Land Use and Transfer Plans in the U.S. Great Plains

In the next decades, aging farmers in the United States will make decisions that affect almost 1 billion acres of land. The future of this land will become more uncertain as farm transfer becomes more difficult, potentially changing the structure of agriculture through farm consolidation, changes in farm ownership and management, or taking land out of production. The Great Plains Population and Environment Project interviewed farmers and their spouses between 1997 and 1999. Farm Family Survey participants were ambiguous about their plans to leave farming, transfer land to others, and even long-term land use, largely due to concerns about the continued economic viability of farming. Participants living far from metropolitan areas expected to sell or rent to other farmers, while those near residential real-estate markets expected to sell to developers. Delays in planning for retirement and succession were common, further threatening the success of intergenerational transitions.

Avaliação da atitude de crianças que convivem com idosos em relação à velhice

Com o envelhecimento populacional, é importante conhecer como outras faixas etárias percebem os idosos. Trata-se de um estudo quantitativo, transversal e descritivo, que teve como objetivo avaliar a atitude de crianças que convivem com idosos, em relação à velhice. Realizaram-se entrevistas com 54 crianças de sete a dez anos, que moravam com idosos. Após a caracterização sociodemográfica, foi aplicada a Escala Todaro para Avaliação de Atitudes de Crianças em Relação a Idosos, a qual avalia domínios persona, cognição, relacionamento social e agência. A maioria das crianças tinha nove anos, era do sexo masculino e morava com um idoso há mais de cinco anos. Os resultados apontaram atitudes consideradas positivas. O domínio persona apresentou relação com o tempo de moradia com o idoso. Os resultados deste trabalho permitem que as equipes de saúde planejem ações de intervenção educacional, visando manter e melhorar as atitudes de crianças em relação aos idosos.

Relazione gestante-feto, modalità del parto e sviluppo fisico del bambino

Extensive literature outlined that the quality of the mother-foetus relationship is considered the main feature with regard to the quality of postnatal mother-infant interaction and also to the child’s psychical development. Nowadays the relationship between the pregnant woman and her foetus is viewed as the central factor of the somatic dialogue between the functioning of the maternal and the foetal organisms. This dialogue is responsible for the physic development of the child, as well as of its psychosomatic structure. Therefore the research area has necessarily had to extend to the analysis of psychological processes concerning: the pregnancy, the couple that is bound by parenthood, the influence of intergenerational dynamics. In fact, the formation of maternal identity, as well as that of the relationship between the woman and the foetus, refers to the pregnant woman’s relationship with her parents, especially with her mother. The same pregnancy, considered as a psychosomatic event, is directly influenced by relational, affective and social factors, particularly by the quality of the interiorized parental relations and the quality of the current relationships (such as that with her partner and with her family of origin). Some studies have begun to investigate the relationship between the pregnant woman and the foetus in term of “prenatal attachment” and its relationship with socio-demographic, psychological e psychopathological aspects (such as pre and post partum depression), but the research area is still largely unexplored. The present longitudinal research aimed to investigate the quality of the pregnant womanfoetus relationship by the prenatal attachment index, the quality of the interiorized relationship with woman’s parents, the level of alexithymic features and maternity social support, in relation with the modulation of the physiology of delivery and of postpartum, as well as of the physical development of the child. A consecutive sample of 62 Italian primipara women without any kind of pathologies, participated in the longitudinal study. In the first phase of this study (third trimester of the pregnancy), it has investigated the psychological processes connected to the affective investment of the pregnant women towards the unborn baby (by Prenatal Attachment Inventory), the mothers’ interiorized relationship with their own parents (by Parental Bonding Instrument), the social and affective support from their partner and their family of origin are able to supply (by Maternity Social Support Scale), and the level of alexithymia (by 20-Toronto Alexithymia Scale). In the second phase of this study, some data concerning the childbirth course carried out from a “deliverygram” (such as labour, induction durations and modalities of delivery) and data relative to the newborns state of well-being (such as Apgar and pH indexes). Finally, in the third phase of the study women have been telephoned a month after the childbirth. The semistructured interview investigated the following areas: the memory concerning the delivery, the return to home, the first interactions between the mother and the newborn, the breastfeeding, the biological rhythms achieved from newborns. From the data analysis a sample with a good level of prenatal attachment and of support social and a good capability to mental functioning emerged. An interesting result is that the most of the women have a great percentage of “affectionless control style” with both parents, but data is not sufficient to interpret this result. Moreover, considering the data relative to the delivery, medical and welfare procedures, that have been necessary, are coherent with the Italian mean, while the percentage of the caesarean section (12.9%) is inferior to the national percentage (30%). The 29% of vaginal partum has got epidural analgesia, which explains the high number (37%) of obstetrician operations (such as Kristeller). The data relative to the newborn (22 male, 40 female) indicates a good state of well-being because Apgar and pH indexes are superior to 7 at first and fifth minutes. Concerning the prenatal phase, correlation analysis showed that: the prenatal attachment scores positively correlated with the expected social support and negatively correlated with the “externally oriented thinking” dimension of alexithymia; the maternity social support negatively correlated with total alexithymia score, particularly with the “externally oriented thinking” dimension, and negatively correlated with maternal control of parental bonding. Concerning the delivery data, there are many correlations (after all obvious) among themselves. The most important are that the labour duration negatively correlated with the newborn’s index state of well-being. Finally, concerning the data from the postpartum phase the women’ assessments relative to the partum negatively correlated with the duration of the delivery and positively correlated with the assessment relative to the return to home and the interaction with the newborn. Moreover the length of permanence in the hospital negatively correlated with women’s assessments relative to the return to home that, in turn, positively correlated with the quality of breastfeeding, the interaction between the mother and the newborn and the biological regulation of the child. Finally, the women’ assessments relative to breastfeeding positively correlated with the mother-child interactions and the biological rhythms of children. From the correlation analysis between the variables of the prenatal phase and the data relative to the delivery, emerged that the prenatal attachment scores positively correlated with the dilatation stage scores and with the newborn’s Apgar index at first minute, the paternal care dimension of parental bonding positively correlated with the lengths of the various periods of childbirth like so the paternal control dimension with placental stage. Moreover, emerged that the expected social support positively correlated with the lengths of the various periods of childbirth and that the global alexithymia scores, particularly “difficulty to describe emotions” dimension, negatively correlated with total childbirth scores. From the correlation analysis between the variables of the prenatal phase and variable of the postpartum phase emerged that the total alexithymia scores positively correlated with the time elapsed from the childbirth to the breastfeeding of the child, the difficulty to describe emotions dimension of the alexithymia negatively correlated with the quality of the breastfeeding, the “externally oriented thinking” dimension of the alexithymia negatively correlated with mother-child interactions, and finally the paternal control dimension of the parental bonding negatively correlated with the time elapsed from the child to the breastfeeding of the child. Finally, from the analysis of the correlation between the data of the partum and the women’s assessments of the postpartum phase, emerged the negative correlation between the woman’s assessment relative to the delivery and the quantitative of obstetrician operations and the lengths of the various periods of childbirth, the positive correlation between the women’s assessment about the length of delivery periods and the real lengths of the same ones, the positive relation between woman’s assessment relative to the delivery and the Apgar index of children. In conclusion, there is a remarkable relation between the quality of the relationship the woman establishes with the foetus that influences the course of the pregnancy and the delivery that, in turn, influences the postpartum outcome, particularly relative to the mother-children relationship. Such data should be confirmed by heterogeneous populations in order to identify vulnerable women and to project focused intervention.

Infanzie migranti. La narrativa per ragazzi nelle opere di scrittrici indiane residenti nel Regno Unito e in Canada

L’oggetto dell’analisi si situa all’intersezione di diversi ambiti disciplinari: letteratura, scienze dell’educazione, sociologia, psicologia. Nel presente lavoro, viene privilegiata un’analisi tematica della narrativa e la definizione identitaria delle “infanzie migranti” viene declinata seguendo percorsi di lettura che mettano in risalto alcune prospettive ricorrenti nei romanzi. Il corpus letterario selezionato include alcuni romanzi scritti in lingua inglese da sei scrittrici di origine indiana, in particolare Jamila Gavin, Rachna Gilmore, Anjali Banerjee, Rukhsana Khan, Ravinder Randhawa e Meera Syal. Nel primo capitolo si tracciano le premesse teoriche e metodologiche del lavoro, definendo il genere della letteratura per l’infanzia e interrogandoci sulle sue specificità in un contesto postcoloniale qual è quello indiano. Il secondo capitolo è dedicato alla definizione identitaria delle seconde generazioni, in particolar modo di quelle indo-britanniche e indo-canadesi, cui appartengono i protagonisti dei romanzi presi in esame. Nel terzo capitolo viene posta attenzione agli elementi che concorrono alla definizione identitaria dei giovani protagonisti dei romanzi, i quali si interrogano sul loro essere e sull’appartenenza interculturale. I dialoghi intergenerazionali tra i protagonisti e i nonni - o altre figure di guida - permettono alle scrittrici di raccontare la storia dell’India coloniale e della lotta per l’indipendenza dal punto di vista degli esclusi dalla storiografia ufficiale. Nel capitolo conclusivo si argomenta invece come la definizione identitaria si attui per mezzo dello spazio, tramite l’appartenenza ai luoghi, spazi caricati di significato, e per mezzo del viaggio, che può essere reale, immaginario o iniziatico. In tutti i casi, il viaggio porta alla scoperta del Sé, di un’identità ibrida e molteplice da parte dei personaggi.

La représentation du pathétique masculin dans le roman sentimental européen: une réflexion sur l'imaginaire littéraire

Ce travail est une analyse de la représentation du pathétique masculin dans le roman dit sentimental dans la deuxième moitié du dix-huitième siècle en Europe, ou plutôt dans les littératures anglaise, française, allemande et italienne. La thèse soutenue est celle de la dérivation du pathétique romanesque de l’âge des Lumières des pratiques de prédication religieuse du siècle précédent et donc de la valeur normative du roman sentimental à ses débuts : celui-ci aurait relayé le rôle des manuels de conduite des siècles précédents et se serait posé comme un répertoire d’exempla comportementaux adaptés aux différentes situations de la vie. Nous avons suivi les évolutions historiques du genre à travers l’analyse thématique du motif des larmes masculines. Pour ce faire, nous avons examiné la complexe proxémique de représentation de l’émotion et la diégèse qui en résulte, qui peut être nuancée, selon une terminologie récente, en pathétique attendrissant, sentimental et spectaculaire. Cela a entraîne la prise en compte de diverses formes artistiques, de la peinture au théâtre. La méthodologie utilisé conjugue l’histoire des idées et l’étude des formes de l’imaginaire, le pathétique appartenant au domaine de la philosophie autant qu’à celui de la représentation artistique : le concept glisse au dix-huitième siècle du champ rhétorique et stylistique à une dimension esthétique et anthropologique. Le travail a donc été divisé en trois grandes parties qui analysent les trois dimensions anthropologiques fondamentales : l’imaginaire religieux et l’héritage des anciens, c’est–à-dire le rapport que l’époque établit avec la tradition culturelle qui la précède ; l’imaginaire amoureux, qui se concentre sur les rapports entre les deux sexes et sur la « féminisation » du héros romanesque sentimental ; l’imaginaire familial, qui aborde les conséquences de ce changement dans la représentation de la masculinité au sein de la représentation de la famille et des rapports intergénérationnels.

Emerging adulthoods. Percorsi giovanili di partecipazione e cittadinanza in prospettiva intergenerazionale

La tesi tematizza come proprio oggetto di indagine i percorsi di partecipazione politica e civica dei giovani nei contesti di transizione alla vita adulta, concentrandosi sull’influenza delle relazioni tra generazioni su tali espressioni di coinvolgimento. L’approfondimento empirico consiste in una ricerca qualitativa condotta presso il quartiere Navile di Bologna nel 2012. Basandosi sull’approccio metodologico della grounded theory, essa ha coinvolto un campione di giovani e un campione di adulti per loro significativi attraverso interviste semistrutturate. Dall’analisi emerge una rilevante disaffezione giovanile nei confronti della politica che, tuttavia, non traduce in un rifiuto del coinvolgimento, ma in una “partecipazione con riserva” espressa attraverso atteggiamenti tutt’altro che passivi nei confronti della politica formale - basati sulla logica della riforma, della resistenza o della ribellione - e mediante un forte investimento in attività partecipative non convenzionali (associazionismo e coinvolgimento). A fare da sfondo all’interesse partecipativo dei giovani si colloca una lettura negativa della propria condizione presente ed un conseguente conflitto intergenerazionale piuttosto manifesto, che si riflette sulle stesse modalità di attivazione. La politica, nelle sue espressioni più strettamente formali, viene interpretata come un ‘territorio adulto’, gestito secondo logiche che lasciano poco spazio ai giovani i quali, per tale ragione, scelgono di attivarsi secondo modalità alternative in cui il confronto con l’altro, quando presente, avviene prevalentemente tra pari o su basi avvertite come più paritarie. Il distanziamento dei giovani dalla politica formale riflette quindi una parallela presa di distanza dagli adulti, i quali risultano smarriti nello svolgimento delle loro funzioni di modello e di riconoscimento. La loro ambivalenza rispetto ai giovani - ossia il continuo oscillare tra il profondo pessimismo e il cieco ottimismo, tra la guida direttiva e la deresponsabilizzazione - si traduce in un riconoscimento parziale delle reali potenzialità ed esigenze dei giovani come cittadini ed adulti emergenti.

Negoziazioni intergenerazionali dell'autonomia abitativa in contesti di working class

Nell’ambito della riflessione sui processi di riproduzione e trasmissione intergenerazionale delle disuguaglianze sociali, la presente tesi dottorale propone un’analisi in prospettiva intersezionale dei percorsi verso l’indipendenza abitativa dei giovani bolognesi di origine popolare, e il ruolo svolto dalle loro famiglie in questi percorsi. Nell’approfondimento teorico si offre una ricostruzione del dibattito sociologico nazionale e internazionale sul tema delle disuguaglianze sociali e abitative delle giovani generazioni, nonché dello studio della classe sociale e i principali approcci presenti in letteratura. La ricerca sul campo si concentra, in particolare, sui modi in cui le famiglie appartenenti ad una determinata classe sociale, intesa nel senso conferito al termine da Bourdieu, negoziano e sostengono la transizione all’indipendenza abitativa dei loro figli. L’approfondimento empirico consiste in una ricerca qualitativa longitudinale retrospettiva, condotta nel bolognese nel 2013-2014 su un campione di famiglie working class. Ai giovani-adulti coinvolti e ai loro genitori è stato chiesto di ricostruire le loro biografie attraverso lo strumento delle life histories. La ricerca evidenzia il delinearsi di “micro sistemi economici” familiari specifici e creativi. Le molteplici forme di sostegno genitoriale nei percorsi di autonomizzazione dei figli, individuate nel corso dell’analisi del materiale raccolto, si innestano quindi all’interno di un più ampio sistema di supporto intergenerazionale, che continua anche dopo l’uscita dalla famiglia di origine, a conferma dello stretto legame che caratterizza le famiglie italiane. Nello studio una particolare attenzione viene rivolta alle logiche di legittimazione del sostegno genitoriale, adottate dalle famiglie per orientare i propri interventi di aiuto. Infine, mettendo a confronto la concezione di indipendenza dei giovani adulti con quella dei loro genitori, l’indagine rileva l’esistenza di una apparente contraddizione tra le rappresentazioni dell’indipendenza e dell’autonomia abitativa e i comportamenti attuati nella vita quotidiana, contraddizione che trova una risoluzione nella negoziazione, tra le due diverse generazioni, del concetto stesso di indipendenza.

Negotiating conservation: the construction of meaningful spaces in a world heritage debate

According to one’s personal biography, social background and the resultant degree of affectedness, a person has certain ideas about the meaning of, in our example, a World Heritage Site (WHS), what he or she can expect from it and what his or her relation to it can and should be. The handling of potentially different meaningful spaces is decisive, when it comes to the negotiation of pathways towards the sustainable development of a WHS region. Due to the fact that – in a pluralistic world – multiple realities exist, they have to be taken seriously and adequately addressed. In this article we identified the ways the Jungfrau-Aletsch- WHS was constructed by exploring the visual and verbal representations of the WHS during the decision-making process (1998-2001). The results demonstrate that in the visual representations (images), the WHS was to a large extent presented as an unspoiled natural environment similar to a touristy promotion brochure. Such a ‘picture-book’-like portrait has no direct link to the population’s daily needs, their questions and anxieties about the consequences of a WHS label. By contrast, the verbal representations (articles, letters-to-the-editor, comments) were dominated by issues concerning the economic development of the region, fears of disappropriation, and different views on nature. Whereas visual and verbal representations to a large extent differ significantly, their combination might have contributed to the final decision of the majority of people concerned to support the application for inscription of the Jungfrau-Aletsch-Bietschhorn region into the World Heritage list. The prominence of economic arguments and narratives about intergenerational responsibility in the verbal representations and their combination with the aesthetic appeal of the natural environment in the visual representations might have built a common meaningful space for one part of the population.

Indigenous knowledge related to climate variability and change: insights from droughts in semi-arid areas of former Makueni District, Kenya

This article describes the indigenous knowledge (IK) that agro-pastoralists in larger Makueni District, Kenya hold and how they use it to monitor, mitigate and adapt to drought. It examines ways of integrating IK into formal monitoring, how to enhance its value and acceptability. Data was collected through target interviews, group discussions and questionnaires covering 127 households in eight villages. Daily rainfall data from 1961–2003 were analysed. Results show that agro-pastoralists hold IK on indicators of rainfall variability; they believe in IK efficacy and they rely on them. Because agro-pastoralists consult additional sources, the authors interpret that IK forms a basic knowledge frame within which agro-pastoralists position and interpret meteorological forecasts. Only a few agro-pastoralists adapt their practices in anticipation of IK-based forecasts partly due to the conditioning of the actors to the high rainfall variability characteristic of the area and partly due to lack of resources. Non-drought factors such as poverty, inadequate resources and lack of preparedness expose agro-pastoralists to drought impacts and limit their adaptive capacity. These factors need to be understood and effectively addressed to increase agro-pastoralists’ decision options and the influence of IK-based forecasts on their decision-making patterns. The limited intergenerational transfer of IK currently threatens its existence in the longer term. One way to ensure its continued existence and use is to integrate IK into the education curriculum and to link IK with formal climate change research through the participation of the local people. However, further studies are necessary to address the reliability and validity of the identified IK indicators of climate variability and change.

Not your mother's Latinas : film representations for a new millennium

This dissertation seeks to contribute to film, feminist and Latino/a studies by exploring the construction and ideological implications of representations of Latinas in four recent, popular U.S. films: Girlfight (Kusama 2000), Maid in Manhattan (Wang 2002), Real Women Have Curves (Cardoso 2002) and Spanglish (Brooks 2004). These films were released following a time of tremendous growth in the population and the political and economic strength of the Latina/o community as well as a rise in popularity and visibility in the 1990s of entertainers like Selena and actresses such as Jennifer Lopez and Salma Hayek. Drawing on the critical concepts of hybridity, Latinidad, and Bakhtinian dialogism, I analyze these films from a cultural and historical perspective to consider whether and to what degree, assuming changes in the situation of Latinas/os in the 1990’s, representations of Latinas have also changed. Specifically, in this dissertation I consider the ways in which the terrain of the Latina body is articulated in these films in relation to competing societal, cultural and familial conflicts, focusing on the body as a site of struggle where relationships collide, interact and are negotiated. In this dissertation I argue that most of the representations of Latinas in these films defy easy categorization, featuring complex characters grappling with economic issues, intergenerational differences, abuse, mother-daughter relationships, notions of beauty, familial expectations and the very real tensions between Latina/o cultural beliefs and practices and the dominant Anglo culture of the United States. Specifically, I argue that narrative and visual representation of Latina bodies in these films reflects a change in the Latinas offered for consumption to film viewers, presenting us with what some critics have called ‘emergent’ Latinas: conflicted and multilayered representations that in some cases challenge dominant ideologies and offer new demonstrations of Latina agency.

Changing Europe and The Relevance of Care and The Caring Professions

The aim of the paper is to introduce the challenges of the international care debate of the last ten years in order to grasp basic social needs, to analyse their treatment in the public and private sphere and to look at the orientation of professional answers by the care-professions. The concept of care enhances the societal dealing with - or ignoring of - different forms of dependency on informal and formal personal and social services throughout the life-cycle (child-care, nursing sick or handicapped persons, supporting the elderly) and in special life situations (from help to lone mothers and their children, via help to drug-addicts to help for homeless people). All societies have different approaches to deal with these life-situations, they do so by employ-ing various mixtures of: familial support, mostly provided by women, social politics, organized by the state, public and/or private social services. This welfare-mix shows different combinations of private and public obligations, paid and und unpaid work, professional and laymen's tasks based on a specific understanding of mo-rality and justice embedded in the gender structure and intergenerational relationships. The importance of social work as a profession in this context differs according to the historical developments and cultural traditions. Characteristic for the profile of social work is the rele-vance of a care ethics and the existence of social rights, the tension of mothering and profes-sional methods, the relationship between help, denial and punishment and the ways of institu-tionalisation. The actuality of this debate is closely intertwined with the restructuring of societal bonds in the face of globalisation, the political reorganisation of states, the changes in the living to-gether of different generations and both sexes and the consequences for the organisation and contents of welfare. Looking at Germany and Eastern Europe two new phenomena of social relevance for the dis-cussion of care work and care needs can be taken as an example: the extent of cheap illegal women laborers travelling between east and west, especially Polish women working intermit-tendly in private care for old people and the highly organized traffiking of women from Russia to Germany to work in the sex business. The care debate entails a reframing of welfare issues in the light of social justice between classes, ethnicities and gender groups.

Social networking sites and older users - a systematic review

BACKGROUND Social networking sites can be beneficial for senior citizens to promote social participation and to enhance intergenerational communication. Particularly for older adults with impaired mobility, social networking sites can help them to connect with family members and other active social networking users. The aim of this systematic review is to give an overview of existing scientific literature on social networking in older users. METHODS Computerized databases were searched and 105 articles were identified and screened using exclusion criteria. After exclusion of 87 articles, 18 articles were included, reviewed, classified, and the key findings were extracted. Common findings are identified and critically discussed and possible future research directions are outlined. RESULTS The main benefit of using social networking sites for older adults is to enter in an intergenerational communication with younger family members (children and grandchildren) that is appreciated by both sides. Identified barriers are privacy concerns, technical difficulties and the fact that current Web design does not take the needs of older users into account. CONCLUSIONS Under the conditions that these problems are carefully addressed, social networking sites have the potential to support today's and tomorrow's communication between older and younger family members.

Intergenerationale Mobilität im Lebensverlauf oder: Ist der öffentliche Dienst ein Mobilitätskanal zwischen Generationen?

Aus der Lebensverlaufsperspektive wird die intergenerationale Mobilität von Männern und Frauen in den Kohorten 1929-31, 1939-41 und 1949-51 untersucht. In welchem Umfang hat die Expansion des öffentlichen Dienstes Mobilitätschancen eröffnet? Inwieweit hat der öffentliche Dienst als Sonderstruktur im Gegensatz zur Privatwirtschaft seine Funktion als "Mobilitätskanal" ausgeweitet? Modifizieren für den öffentlichen Dienst charakteristische institutionelle Regelungen der Rekrutierung und Allokation von Arbeitskräften diese Funktion? Für empirische Analysen wurden Längsschnittdaten des Lebensverlaufsprojekts am Berliner Max-Planck-Institut für Bildungsforschung herangezogen. Zunehmende herkunftsbedingte und bildungsmäßige Ungleichheit bestimmen einen Großteil der Chancen intergenerationaler Mobilität. Die Ausdehnung der Staatsbeschäftigung hat dazu geführt, daß in der Kohortenabfolge vor allem die Berufsanfänger aufstiegen, die in der Lage waren, in den öffentlichen Dienst einzutreten. Das Nachholen beim Berufseinstieg verpaßter Aufstiege ist kaum möglich, und dies gelingt auch nicht durch die Beschäftigung im öffentlichen Dienst. Für die Wahrscheinlichkeit intergenerationaler Aufstiege im Berufsverlauf gibt es keine sektorspezifischen Unterschiede. Staatsbeschäftigte unterliegen aufgrund der Besitzstandswahrung einem deutlich geringeren Abstiegsrisiko als privatwirtschaftlich Beschäftigte. Der Staatssektor hat seine Funktion als Aufstiegskanal für Berufsanfänger ausgeweitet und garantiert seinen langfristig Beschäftigten die erreichte Statuslage. Damit ist der öffentliche Dienst ein weiteres Strukturprinzip sozialer Ungleichheit.

Family change theory: A preliminary evaluation on the basis of recent cross-cultural studies

Family change theory (Kagitcibasi, 1996, 2007) is an approach which can be used to explain how modernisation and globalisation processes affect the family. The most important assumption of the theory is that when traditional interdependent cultures modernise, they need not necessarily develop in the direction of the independent family model typical of Western individualistic societies. Instead, they may develop towards a family model of emotional interdependence that combines continuing emotional interdependencies in the family with declining material interdependencies and with rising personal autonomy. In this chapter a preliminary evaluation of the empirical status of family change theory is given based on a review of recent cross-cultural studies. It will be shown to what extent the few studies that have been systematically conducted in this respect have found results either supporting or not supporting aspects ofthe theory, and where the strengths and problems of this research lie.

Adolescents' family models: A cross-cultural study

Die vorliegende kulturvergleichende Arbeit befasst sich mit den Familienmodellen Jugendlicher in zehn Kulturen auf Basis eines typologischen Ansatzes und eines Mehrebenenansatzes. Sie leistet damit einen empirischen Beitrag zur Theorie der Familienmodelle im kulturellen Wandel nach Kagitcibasi (2007). Diese Theorie postuliert die Existenz dreier idealtypischer Familienmodelle: ein Familienmodell der Independenz, das in industrialisierten westlichen Gesellschaften vorherrscht, ein Familienmodell der (vollständigen) Interdependenz, das in nicht-industrialisierten agrarischen Kulturen zu finden ist, und als Synthese aus den beiden genannten ein Familienmodell der emotionalen Interdependenz. Letzteres entwickelt sich der Theorie zufolge, wenn nicht-industrialisierte kollektivistische Kulturen Modernisierungsprozessen ausgesetzt sind. Traditionelle Kulturen mit einem Familienmodell der (vollständigen) Interdependenz sollen sich also im Zuge gesellschaftlicher Modernisierungsprozesse nicht notwendigerweise hin zum Familienmodell der Independenz entwickeln, sondern zu einem emotional-interdependenten Modell, das erlaubt, Autonomie mit enger interpersoneller Verbundenheit zu vereinen. Diese Annahme steht im Widerspruch zu klassischen modernisierungstheoretischen Annahmen und wurde in bisherigen Studien nur unzureichend geprüft. In einem typologischen Mehrebenen-Ansatz sollen Profile allgemeiner und familienbezogener Werthaltungen Jugendlicher identifiziert werden, die mit den drei idealtypischen Familienmodellen theoretisch verbunden werden können. In einem zweiten Schritt sollen diese Wertemuster durch verhaltensnähere Familienmodellindikatoren validiert werden. Die Daten für diese Arbeit stammen aus der von der Deutschen Forschungsgemeinschaft geförderten kulturvergleichenden und interdisziplinären Value of Children and Intergenerational Relations Studie (Trommsdorff, 2001) und umfassen eine Stichprobe von 2566 Jugendlichen aus der Volksrepublik China, Deutschland, Frankreich, Indien, Indonesien, Israel, Japan, Südafrika, der Schweiz und der Türkei. Zur Identifikation der angenommen Familienmodell-Werteprofile wurden Cluster-Analysen auf der Kultur- und auf der Individualebene durchgeführt. Auf beiden Analyseebenen zeigten sich drei Werteprofile, die dem erwarteten Muster der drei idealtypischen Familienmodelle entsprachen. Das Familienmodell der emotionalen Interdependenz zeigte dabei bezüglich der Werthaltungen, die emotionale Interdependenzen in der Familie widerspiegeln ähnlich hohe Werte wie das Familienmodell der (vollständigen) Interdependenz, dagegen zeigte es ähnliche Werte wie das Familienmodell der Independenz in Bezug auf Autonomie und materielle Interdependenz widerspiegelnde Werte. In Kulturen, die auf der Kulturebene ein bestimmtes Familienmodell-Werteprofil aufwiesen befanden sich zudem überwiegend Jugendliche, die das jeweils korrespondierende Werteprofil auf der individuellen Analyseebene aufzeigten. Zur Validierung der erhaltenen Familienmodell-Werteprofile wurden diese zu verhaltensnäheren Merkmalen von Familienmodellen in Beziehung gesetzt. Die Vorhersage erfolgte auch hier jeweils getrennt für die Kultur- und Individualebene. Mit Hilfe multinomialer logistischer Modelle wurde zunächst der Effekt der Familienmodell-Werteprofile auf die Bereitschaft der Jugendlichen überprüft, ihren Eltern bei der Hausarbeit zu helfen. Die Ergebnisse zeigten einen starken Effekt der Familienmodell-Werteprofile auf beiden Analyseebenen: fast alle Jugendlichen mit einem Familienmodell der (vollständigen) Interdependenz würden ihren Eltern helfen statt sich wie geplant mit ihren Freunden zu treffen, wohingegen nur zwei Drittel bzw. nur ein Drittel der Jugendlichen mit einem Familienmodell der emotionalen Interdependenz bzw. der Independenz der Bitte der Eltern folgen würde. In Bezug auf die familienbezogenen Zukunftsorientierungen Jugendlicher zeigte sich für die Pläne für eine zukünftige Heirat/Beziehung, dass Jugendliche mit einem Familienmodell der (vollständigen) Interdependenz den stärksten Heiratswunsch hatten. Jugendliche mit einem Familienmodell der emotionalen Interdependenz waren bezüglich dieser Frage am unsichersten, und Jugendliche mit einem Familienmodell der Independenz äußerten die stärkste Ablehnung in dieser Frage. In Bezug auf Pläne, später eigene Kinder zu haben zeigten sich ähnliche Effekte, die aber insgesamt schwächer ausfielen. Insgesamt zeigte sich trotz der Unterschiede eine hohe familienbezogene Zukunftsorientierung in allen Familienmodell-Werteprofilen sowie in allen Kulturen. Bezüglich der Sohn- bzw. Tochterpräferenz zeigten sich keine Effekte der Familienmodell- und Kulturzugehörigkeit. Die Ergebnisse der Studie stärken die umstrittene Validität insbesondere des Familienmodells der emotionalen Interdependenz. Ob es sich hierbei im Sinne der Theorie von Kagitcibasi um ein synthetisches Konvergenzmodell oder eher um ein Übergangsmodell handelt, muss zukünftige Forschung zeigen.