Home education is a growing but relatively unknown and understudied phenomenon in Italy. This study offers an empirical contribution to surface the key familial characteristics, parental rationales, and pedagogic practice of home education in this national context. As part of a larger mixed-methods research project, the findings of a survey…

Delineates three conceptual models describing relationship between family and work based on literature review, and identifies shift from separate sphere model to interactive model of interdependence between family and work systems. Asserts that teaching family life education from feminist perspective involves acquainting public, policymakers, and…

Three-state study used Issues Validation, environmental scanning process for family life educators that combines literature reviews, professional and public opinion, and survey research to identify issues facing families and youth. Samples of residents, local advisory committees, and community professionals ranked 30 issues facing families and…

Describes Guided Autobiography, process developed to assist family life educators in helping families adapt to new demands and changing circumstances by serving as facilitators of the life review process. Explains how Guided Autobiography incorporates use of sensitizing questions, pretested themes, and group process to encourage life review in…

Discusses issues involved in the selection of textbooks for family life education: diversity of marriage and family course offerings; difficulties in locating appropriate materials; and criteria for text selection. Reviews 14 university texts published in 1987 and 1988. Calls for texts which cover aspects of marriage and family with greater depth.…

Notes that family life education programs for older adults address issues of marriage, sexuality, retirement and family life, widowhood, intergenerational relations, and caregiving. For each of these issues, research is briefly reviewed, educational programs are discussed, and issues for future are noted. Seven guidelines for development of family…

Describes a simulation model of family life education for high school youth. Includes guidelines for use of simulation instruction, instructions for conducting specific simulations, and suggestions for designing simulations to deal with other family life crises. Designed to familiarize teenagers with family system concepts. (JAC)

Documents growing diversities among families and households throughout Western societies. Rejects prevailing conceptual approach of distinguishing between family and alternative lifestyles. Draws on new action theory to present model for conceptualizing contemporary families. Notes four kinds of interdependencies that give rise to perceptions of…

Explores geometry of widely used family typologies and derives multidimensional model the geometry of which is equivalent to, but more succinctly captures, underlying structure of variation in family paradigms. Resulting model is then interpreted and explored in terms of implications for family theory, theory construction, and family therapy.…

Suggests that the use of ritual reveals group values and shared meanings at the deepest level and helps to establish and maintain a group's collective identity. Discusses family rituals as both stabilizing and transforming forces and the use of ritual as an assessment and intervention tool. Applications for clinical practice with individuals, with…

Notes that U.S. children are more mobile than children in other Western countries and Japan. Explores explanations of this "excess" mobility, concluding that most likely explanation is greater family disruption and childhood poverty in U.S. Identifies average number of moves for children at successive ages and models association of selected…

Reviews previous theoretical approaches to understanding adolescent suicide (Durkheim's sociological theory of suicide, social learning theory, psychological theory, and family systems theory), and proposes utilization of human ecological theory. Examines factors associated with adolescent suicide at organism (individual), microsystem, mesosystem,…

Discusses asexual reproductive technologies (in vitro fertilization, cryopreservation, artificial insemination, sperm banks, genetic engineering, ovum transfer, cloning, ectogenesis, surrogacy) and suggests that theoretical implications of technologies may bring dramatic social changes in the family. Outlines symbolically representational…

Discusses the Social Relations Model (Kenny and LaVoie, 1984), which allows one to partition social interaction into component parts. Family interaction data are reanalyzed using the model, and the subtle influence of partners on the behavior of actors is highlighted. The strengths and limitations of the model are discussed. (JAC)

A conceptual framework was used to describe the policymaking process as a component of management in the home and family setting. An inventory of family policies was tested for conceptual validity. Results showed that respondents varied considerably as to the extent of established policies represented by the inventory. (Author)