ABSTRACT This systematic review examines how information and communication technologies (ICT) shape emotional, social, and cultural dynamics within transnational families (TNFs). Drawing on 113 articles identified through a Zotero bibliographic library developed by Working Group 1 of the COST Action Transnational Family Dynamics in Europe [TraFaDy], the study synthesizes research on ICT‐mediated family practices within TNFs. Through descriptive coding and thematic analysis, we examined participant profiles, research designs, communication practices, origin and host countries, the drivers of ICT use, and emotional, social, and cultural consequences. Findings show that ICT enhances communication, facilitates co‐presence across distance, and supports emotional bonds, while also generating complex ambivalences shaped by socioeconomic conditions, digital literacy, migration status, and intra‐family power dynamics. Although digital tools strengthen family roles, caregiving arrangements, and transnational belonging, they may simultaneously reinforce inequalities, intensify surveillance, or create emotional strain. Cultural processes such as enculturation, acculturation, and cultural integration were shown to be deeply intertwined with ICT use, revealing how digital communication sustains cultural continuity while enabling hybrid cultural formations. The review concludes with recommendations for strengthening research and policy initiatives related to digital inclusion, family support, and integration, with the aim of enhancing the well‐being of TNFs.
ABSTRACT When mothers empathize with their children, they are motivated to respond in an attuned manner that prioritizes their children's well‐being. A substantial body of research links maternal empathy and attuned caregiving to adaptive socioemotional development in young children. However, this work almost exclusively focuses upon empathy for the child's negatively valenced internal states. This focus is despite the fact that there is no a priori reason to believe that adaptive outcomes associated with maternal empathy are solely due to empathy for the child's negative internal states. Positive affective processes within the mother–child relationship are increasingly recognized as supporting children's development in unique ways. In this article, I introduce maternal positive empathy, or the mother's empathy for the child's positively valenced internal states. I then set forth hypotheses regarding the role of maternal positive empathy in the caregiving relationship and the family system. Future directions for research and theory are discussed.
ABSTRACT Matrescence, the developmental transition to motherhood, has gained recognition as a critical life stage, yet existing frameworks remain largely universalist and insufficiently account for the racialized, intergenerational realities of Black women. Drawing on Black feminist thought and interdisciplinary perspectives on identity and resilience, this article introduces the construct of Black matrescence. The framework presented here is grounded in mother–daughter bonds, which are positioned as the intergenerational mechanism that shapes the transition to motherhood for Black women. Through both proximal processes (e.g., racial socialization, caregiving practices, coping strategies) and distal processes (e.g., narratives of trauma, resilience, and reproductive injustice), mother–daughter bonds mediate whether continuity or rupture occurs across generations. As depicted in our model, Black matrescence unfolds across four interrelated domains: individual, relational, cultural, and structural. These dynamics give rise to five key constructs: identity development, resilience, cultural continuity, healing, and flourishing. This framework advances family theory by conceptualizing motherhood as an intergenerational process situated within family systems, emphasizing the mother–daughter bond as a central mechanism of transmission and transformation. Implications are discussed for advancing research, clinical practice, and policy that promote maternal mental health and the well‐being of Black families.
ABSTRACT We propose the intentional partnered use of symbolic interactionism and queer theory to enrich Family Science. Where symbolic interactionism emphasizes the norms and meanings individuals co‐construct through social interactions, queer theory challenges those normative assumptions (particularly about gender, sexuality, and family structures). Together, the two theories offer scholars an opportunity for theoretical mutualism that allows researchers, practitioners, and policy makers to examine how everyday interactions both reflect and resist dominant family norms. This approach highlights the fluidity of identity and the performative nature of familial roles, offering a more inclusive understanding of diverse family forms, ultimately promoting a dynamic, intersectional lens for analyzing evolving family practices and relationships in contemporary society.
Although conversational artificial intelligence (CAI) has become increasingly integrated into daily life, research examining its role is limited to user engagement and Human-AI interaction. The aim of this article is to review existing research on CAI use in everyday family life and conceptualize its role from a family systemic perspective. The proposed model suggests that the role of CAI agents in the family system evolves over time via three distinct roles: a virtual assistant, a proxy, and a mirror. This review demonstrates that interactions with CAI agents influence and are influenced by the family dynamics, with implications for family structure, processes, and functioning. Concerns about data privacy and boundaries are discussed further with suggestions for future research, family-centered interventions, and dissemination. By conceptualizing the roles of CAIs within family systems, this work introduces a triadic process model, contributing to a more nuanced understanding of CAI.
ABSTRACT The purpose of this study was to identify and synthesize the literature on parental racial socialization and racial identity development within Black–White biracial families, or those with one Black parent, one White parent, and at least one biological Black–White biracial child. Parental racial socialization is the process through which parents communicate information, values, and beliefs about race to their children, which equips them to become better able to navigate racially stratified contexts such as our American society. Although racial socialization practices have been widely studied within monoracial Black families, less is known about how it is practiced within Black–White biracial families and how these practices subsequently impact racial identity development in biracial people. Through an extensive literature search using PRISMA guidelines, 31 eligible peer‐reviewed empirical articles were identified, and results were organized into four major themes: (a) the nature and frequency of parental racial socialization messages; (b) the impacts of parental racial socialization from biracial youths' perspectives; (c) parental racial support strategies; and (d) the importance of parental concordance. Following a critical analysis of the studies, this review identifies several research limitations and suggests new directions for future research.
ABSTRACT Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) reduces anxiety in parents of children with complex health conditions. We conducted a meta‐analysis of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) through April 15, 2025, examining anxiety outcomes measured with standardized scales and assessing moderators, including child diagnosis and intervention dose. After removing two outliers, 10 trials ( n = 582) showed a significant small‐to‐moderate reduction in anxiety (SMD = −0.33; I 2 = 54.7%). Subgroup and meta‐regression analyses indicated larger benefits for parents of children with neurodevelopmental disorders, studies using passive or non‐intervention controls, and studies employing the DASS anxiety measure. Exploratory dose–response modeling suggested a dose pattern of about three sessions per week, totaling approximately 21 h, with about 40 min per session. Exploratory machine‐learning analysis (XGBoost) highlighted ethnicity, cultural background, total dose, and assessment scale as key predictors. Findings inform family stress theory and methodological approaches to intervention design and evaluation.
ABSTRACT Gender socialization is a lifelong process that guides children in shaping their identities, opportunities, and perspectives during early years. Within the family environment, men hold a pivotal position, influenced by tradition, economic factors, and family structure, which significantly impacts the socialization of children. This systematic review examines the intersecting social identities and systems of power that shape men's roles in the gendering of children. Five major electronic databases—Scopus, ProQuest, CINAHL, PsycINFO, and Web of Science—and the first 10 pages of Google Scholar were searched to identify potential studies relevant to the review. The search was conducted from June to July 2025. Seventeen studies published from 2000 to 2025 were included. Study data were extracted and sorted according to the potential influences of men's intersectionality on children's gender socialization. The review identified intersecting social identities, including ethnicity, socioeconomic status, place of residence, family structure, language, and religion, as determinants of men's socialization practices that influence children's psychological adjustment, behavioral development, and conception of gender. While the review showed recent shifts over the past decade from conventional domineering roles to more emotionally responsive parenting, this shift remained alongside the more traditionally accepted form of authority expected of men. The review revealed a limited understanding of how men's roles varied and were shaped by intersecting identities, emphasizing the need for further research to develop culturally responsive frameworks for gender socialization.
Interdisciplinarity in human development and family science (HDFS) is difficult to define because the boundaries demarcating the discipline are ambiguous. We introduce disciplinary systems theory (DST), which, like family systems theory, is a variant of general systems theory. DST describes how disciplinary systems and subsystems create boundaries of variable permeability. We use bibliometric review techniques to explore boundary permeability to describe interdisciplinarity in HDFS. We reviewed 278 articles published in Child Development, Journal of Marriage and Family, and Family Relations in 2014. The disciplinary affiliations of the first three authors of each article were identified. The papers referenced in those articles, and the papers that later cited those articles were identified and classified by discipline using Web of Science categories. We found stubbornly impermeable subdisciplinary boundaries between developmental science and family science, but a very strong suprasystem connecting developmental science to its root discipline of psychology. Authorship and citation patterns indicate less permeable boundaries between HDFS and the related disciplines of education and social work.
This article reframes family murder-suicide as a process of family annihilation rather than an isolated crime. It presents a conceptual framework that links strain, shame, and threatened control with family structures, power relations, and stress. The conceptual framework explains how personal despair and coercive dominance converge within intimate partnerships and parent-child ties to produce lethal decisions. This framework accounts for hostile and altruistic patterns across intimate partner and parent-child relationships and highlights key risk periods such as relationship separation among intimate partners and caregiving crises involving children, older adults, and severely ill or dependent family members. The synthesis strengthens family theory on roles, power, and system vulnerability and improves risk prediction through attention to dual harm signals and family context. The framework informs policy, social service design, and multi-agency screening and shows the value of interdisciplinary collaboration for prevention.
Gray divorce, marital dissolution at Age 50 and older, has become an increasingly important family transition with implications for later-life kinship, economic security, intergenerational ties, and postmarital adjustment. This scoping review maps antecedents, outcomes, moderators, and family-theory gaps across 25 empirical studies published between 2012 and 2025 and identified through five major databases, Google Scholar, and targeted citation-based updates. The evidence shows that gray divorce is most consistently associated with marital biography and socioeconomic position, including higher-order marriages, shorter union duration, lower wealth, non-homeownership, marital quality, and emerging evidence on employment insecurity and late-life labor market shocks. Outcomes vary across domains are as follows: Women generally face sharper economic declines; depressive symptoms, psychological distress, and service use often intensify around the divorce transition before receding; and social consequences depend on repartnering, living arrangements, gendered parent-adult child ties, and family-system resources. The review advances a family science interpretation of gray divorce as a heterogeneous transition shaped by life course timing, cumulative disadvantage, family stress processes, boundary reorganization, and crisis, chronic strain, and convalescence trajectories. Future work should expand cross-national evidence, test mechanisms directly, integrate family-theory models more explicitly, and evaluate policy and practice levers that support older adults and their families across the divorce timeline.
Family contexts are sites to analyze the changing expectations associated with masculinity, revealing the multiple expressions of various types of masculinities. However, research in family and gender studies often uses catchall categorizations to understand complex dynamics that influence families who confront race and racism. This article emphasizes theoretical tools that address race, racism, and masculinity, conceptualizing masculinities as intersectional and family-level processes through racial discrimination and racial socialization. The social construction of masculinities is inseparable from racism and shapes family relationships in tandem with structural conditions and institutions controlled by laws and policies. It identifies marginalized and protest masculinities-concepts that scholars have less frequently used but that foreground race and racism and hold the capacity to explain how masculinities emerge in family contexts.
The social-ecological model of military family financial well-being was developed to delineate and depict individual-, family-, community-, military- and societal-level factors that jointly shape these families' financial well-being. Theoretical frameworks that ground efforts to enhance families' financial well-being remain underdeveloped but are crucial for informing the work of researchers, helping professionals, and policymakers. To be effective, such frameworks must incorporate the broader context in which families are rooted. One such context that brings unique considerations is military family life. After describing the factors within each level (i.e., individual, family, community, military and societal levels), we provide guidance on how the model can be used to reimagine personal finance as family finance situated within broader community and societal contexts to better reflect the lived realities of military families.
Online forums offer family scholars a unique opportunity to learn how people make sense of complex issues related to family, identity, and relationships. These digital spaces often mirror or even amplify offline dynamics, as users interact to disclose sensitive information, construct narratives, offer validation, or address uncertainty. Online forums provide an authentic glimpse into a group or phenomenon through easily accessible, naturally-occurring interactions, including from hard-to-reach populations. Guided by symbolic interactionism, we offer practical guidance for researchers interested in this approach. We draw from existing literature to outline strategies for identifying relevant forums, collecting data ethically, and analyzing data using qualitative methods. In addition to providing several examples of published work using forums as a data source, we provide a case example of a published study using data from Reddit to demonstrate potential steps for interested scholars to follow in conducting online forums research. We explore potential study design challenges that researchers should consider, including the lack of consistent demographic data, difficulties in conducting follow-ups, and the risk of social desirability bias, even in anonymous settings. We also highlight ethical considerations inherent in this type of research. Overall, family scientists can expand their methodological toolkit and gain deeper insights into the lived experiences of individuals and families in the digital age by considering online forums as a rich data source.
In this scoping review, we examine the psychosocial impacts and relationship experiences of brain cancer on patients and their romantic partners. We synthesize seven empirical studies published between 2000 and 2024 across the United States (n = 2) and Europe (n = 5). Studies were identified through systematic database searches (e.g., PubMed, PsycINFO) targeting adult romantic couples where one partner had been diagnosed with a brain tumor. Seven studies met the inclusion criteria, four of which used qualitative methods, and the remaining three articles used quantitative methods. Substantive findings across studies fell into one of three themes: (a) patients and their partners reported compromised psychosocial outcomes; (b) couple coping and communication patterns varied from open discussion to complete avoidance; and (c) partners reported considerable caregiver strain. The review revealed important limitations such as inconsistent demographic reporting, need for methodological rigor (e.g., consistent reporting of demographics, dyadic data) and a lack of theoretical frameworks. Future research should prioritize theoretically grounded dyadic studies using appropriate statistical methods to advance understanding of how brain cancer impacts romantic relationships.
Families remain central to later-life support, yet evidence on intergenerational caregiving is fragmented across dyads, generations, and cultural contexts. This scoping review maps how caregiving is organized and negotiated across structural, associational, affectual, functional, consensual, and normative dimensions. Following PRISMA-ScR and Arksey and O'Malley's framework, seven databases and Google Scholar were searched. Eligible studies reported empirical findings on care exchanged between family members of different generations, sampled at dyadic, triadic, or family levels, and published in English since 2000. Data were charted to Intergenerational Solidarity dimensions and intergenerational ambivalence and synthesized using a framework approach. Forty-nine studies met criteria, largely qualitative and Western. Proximity and co-residence structured caregiving intensity, while distance prompted mediated contact, remittances, rotational arrangements, and formal services. Care flows were multidirectional and networked, moderated by affectual climate and consensual governance. Policy should recognize caregiving as networked and multidirectional, while research must broaden samples and adopt longitudinal designs.
This review synthesizes parental racial-ethnic socialization (RES) research focused on families with children of color, highlighting conceptual and measurement advances and gaps for early childhood through early adolescence (ages 0-12). Although most RES studies center on adolescents, young children notice race, experience racism, and require developmentally attuned approaches. A systematic search identified 75 empirical articles. The literature is predominantly quantitative, relies largely on mother reports, and focuses on low- to middle-income Black and Latine families. Preparation for bias appears less consistent in childhood, with parents weighing a variety of factors. Emerging work emphasizes parent-child alignment, socio-emotional and relational dimensions, internal parental mechanisms such as beliefs and attitudes, and socio-political context. Future research should diversify samples, develop measures tailored to childhood, and employ qualitative, mixed-method, and observational approaches to capture implicit and process-oriented RES. A socio-cognitive developmental lens is essential for understanding how RES unfolds across childhood.
The term masculinities has garnered immense attention over the past decade in both the social and scholarly arenas. Within family science, however, that attention has been far more limited. Responding to both this gap in our discipline as well as the growing public recognition of and discourse surrounding masculinities, this special issue seeks to bring a necessary focus to how masculinities are conceptualized, operationalized, and theorized within family science. Encompassing a range of trans- and inter-disciplinary perspectives, the 18 articles that comprise this special issue critique, expand, and transform our understanding of masculinities-and of masculinities within families-in a way that is timely, sociopolitically relevant, intersectional, and reflexive. In this introductory article, we situate the need for the special issue, clarify the meaning of critical masculinities in families, provide an overview of the articles included herein, and offer recommendations for the future of theorizing masculinities and of gender more broadly within our field.
Despite expanded family policy spending across high-income countries, fertility remains low. Quasi-experimental evidence shows that cash and tax transfers tend to shift fertility mainly among lower socioeconomic status (SES) groups, with smaller or null effects among socioeconomically advantaged groups. We propose a two-constraint framework that distinguishes financial constraints (children are unaffordable) from organizational constraints (care is difficult to coordinate with work, mobility, and daily life). Using the evolutionary anthropological lens of cooperative rearing, we specify four organizational functions needed to translate fertility intentions into births: proximity to trusted helpers, schedule-compatible temporal coverage, relational durability, and insurance against disruptions. A theory-based integrative review suggests that policies that expand cooperative capacity-through childcare hours and continuity, schedule predictability, and proximity-supporting infrastructure-are more likely than cash alone to affect parity progression when affordability is not the primary constraint. We interpret fertility-related policy as autonomy-enhancing and well-being-enhancing family infrastructure rather than demographic engineering and derive falsifiable propositions for future research.
