in their child’s life? Qualitative data on family inclusion of non-biological and non-affinal kin are reported from interviews with lesbian, gay, bisexual, and heterosexual adoptive parents (n = 25 families). Analyses of verbal and visual data from family map drawing interviews indicated that adoptive parents from the different types of families similarly included intentional kin in their conceptualization of their child’s family. Adopted children’s foster carers, family friends, other adoptive families, and other children and adults were specifically included on family maps to facilitate children’s knowledge of different aspects of their birth heritage and adoption story. The implications of open adoption policy therefore move beyond considerations of only birth family contact. In practice, open adoption procedures convey a broad message to families that appear to widen adoptive parents’ conceptualization of kinship.

Mother’s Partnership Status and Allomothering Networks in the United Kingdom and United States

In high-income, low-fertility (HILF) settings, the mother’s partner is a key provider of childcare. However, it is not clear how mothers without partners draw on other sources of support to raise children. This paper reports the findings from a survey of 1532 women in the United Kingdom and the United States, in which women described who provided childcare for a focal child and how frequently they did so. We use multivariate Bayesian regression models to explore the drivers of support from partners, maternal kin, and other allomothers, as well as the potential impact of allomothering on women’s fertility. Relative to mothers who are in a stable first marriage or cohabitation, mothers who are unpartnered rely more heavily on fewer maternal kin, use more paid help, and have networks which include more non-kin helpers. Repartnered mothers received less help from their partners in the UK and less help from maternal kin in both countries, which US mothers compensated for by relying on other helpers. While repartnered mothers had higher age-adjusted fertility than women in a first partnership, allomaternal support was not clearly related to the mother’s fertility. These findings demonstrate the importance of partners but also of allomothering more broadly in HILF settings.