The Family Kaleidoscope: Evolving Partnerships and Parenting

Monday, 16. September 2013 - 13:09

On 19-21 March 2014 UCSIA organizes an international academic workshop on The Family Kaleidoscope: "Evolving Partnerships and Parenting" at the University of Antwerpen, Belgium.

There is a broad range of empirical and descriptive comparative research on demographics in general, but there is only limited research on new family formation patterns. The impact this has on the raising of children and their physical and emotional wellbeing is a new field of investigation. The most profound change over the past decades has been the decline in the share of children growing up in households with both biological parents. Marriage is becoming less common, while divorces are on the increase, as are second and even third unions. A growing number of adults are rearing children who are not their own and more and more children live in reconstituted families with other children who are not their brothers or sisters.

This raises issues of sharing parenting responsibilities, tackling emotional implications, adopting a new and changing family constellation, building up relations with new family members while rearranging severed bonds with the other members of the former core family, adapting living conditions, making new arrangements in daily life, all at the same time and often in tense circumstances. What are the effects of such processes on children and what consequences does this have for society at large? How does the next generation perceive of these new family forms and is there an intergenerational transfer of alternative models of partnership and parenting?

Given the predominance of the phenomenon of new family formation, should we not revisit the conviction that growing up in stable nuclear families forms the sole guarantee for the cognitive, social and emotional well-being of the next generation? Should we not reinterpret the connection between contextual and intra-familial processes and family structure?

Should social policy not support families in making transitions from one structure to the next and family law codes incorporate the rights of members of non-traditional families (cf. different approaches to parent’s rights in European countries and the adoption by the European Court of the distinction between biological, juridical and social parenthood)?

Since effects of transitions in family structure may be cumulative, in that they appear to influence children’s bonds to social institutions such as school which heightens risks for behavioural problems, the issue concerns society as a whole. Psychologists and educational experts are increasingly confronted with the effects on health, wellbeing and schooling.

UCSIA aims to investigate this emerging research field of new family formation from the perspective of the younger generation and its psychological and educational needs and wants to look into the sociological, juridical and economic effects of this development in bringing together experts from the relevant disciplines for a two day international workshop in Antwerp. Core questions are:

*What are the effects of new family formation patterns on the nature of parenting?
*How are future generations affected by these changes?
*What are the costs and benefits in psychological, social and economic terms?
*What is the long-term impact on the structure of society?
*What policy and legal measures are being devised?

The workshop consists of a two-day international meeting with specialized lectures and presentations and debates by invited senior and junior scholars. The aim is to offer a platform to scholars to present their research on the topic and exchange their ideas on research findings. Such a meeting may open up new multidisciplinary horizons to think about the topic.

Contact
UCSIA
Prinsstraat 14
B-2000 Antwerpen
marijke.celis@ua.ac.be
Belgium Tel. +32 (0)3 265 49 60
Fax +32 (0)3 707 09 31

Source:

www.ucsia.org

Tags:

Family