Search Results (35)

The theoretical underpinnings and empirical data supporting oxytocin as a context-dependent biomarker of prosocial affiliation, bonding, attachment, emotional regulation, cognitive development, and the modulation of stress responses are summarized. We propose an interdisciplinary consensus against a backdrop of inconsistencies concerning behavioral and experimental findings for the oxytocinergic system. Current knowledge gaps demonstrating the inability to establish a hierarchy of findings are related to the following: (a) the theory and practice of oxytocinergic therapeutic interventions; (b) identification, characterization, and quantification of functional, mechanistic, and molecular biomarkers and matrices; (c) context- and time-dependent resilience factors associated with mind–brain–body development, (d) measures of intergenerational transmission, and (e) summative indicators of psychopathological co-morbidities. We analyze prospective objective measures of oxytocin against subjective caregiver reports of positive childhood experiences (PCEs, resulting from secure nurturing, established daily routines, pleasurable social interactions, opportunistic and spontaneous play, secure environments), which favor healthy developmental outcomes in preschool children. Few studies prospectively use the painless, noninvasive sampling of risk and resilience biomarker levels to index the health status, emotional regulation, and cognitive development in preschool children. We present the methodology for novel measures of risk (cortisol) and resilience (oxytocin) in human scalp hair. Future studies validating the therapeutic efficacy of oxytocin or the stress-mediating effects of oxytocin on socioemotional regulation and health status should systematically address these gaps. Full article

Recent years have seen renewed, at times seemingly contradictory, trends in socio-anthropological studies of Chinese urban families, in which the places of the individual, filial piety, and patriarchy have remained theoretically unsettled. These transformations have renewed the conversation around the early anthropological studies that made Chinese society a cornerstone of kinship and social theories. Taking the form of a critical essay, this text engages in depth with the recent literature on the transformation of families—read alongside brief fieldwork revisits carried out in Chengdu and Guangzhou in 2024—and questions the tendency to set a prototypical Chinese family against a so-called Western model. Three trends are examined: the first is the flexibilization of family models; the second is the renewal, reinvention, or reversion of earlier “patriarchy”; and the third is an affective transformation of earlier “filial piety” with the appearance of a puzzling “intergenerational integration of personhood” associated with a return of “familism,” paradoxically happening in parallel with a rise of “individualization.” Situating these trends within the political conditions that allow increased individual autonomy to coexist with the renewed family influence over their members’ fates, the article advances three arguments: that “Chineseness” here designates a political and economic situation rather than a cultural given; that what has been called “altruistic individualism” is better understood as a pragmatic familism, familism and individualism serving as alternative solutions to the same practical problems; and that, extending Foucault’s account of the individual as a political technology, the family itself can be read as a form shaped by state objectives. Kinship here appears to be as much politically bonded as culturally defined. Full article

Background: Intergenerational solidarity between grandparents and grandchildren is a longstanding tradition that strengthens family bonds and supports the psychological wellbeing of older adults, particularly within Asian families. Drawing on theories of lifespan development, social connectedness, and narrative identity, an intergenerational reminiscence program was developed to promote emotional well-being and deepen generational connections among Asian American families. Methods: This study qualitatively examined the reflections of 12 grandparent–grandchild dyads who completed the program. Grandparents participated in six weekly, one-hour guided life review and reminiscence sessions, conducted either in person or online and facilitated by grandchildren. Following the intervention, individual interviews were conducted with the dyads. Interview data were analyzed using Braun and Clarke’s six-step thematic analysis approach. Results: Three themes emerged describing participants’ experiences with intergenerational storytelling and learning. The first, engagement with family history and stories, captured participants’ enjoyment of sharing and discovering family narratives, uncovering previously unknown histories, and building curiosity about their ancestry. The second theme, transmission of wisdom and life lessons, reflected the intergenerational sharing of career guidance, practical life advice, perspectives on resilience, and strengthened appreciation for personal circumstances. The third theme, intergenerational and cultural understanding, highlighted increased awareness of generational differences, respect for cultural and personal viewpoints, and strengthened emotional bonds. Conclusions: The findings align with cultural transmission theory, intergenerational solidarity theory, and psychological theories of reminiscence and identity formation. Reflections from both grandparents and grandchildren suggest that intergenerational reminiscence effectively fosters closer relationships across generations by revisiting family history and cultural roots. Lessons learned and recommendations for future culturally responsive interventions with Asian American families are discussed. Full article

This article examines developmental communication as one of the key factors influencing health and the overall functioning of the family. The aim of the study is to highlight the importance of interpersonal communication and religious values in fostering family bonds, shaping health-promoting attitudes, and enhancing the psychological, social, and spiritual well-being of family members. The article is theoretical and analytical in nature and is based on a literature review spanning family studies, pedagogy, sociology, psychology, and the psychology of religion. The findings indicate that open, dialogue-oriented communication supports the development of strong emotional bonds, a sense of security, and family resilience in the face of crisis situations. The importance of marital relationships, parent–child communication, and intergenerational relations for the psychosocial health of family members is emphasized. The study also highlights the role of religion and spiritual values as factors that strengthen family cohesion, foster a sense of meaning in life, and enhance coping with adversity. The conclusions suggest that developmental communication, supported by moral and spiritual values, is a key element in building a healthy and sustainable family system. Full article

This article examines the resurgence of a series of diverse practices from mending and sewing, to embroidery, knitting and crochet, which are traditionally situated in broader debates about gender and domestic labor but also care work, everyday life, and sustainability. While recently reframed as feminist and eco-conscious practices, these crafts have only been partially explored in their material, symbolic, and emotional aspects due to their association with the feminine and domestic sphere, their invisibility within public discourse, and the stigma attached to repair in consumer capitalist societies. Drawing on an ethnographic study conducted between 2023 and 2025, the research examines the intergenerational transmission of these skills within eleven Italian families. Semi-structured dyadic interviews were carried out with at least two members of each family, predominantly women, exploring learning processes, everyday uses, emotional meaning, and their influence on clothing consumption. Findings reveal a complex and discontinuous trajectory of transmission, shaped by gender expectations, class dynamics, and shifting cultural meanings: while older generations often learned these crafts out of necessity and social obligation, younger generations approach them as creative hobbies, tools for self-expression, or forms of sustainable consumption. Across generations, however, the crafts emerge as powerful affective languages through which care, memory, and relational bonds are materialized in clothing. Full article

Academic literature often frames African girls through a lens of sexual and reproductive vulnerability, with limited attention to their self-defined experiences. This study used photovoice methodology to explore how Ghanaian girls living in Nima, a neighborhood in Accra, represent their lives. Drawing on Afro-feminism and Black Girlhood Studies, the study engaged six girls in a participatory process of documenting perceptions of their lives through photographs, artists’ statements, and interviews. Thematic analysis of their visual and narrative data produced a counternarrative of girls’ lives in Nima, offering a multifaceted vision emphasizing intergenerational bonds between women and girls, and national, cultural, and spiritual pride. By centering Ghanaian girls’ voices, this study calls for a reimagining of how African girlhood is represented in social research. It affirms youth-voice knowledge production as vital to more just and accurate scholarship. Full article

Our work develops the financial engineering module of the REGENerative Agriculture (REGENA) Production Function, with Soil Organic Carbon (SOC) as ecosystem service and contract underlying index, contributing to the global literature and business practices. Specifically, we design and engineer a 30-year Net Present Value (NPV) intergenerational ecological bond instrument tailored for carbon farming (CF) as a part of regenerative practices. With SOC constituting a fundamental soil health indicator for the European Union Soil Observatory (EUSO), we model the flow of value from atmospheric CO₂ removal and its metabolism into SOC within a stochastic SOC Value at Risk (VaR) framework. We assess the SOC VaR in five experimental plots in five Mediterranean countries in South Europe and North Africa for three different treatments in each plot. In turn, the SOC VaR is incorporated into an adjusted Shannon entropy index (H(X)_ADJ) to estimate the coefficient of a positive, net-zero, or negative carbon balance and further assess the risk-adjusted discount rate. The monetary value per gram of carbon per kilogram of soil (g C/kg Soil) signifies a clear advantage of combined regenerative treatments. Finally, three selected extensions of our work are discussed, such as the application of the framework to other nutrients, the establishment full cost–benefit accounting methods for monetizing the environmental benefits of CF to upscale investments and the lifecycle accounting of ecosystem services. Full article

Intergenerational wealth transfer represents a central mechanism through which genealogical bonds, family continuity, and economic stability are maintained across generations. This article examines inheritance law and financial regulation from a genealogical perspective, focusing on the role of family property as both a legal institution and a socio-economic structure rooted in kinship and lineage. By integrating approaches from genealogy, legal studies, and financial analysis, the study explores how inheritance frameworks shape intergenerational relations, preserve family identity, and influence patterns of economic inequality. The article analyzes inheritance law as a key instrument through which genealogical continuity is institutionalized, highlighting the ways in which legal norms regulate the transmission of assets, rights, and obligations within families. Particular attention is given to the interaction between financial regulation and family-based wealth, demonstrating how legal structures affect long-term economic sustainability and social cohesion. The study adopts a qualitative and theoretical methodology, supported by comparative references to selected legal traditions, in order to illustrate how inheritance systems reflect broader cultural, historical, and genealogical values. By situating inheritance and wealth transfer within the broader framework of genealogical relations, this article contributes to interdisciplinary discussions on family, law, and the economy. It argues that inheritance law should be understood not merely as a financial or legal mechanism, but as a genealogical process that shapes intergenerational bonds, social structures, and economic outcomes over time. Full article

Economic connectedness has been recently found to lower income inequality by rising intergenerational mobility, yet its environmental impacts are less well known. More well-known is the fact that the non-carbon footprint is easier to reach via regulations because its production is domestic. These two problems of income inequality and environmental pollution have echoed in public opinion polls as one of the major current problems in developed countries. We thereby look at the United States on the state level during the last two decades (2010–2020) with a Hausman–Taylor estimator for panel data. The choice of the estimator stems from its appropriateness for panel datasets with constant variables. We find that in the United States, economic connectedness between friends, whereby friendships were formed within the same group, may be blamed for the rising environmental (non-carbon) footprint. The non-carbon footprint is, therefore, explained by the bonding of social capital, which may restrict innovation. We document the case where social capital in the form of economic connectedness may be harmful to the public good, such as the environment, our main contribution. The negative effect of bonding social capital on environmental outcomes due to rigid social networks and particular network technology use is a novel addition to the prior research. The policy implications are discussed in more detail, and a call is made to distinguish social capital types and promote bridging social capital where bonding social capital is relatively strong. Full article

Urban neighborhoods experiencing socio-spatial pressures increasingly struggle with sustainability, especially in contexts where top-down redevelopment models dominate. In Turkey, the commonly used “demolish-and-rebuild” approach is often criticized for neglecting urban identity and the continuity of local communities. This study examines the Kükürtlü Neighborhood in Bursa, a “double-aged” area characterized by both an elderly population and aging housing stock. Using a mixed-method approach, the study integrates the EcoDistricts framework with participatory spatial analysis and Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) to assess sustainability across three priority areas: place, health and wellbeing, and connectivity. Results reveal that while the neighborhood faces structural limitations and underutilized public spaces, it benefits from strong social sustainability rooted in cultural continuity and intergenerational bonds, especially among long-term residents. Conversely, newcomers demonstrate weaker place attachment. These findings inform a set of inclusive, aging-in-place strategies aimed at balancing physical renewal with community preservation. Building on these insights, the study proposes a context-sensitive and potentially adaptable framework to guide sustainability efforts in similar aging urban contexts. The research contributes to international discussions on urban transformation by emphasizing the importance of integrating local lived experiences with spatial planning tools, offering a model for navigating demographic and physical aging in mid-sized cities. Full article

As Taiwan’s population ages, traditional filial piety expectations face modernization challenges, yet few studies examine how emergent adults linguistically negotiate these cultural tensions digitally. This study addresses this gap by analyzing how emerging adults in Taiwan express and reinterpret filial obligations toward aging parents through online discourse. Emerging adults represent a particularly meaningful demographic because they straddle traditional filial norms and modern independence, making their language use a valuable indicator of cultural transition. We analyzed 1976 Dcard posts from 30 discussion threads (2017–2023) using computational linguistics. LIWC-22 assessed emotional expression patterns, while Sketch Engine conducted keyness analysis and collocation mapping around filial care keywords. Posts were compared against Chinese web corpus norms. Quantitative emotion analysis revealed dominant positive emotions (M = 3.93) alongside significant negative emotions (M = 3.30), with anger and sadness exceeding broader Chinese online communication norms. Keyness analysis identified economic concerns as central themes. Collocation analysis around “filial piety” showed associations with “limits”, “willingness”, and “define”, indicating conditional rather than absolute conceptualization. Findings indicate that emerging adults in Taiwan reinterpret filial piety through reciprocal emotional bonds rather than strict hierarchical duty, negotiating traditional expectations with contemporary economic realities and personal autonomy. The implications of these findings highlight how cultural values adapt in response to modernization and digital communication, offering insight into evolving intergenerational relationships and informing future cross-cultural aging and caregiving research. Full article

This systematic review examines how recent scientific literature addresses place attachment among rural youth, emphasizing the central role of emotional bonds with place in decisions to stay, leave, or return to rural areas. Based on an analysis of studies published between 2019 and 2023, it considers factors such as country of publication, study participants, methodology, research approach, theoretical framework, and main findings. A systematic search was conducted in Scopus and Web of Science, applying inclusion criteria based on type of research, year of publication, language, and article relevance. The review includes 19 peer-reviewed articles. Methodologically, the reviewed articles employ both quantitative and qualitative approaches, with questionnaires and semi-structured interviews as the primary data collection techniques. Key themes include urban migration and the relationship between place attachment and environmental awareness. Despite limitations such as regional disparities in study coverage, the findings highlight the challenges faced by rural youth under urbanormative cultural pressures. The review underscores the need for nuanced approaches that are sensitive to gender and other axes of oppression in addressing rural issues, and it advocates for a holistic understanding of rural youth experiences that takes into account intergenerational dynamics shaping their aspirations and decision-making. Full article

The Polish diaspora’s commitment to maintaining its cultural and linguistic heritage in foreign environments not only enriches their communities but also deepens the understanding of diaspora dynamics in cultural preservation. This article analyzes the narrative development of Polish-speaking children as a means of supporting the maintenance of the Polish heritage language (HL) in Finland. The case study focuses on a family with a visually impaired father and three children. The material was drawn from interviews with the parents, books created by the children on their own initiative, and picture book narratives. Using an ecological approach and narrative analysis, the study explores how children naturally expand their competence in Polish through storytelling. By fostering storytelling skills, children strengthen their linguistic, cultural, and emotional connection to their HL. Narratives enable them to use Polish in meaningful, everyday contexts, creating a natural environment for language practice. Through stories that incorporate elements from Polish, Finnish, and international settings, children develop intercultural awareness, adaptability, and a deeper appreciation for their Polish roots. Storytelling between parents and children in Polish also fosters emotional closeness and reinforces the family’s linguistic bond. It encourages children to communicate with Polish-speaking relatives, such as grandparents, thereby supporting intergenerational language transmission. Full article

Tanomenon Sorva (TS), a traditional yogurt-based soup at the heart of Pontic Greek cuisine, is examined as a marker of identity among descendants of Pontic Greeks in Western Macedonia, Greece. Guided by social constructionism and practice theories, we conducted participant observation and semi-structured interviews with 11 women aged 54–86 years and analyzed data using reflexive thematic analysis (RTA). Four key themes emerged: (1) Cultural Continuity and Tradition; (2) Social Bonding Through Food; (3) Adaptation, Challenges, and Loss; and (4) Health and Nourishment. We argue that this iconic, tangy soup operates as a cultural code and habitual practice that stitches memory, belonging, and embodied well-being. Against pressures of culinary homogenization, TS remains a powerful symbol and a practical tradition that helps a group preserve its unique identity. Full article

Background/Objectives: Parental mental representations play a crucial role in shaping early parent–child relationships, particularly during the perinatal period. These internal models influence caregiving behaviors, emotional attunement, and the intergenerational transmission of attachment. The present systematic review aims to address this gap by examining the nature of both maternal and paternal mental representations in the perinatal period (involving pregnancy and the first postnatal time), with a particular emphasis on reflective functioning, and by outlining the variables that are influenced by these representations. Methods: Following PRISMA guidelines, eligible peer-reviewed studies were identified through a comprehensive literature search of major scientific databases (Scopus, Web of Science, PsychArticle/PsycInfo). Qualitative assessment and detailed description were carried out. Results: In total, 28 studies were selected and analyzed. Findings reveal that while representations tend to organize around shared psychological domains—such as expectations regarding the child, parental identity, and the anticipated relationship—there is significant heterogeneity in how these are conceptualized and measured across studies. Risk factors such as maternal depression, low social support, and adverse life experiences were consistently linked to disengaged or distorted representations, whereas balanced representations were associated with greater RF, emotional availability, and protective relational contexts. Conclusions: Overall, the review highlights the clinical relevance of assessing parental mental representations and RF during the perinatal period, suggesting that early, targeted interventions may enhance parental sensitivity and promote secure parent–infant bonds. Future research should adopt integrated theoretical models, include diverse family configurations, and evaluate the efficacy of preventive programs that support reflective and adaptive representations. Full article