Family Estrangement

A special issue of Behavioral Sciences (ISSN 2076-328X).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 August 2018) | Viewed by 7010

Special Issue Editor

Faculty of Health and Social Care, Edge Hill University, Lancashire L39 4QP, UK
Interests: family relationships and psychological well-being; what makes family relationships work; how important is genetic relatedness between family members

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

This Special Issue will focus on adult family members who have a distant or inactive relationship with one another in terms of contact, communication, and quality, which is increasingly referred to as estrangement. Estimates of the prevalence of family estrangement vary, with some suggesting that it is as common as divorce, and therapists noting that it is a common issue that arises in therapeutic settings.

Although clinical conceptualisations of family estrangement have a long history, the empirical literature exploring and examining estrangement between adult family members is relatively new and sparse.

This Special Issue therefore aims to explore the state of knowledge in the field. It also aims to encourage the application of this knowledge to inform both policy and practice.

This Special Issue provides an exciting opportunity to integrate knowledge and encourage discussion and debate across disciplines. Articles appropriate for the special issue include original research, reviews of research in specific areas, and methodological considerations in studying family estrangement. Multi-disciplinary perspectives on family estrangement are welcomed, as are articles that utilize quantitative, qualitative, or mixed-method approaches.

Given the relatively young yet growing nature of research in this field, this issue will use a broad conceptualisation of family (i.e., family members are not assumed to be genetically or gestationally related to one another or to have lived in the same households or geographic location), and estrangement (family members who have a distant and/or inactive relationship with one another in terms of contact, communication, and quality).

Dr. Lucy Blake
Guest Editor

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Keywords

  • Family
  • Family relations
  • Estrangement
  • Intergenerational relations
  • Sibling relations
  • Parent–child relations
  • Grandparents
  • Grandchildren

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

16 pages, 235 KiB  
Article
Communication Surrounding Estrangement: Stereotypes, Attitudes, and (Non)Accommodation Strategies
by Christine Rittenour, Stephen Kromka, Sara Pitts, Margaret Thorwart, Janelle Vickers and Kaitlyn Whyte
Behav. Sci. 2018, 8(10), 96; https://doi.org/10.3390/bs8100096 - 20 Oct 2018
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 6356
Abstract
To address Americans’ general attitudes and behavioral intentions toward adult children who are estranged from their parents, the current study employed online survey data from 151 Americans recruited through Amazon MTurk. Their responses revealed negative stereotypes (e.g., childish, ungrateful) and positive stereotypes (e.g., [...] Read more.
To address Americans’ general attitudes and behavioral intentions toward adult children who are estranged from their parents, the current study employed online survey data from 151 Americans recruited through Amazon MTurk. Their responses revealed negative stereotypes (e.g., childish, ungrateful) and positive stereotypes (e.g., independent, strong) of the adult child who is estranged, as well as negative assessments of the parent who is estranged. Generally, participants perceived the adult children as more competent than warm. Compared to other participants in this sample, those participants who were estrangers or estrangees themselves held more positive attitudes overall, including more positive perceptions of estranged children’s warmth and competence. In response to open-ended survey questions asking participants how they would communicate with someone they knew to be estranged, common responses were avoidance of family-related topics, (heightened) physical distance, and accommodation to the needs of the person who is estranged. Implications are discussed surrounding the lack of warmth associated with those experiencing estrangement. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Family Estrangement)
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