Global Family Change

University Of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia PA

Investigators

Abstract

This project advances the study of global family change (GFC) by exploring the complex ways in which families are changing across low and middle-income countries (LMICs). The innovation of the project lies in the premise that we need better foundations for understanding why and how families change on a global scale. While country-specific and small-scale comparative research on GFC exists, sociologists currently lack a global and comprehensive lens on these changes of family systems, particularly in LMICs, where change is most rapid and dramatic. The project contributes to both theoretical and empirical understandings of the determinants and consequences of GFC, training of scholars from LMICs and disadvantaged backgrounds, and the creation of an easily accessible data infrastructure for studying GFC. The research agenda promoted by the project will also help inform discussions, evaluations, and developments of family, health, and gender-related policies worldwide. The project integrates over 450 Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) and Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys (MICS)--along with GFC-related contextual information on policies, social norms, geography, and environment--for 118 unique LMICs covering a time span of more than three decades (1980s-present). Building on this wealth of data, the project seeks to: (i) develop a theory-based and policy-relevant set of comparative indicators of family change at the global level, across multiple dimensions of GFC such as individual behavior, "linked lives", and life-course patterns; (ii) test the leading theories of how and why family systems change with economic and demographic development, including analyses of whether demographic development leads to the convergence of family systems, and how culture and institutions moderate change to produce divergent patterns within regions or nations; (iii) investigate the implications of GFC for the welfare of nations by linking diverse patterns of GFC throughout LMICs to their demographic, economic, health, and social consequences. The research team will adopt a wide array of demographic and statistical approaches to address the above research questions, such as standardization and life-table techniques, spatial analyses, regression analyses, and cluster analyses.