Suchergebnisse

As long as we know, marriages have always existed in Europe. When Christianity came the rituals also came or changed. In, for example, Iceland, these new rituals were only to some extent accepted for hundreds of years. In most other countries marriage the Christian way became also a concern for the states. And the few existing non-marital cohabitation couples were "deviants" in the meaning that they did not follow the rules of the social institution of marriage. Many of these were based upon poverty. During the 1960's many of the traditional way couples lived were questioned, especially by activists, and changes came in some countries and in the beginning of the 1970s in other countries. The three Scandinavian countries were first with the changes. Cohabitation rapidly came as a social institution along marriage. To start with people in these new cohabitations were actively against the social institution of marriage and were in that sense "deviant". Soon many became followers and they were certainly not in opposition to the societal values. These changes will be discussed with a theoretical background on what marriage has meant and means today together with a view on a follower of the changes and cohabitation, namely LAT relationships.

A theoretical model for everyday behavior is presented based upon ideas of choice and chance. Argumented is that most of our behavior is a set of activities based upon chance even when we in everyday language we call them made by choice. The Self acts spontaneously when no evident alternative is there and the activities are by chance, they just happen. The theoretical model is applied upon the phenomenon of parents leaving their children for a limited time to earn money for a decent survival.

During the 40 years of the Journal of Comparative Family Studies the social institution of marriage has subsequently all over the Western world split up into three varieties: the traditional marriage is still there and now we also have non-marital cohabitation as well as LAT relationships (Living Apart Together). In this article the changes are presented together with an analysis of what has happened not only descriptively but also theoretically. It is also claimed that we hardly can predict any long run changes but we might be able to predict short run changes of the social institutions of marriage and its parallels.

There are a great number of concepts connected to the term family. These concepts are quite different from one another and many are unclear. The term and the concept dyad are used to sort the differences to provide greater understanding. To demonstrate how the dyadic approach can successfully be used, some illustrative data are presented. The data come from legislation as well as from qualitative and quantitative studies.

We all know what a family is. But still we often do not agree on the meaning of the term. Furthermore, and even more complicated, we often are not aware that we might have a perspective very different from that of those with whom we communicate. Presented here are views concerning how to define family theoretically as well as some data from both qualitative empirical studies with "normal" persons. The quantitative study builds upon a statistically representative sample of adults, and the qualitative study uses strategic sampling. Our data show that not only do researchers differ in their view on the concept, so do members of the general population. Indeed, the variation is almost over-whelming. Included under the concept of family are not only persons from the immediate "nuclear" family but also kin of various sorts, friends, and pets. When taking the observed degree of variability into consideration we might be surprised that we are able to communicate at all using the term family. Apparently, what is familiar is the term only, certainly not the concept.

There have been many attempts to define the concept of family. The approach taken here is that there is no possibility of defining the family. A solution is suggested, which is to say that if a group consists of at least one parent-child unit and/or at least one spousal unit the group is a family. The parent-child unit is defined as one parent and one child related to each other and the spousal unit is defined as two adults cohabiting (maritally or non-maritally). For research or policy use, and also theoretically, this approach can solve the problems in clarifying what a family is in a specific case.

Especially the Californian, the Nor- weigian, and the Swedish recent laws on custody are discussed and compared. Emphasis is laid upon both sole and joint custody as well as legal and physical custody. The background for joint custody in California as well as in Norway were demands from divorcing parents, while in Sweden the demands came from cohabiting parents. These demands came mainly at the end of the 1960s, in Sweden based upon an increase in cohabitation without marriage, an increase more rapid and intense than in other countries. The confusion between legal and physical custody is discussed as are differences in approach to the meaning of joint custody. Finally the paradigms behind the varieties of custody are discussed.

In both USA and Sweden joint custody has been a question under heavy debate during the 1970's. In USA joint custody has been looked upon as a possibility for children of divorcing and divorced parents while in Sweden the issue was brought under debate as an issue for couples not being married but cohabiting together under marriage-like conditions having minor children together. In many of the states in USA there are possibilities for a joint custody after a divorce—in fact in e.g. California joint custody is preferred by the legal system. In Sweden all parents independent of marital status, independent of cohabiting or separated, have the right (if they both agree) to have a joint custody of their children. Despite the legal system being positive to joint custody it is not a very popular phenomenon in Sweden. Why so is the case is discussed in the article.

A discussion of different types of divorce and the factors leading to different types of custody decisions is presented, based of Swedish data. The effects of custody decisions on the child are briefly discussed. A classification of different custodial decisions and family situations follows. A study of satisfaction with family situation among Swedish women is presented and analyzed according to formal marital status, presence of stepchildren, and maternal employment outside the home. Based on observation of the data, it is concluded that unmarried cohabitation and presence of stepchildren in the family each tend to decrease satisfaction, especially among housewives.