Jullu Lindblom &Marjo Flykt,et al. 2014. Dynamic Family System Trajectories from Pregnancy to Child’s First Year. Journal of Marriage and Family 76: 796-807.
This article aims to join the discussion of reorganization of family systems during transitional periods. Pregnancy and early stage of child-rearing is one of them. The authors use longitudinal data to explore family system trajectories from pregnancy to the child’s 2 months and 12 months. Two dimensions, autonomy and intimacy, are introduced to position different family systems and relationship patterns. Both parents (N=702) reported autonomy and intimacy in marital (wife-to-husband, husband-to-wife) and parenting (mother-to-child, father-to-child). After latent class analysis and mutlinomial regression analysis, they found that Finite mixture modeling revealed 7 unique family system trajectories: a) Cohesive (35%), b) Disengaged (5%), c) Enmeshed Declining (6%), d) Enmeshed Quadratic (5%), e) Authoritarian (14%), f) Escalating Crisis (4%), and g) Discrepant (15%) families. In addition, they also analyze the contexualized variables that influence the transition. For instance, they found involuntary infertility may lead to difficulties in maintain family boundaries due to the increasing child-centered family interactions, in particular among highly educated parents.
家庭内部结构是不断重组和变化的。这个过程在家庭生活发生变化时格外明显，比如说怀孕和孩子的出生。作者用纵向数据来分析，从怀孕到孩子出生后的两个月和一岁的过程中，家庭内部结构是如何变化的。自治性和亲密关系两个维度被用来描述不同类型的家庭关系。702位白人夫妻参与了这项调研。通过潜伏组分析和多项式回归分析，作者发现了七种家庭内部结构：融合型、闲散型、陷入衰退（最低的自治性、但是亲密关系在孩子出生后提升）、两次陷入型（最低的自治性，亲密关系在怀孕至两个月时下降，在两个月至十二月之间又上升）、权威型、急速危机型、差异型。另外，作者还分析了影响这些家庭内部结构变化的因素。他们考察了夫妻的教育水平、孩子的数量、是否有想要孩子却生不出孩子的经历等等。比如，他们发现非自愿性的不孕不育会导致家庭内部结构维系的困难，这个现象在高学历的夫妻之间尤其明显。