Looking Across Cultures for Good Family Models

By Rebeldad Brian Reid

In the latest family-focused issue of "Greater Good," a social science magazine, one of the lead essays introduces two families enrolled in a multi-year study of the American family: the Evanses, a standard-issue, two-kid, two-income suburban clan, and the Lopezes, a six-person Mexican-American family headed by first-generation immigrants with three jobs between the two parents.

The question? Which of the two families "enjoys a greater quality of life and tighter family bonds?"

The authors suggest that the Lopez family, despite the external stresses, are better off in the family department, in no small part because the work-life balance issues that bedevils many Anglo-American families (and, indeed, have given rise to this blog) are countered by tighter family bonds of all sorts.

The authors of the piece, Ross Park, Ph.D., the director of the Center for Family Studies at the University of California, Riverside; Scott Coltrane, Ph.D, the deputy directory of the Center; and University of California, Davis post-doc Thomas Schofield argue that research shows kids are closer to their parents in Mexican immigrant families, that siblings are tighter, dads are more involved, and that the social network of the extended family is more likely to be physically and emotionally present. That web, the authors say, contributes to all manner of good outcomes, from improved cooperation with peers to better school performance.

And while they are careful to caution that these positive trends are sometimes seen in families where gender roles lack equity (though they note the stereotype of the patriarchal Mexican-American family is increasingly outdated), the authors suggest that there is no reason why what they call "familism" can't be fused with egalitarian notions of family.

Studies, by their nature, tend to blur out individual examples that don't conform to the overall conclusions -- I am certain that I'll see a comment or two on exceptions -- but I had to feel a tinge of familiarity with the Evanses. I am at least 400 miles from extended family and in-laws, with brothers and sisters and parents scattered in a half-dozen states. And while I live in a neighborhood that mimics, on some level, that extended family, I wonder how much I'm missing out on.

Brian Reid writes about parenting and work-family balance. You can read his blog at rebeldad.com.

By Brian Reid |  October 18, 2007; 7:00 AM ET  | Category:  Research
Previous: Unbalancing Halloween | Next: Volunteer Vampires

Name:

Comments: