2015 AAAS Annual Meeting (12-16 February 2015)

February 12 - 16, 2015

Innovations in the Family: New Structures, New Challenges

This symposium considers the changes being experienced in the family, both in form and function. The family form is changing in fundamental ways; consider families with multiple sets of children with both biologically and nonbiologically related children and new forms and styles of achieving parenthood -- through use of modern technological advances -- and the different experiences of parenthood, such as resident and nonresident parenthood. This session identifies and describes how the family is, has, and will change. It will address the fatherhood experience, including a study of nonresidential African-American males, interested in and able to play an active role in parenting their children; characteristics that optimize that experience are identified and described, including both masculine identity and quality of parental relationship. The session also examines intergenerational family relations that are both consistent across time and changing with the times, describing important elements in the successful adaptation of intergenerational relations to the modern family, especially in light of the changing, aging characteristics of society. Families are increasingly likely to include three, four, and five generations, each of which have characteristics that will uniquely and innovatively contribute to how well the family adapts to changing form and challenges.