Family Structures and Bonds

I really enjoyed the article on grandparent/grandchildren vacations.  This is an experience that I have personally, through my son, experienced.  The articles this week all stressed the importance of parent-child relations.  Although, as Bengston recognizes, multigenerational bonds vary in quality, the presence or ability of contact between family members increases the depth of many parent-child relationships.  It is also very interesting that parents experience decreases in marriage quality following the birth of a child (I seem to remember this relationship being ambiguous in the past) because it is revealing that children might actually have a negative impact on adult intimate relations.  If this is in fact the case, it would seem that decreasing birth rates might actually promote better family relations (if families consisting of two spouses are indeed families).  The article by Furstenberg supports my opinion that multigenerational families create a greater potential support system for children (mediated largely by parental permissiveness or openness to grandparent involvement). 

The Amato article was correct, I believe, in drawing attention to the differences in motivation, timing, and execution of marital dissolution, and the multitude of varied effects on adult children and divorced individuals.  I tend to dismiss the accuracy of selection theories with regards to marital dissolution, primarily because I believe there are too many low-functioning or socially problematic individuals retained in marriages to fully support this hypothesis, and accept the theory when applied to children as influencing factors in marriage break-up.  It is unclear to me how genetics predisposes one to divorce; to what degree is genetics compounded with other factors?  On this note, I relate the following three questions:

1.       1.  Considering the Furstenberg article, even in the presence of parent-adult child tension, do you believe that increases in multigenerational involvement/cohabitation is positive for children in that it encourages efforts to improve familial communication and  cooperation?  Can we expect the increases in multigenerational households to affect the interpersonal skills of the children raised therein?

2.     2.  What are your thoughts regarding the structuralist/individualist theoretical debate surrounding single fatherhood?  Are personalities, even those relating to gender, adaptable to situational demands or does single fatherhood draw greater societal appraisal than single motherhood; specifically, are there fewer negative connotations associated with the former?

3.     3.  Finally, if children are choosing to remain in or return to a childhood home during adulthood, and this habit is becoming more socially accepted, will the age of exodus increase beyond the twenties?  Is it possible that, as an alternative to relocating out of the parents’ home, more children will choose instead to invite a partner into the parents’ home?  Considering that multigenerational households are the norm in many non-Western countries, are Canada and the United States moving towards this reality?