{"id":26191,"date":"2018-09-20T09:55:54","date_gmt":"2018-09-20T13:55:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/college.unc.edu\/?p=26191"},"modified":"2024-07-02T16:56:28","modified_gmt":"2024-07-02T16:56:28","slug":"the-modern-family","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/?p=26191","title":{"rendered":"The Modern Family"},"content":{"rendered":"
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As the world changes and diversifies, so do family dynamics. But research on the topic is slow to move away from the ideas established 50 years ago. To bring it into the 21st<\/sup> century, a team of researchers from the UNC Center for Developmental Science have written nine papers that shine a light on the modern family and offer advice for parents on how to help their teens navigate today\u2019s multicultural world.<\/em><\/p>\n

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Psychology and neuroscience professors Andrea Hussong (left) and Deborah Jones led a working group of researchers to redefine what it means to parent in today’s world.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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If pop culture is any indicator, today\u2019s family has strayed far from the days of \u201cLeave it to Beaver.\u201d Ward and June Cleaver, the idyllic suburban parents of the mid-20th<\/sup> century, have been replaced by characters like \u201cModern Family\u2019s\u201d Jay Pritchett, a patriarch remarried to a woman closer in age to his own grown children than himself. Where the Cleavers and their two sons represent the small, nuclear family of the \u201950s and \u201960s, the Pritchetts portray the complexity of present-day family dynamics. While Pritchett\u2019s character, in particular, values tradition, his Colombian trophy wife and children carry the show into the 21st<\/sup> century. Just take Pritchett\u2019s son Mitchell, who\u2019s raising his adopted, Vietnamese daughter with his partner, Cam.<\/p>\n

In 2015, the Pew Research Center reported that only 46 percent of American families included two parents still in their first marriage<\/a> \u2014 that\u2019s 27 percent lower than the families of 1960. The remaining 54 percent includes single parents, cohabitating parents, stepparents, and grandparents. And that\u2019s not the only shift. Households are increasingly multicultural. While white families still make up the majority at 56 percent, Asian and Latin American families are gradually catching up; and interracial marriages have doubled since 1980.<\/p>\n

Andrea Hussong<\/a> and Deborah Jones<\/a>, both psychology and neuroscience professors, want to know how families will continue to evolve as the world diversifies \u2014 specifically, how parents can help their teenage kids navigate these changes.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe parenting theories from 50 years ago focus primarily on white, middle-class families,\u201d Jones points out.<\/p>\n

\u201cParts of them still work, parts of them may not, parts of them we\u2019re not sure about,\u201d Hussong adds. \u201cWe have a lot of questions. For example, there\u2019s new science on the neurobiology of adolescence and, as we understand that better, does that change how we parent? How about social media? The jury is still out whether parenting is different online versus offline.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 2016, they formed a working group<\/a> of researchers through The Center for Developmental Science<\/a> to help redefine what it means to parent in today\u2019s world. Led by Jones and Hussong, and funded by the Society for Research on Adolescence<\/a>, the team included faculty and students from UNC, UNC-Greensboro, Duke University, Vanderbilt University, and Arizona State University.<\/p>\n

For months, they spent hours sitting around a table in a large conference room in Hyde Hall called the \u201cincubator room,\u201d discussing the existing parenting theories and identifying new themes. \u201cWe liked the name because it captured the spirit of what we wanted to do,\u201d Hussong shares. \u201cWe weren\u2019t after the quick answer, the soundbite, or the single finding. We were after the deep ideas that underlie and shape a field. For that, deeper reflection and incubation are a must.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd then we divided and conquered,\u201d Jones says.<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone had homework,\u201d Hussong adds. \u201cI think people really rose to the challenge.\u201d The result was nine academic papers spanning the fields of psychology, anthropology, sociology, social work, and public policy \u2014 all of which were featured in a special issue<\/a> of the Journal of Research on Adolescence<\/em> in August.<\/p>\n