Emerging Trends in Family and Marriage Behaviors and Values

Dear Colleagues,

We invite proposal submissions for a panel on “Dynamics and Emerging Trends in Family and Marriage”. Families and marriage remain central institutions across societies, but they are undergoing rapid transformation under the pressures of globalization, economic change, cultural diffusion, technological advancement, and shifting demographic structures. This panel seeks to bring together scholars exploring how marriage practices, family forms, and related value orientations are changing in communities, nations, and worldwide. This panel aims to:

• Examine evolving patterns in family and marriage behaviors, including union formation, childbearing, caregiving, and intergenerational relations.
• Investigate how values related to intimacy, gender roles, kinship obligations, and partnership ideals are shifting across diverse cultural and institutional contexts.
• Compare regional and cross-national patterns to identify both convergent and divergent dynamics.
• Highlight how macro-level forces (e.g., economic restructuring, state policies, migration, digital technologies, cultural globalization, gender relations) interact with micro-level choices and values in shaping family life.

Sample topics (not exhaustive):

• Rising diversity of union forms: cohabitation, delayed marriage, non-marriage, and same-sex partnerships.
• Changing gender dynamics in households, including labor division, care work, and expectations of partnership.
• Fertility intentions and practices in contexts of economic precarity, gender inequality, and cultural change.
• Intersections of family values with religion, ethnicity, and nationalism.
• The role of education, class, and generational shifts in shaping marriage and family orientations.
• Impacts of state policies (e.g., parental leave, family planning, marriage incentives, welfare regimes) on family practices and ideologies.
• Intergenerational relations and obligations in aging societies.
• Effects of globalization, migration, and digital technologies on intimacy, family formation, and transnational households.

We welcome papers employing a wide range of methods, including quantitative, qualitative, historical, and mixed-methods approaches. Contributions that offer culturally specific practices, cross-national comparisons, global perspectives, or novel theoretical insights are also encouraged.

Prof. Dr. Xiaoling Shu
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a double-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Social Sciences is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1800 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.