Transcript Tea Time! Family rituals and their links to family functioning and youth wellbeing

“Tea time!”: Family rituals and their links
to family functioning and youth wellbeing
in New Zealand
Carla Crespo, Jan Pryor and Paul Jose
Roy McKenzie Centre for the Study of Families
SASP-Wellington 2008
Family rituals: “windows” to the family
- Rituals tell researcher what families “do”
- Powerful organizer of behaviour within the
family
- Interaction between individual and family - level
factors
Family rituals: Do they matter for young people?
-Family rituals are associated with positive outcomes for
young people such as stronger adolescent identity, and
less alcohol consumption for adolescents in at-risk
households; they have also been negatively linked with
mental health problems.
What would you change in your family?
“I would change the way we eat. We pretty much eat junk
food every night…”
Boy (15 years old, Focus group)
Current study
Examined the links between family’s investment in
rituals and:
a) Family perceptions (young people and
parents’/caregivers’ reports)
b) Young people’s outcomes such as bullying behaviour
and externalization as a coping strategy (young
people’s reports)
Measures
-Family Ritual Questionnaire
(Fiese and Kline, 1993)
-Family Cohesion
(Adapted from FACES II, Olson, Portner & Bell, 1992)
-Family Monitoring and Supervision; Family Conflict
(Adapted from Family Climate Inventory, Kurdek, Fine & Sinclair, 1995)
-Family Identity
(Generated for the study)
Measures
-Work-life balance
(One item generated for the study)
-Coping strategy: Externalization
(Adapted from Jose, D’Anna, Cafasso et al.)
-Bullying in and outside school
(One item each measuring the frequency of bullying in
the past month)
Dinner time
“Think about a typical dinner in your family”
For our family
really true sort of true
For our family
really true
sort of true
A
Some families
regularly eat dinner
together
B
C
BUT
D
Other families rarely
eat dinner together.
Annual Celebrations
“Think of celebrations that your family has every year. Some
examples would be birthdays, Christmas and anniversaries.”
For our family
really true sort of true
For our family
really true
sort of true
A
C
B
For some families ,
celebrations are important
and special
BUT
D
For some families,
celebrations aren’t
particularly important or
special
Sample
930 Young People
930 Parents/Caregivers
Gender
50.9% Male
48.5% Female
Relation to the child
84.3% Mothers
10.9% Fathers
4.8% Other
Age
Mean: 12.91
SD= 1.73
Families
64.5% Intact
17.9% Lone parent
9.6% Step families
2.9% Extended
Hypotheses
Stronger families’ investment in rituals will be linked to
more positive perceptions of family by both young people
and parents’ caregivers, namely:
higher levels of:
Family Cohesion
Family Monitoring and Supervision
Family Identity
lower levels of
Family conflict
and a more positive perception of
Family work-life balance
Hypotheses
Stronger families’ investment in rituals will be
associated with young people’s outcomes, namely:
lower levels of Bullying and Externalization
Correlations
Family rituals and other family dimensions
Family
Cohesion
Family
Identity
Family
Monitoring
and
supervision
Family
Conflict
Work/life
balance
.35**
.23**
.32**
-.18**
.19**
.19**
.08*
.23 **
-.14**
Family
Rituals
(Parents/
caregivers’
reports)
* p< .05
** p <. 01
----- Parents/caregivers
----- Young people
Correlations
Family rituals and young people’s outcomes
Young people’s outcomes
Bullying
(school)
Bullying
outside school
Externalization
-.13 **
-.08 *
-.12**
Family
Rituals
(Parents/
Caregivers’
reports)
* p< .05
** p <. 01
----- Young people
SEM model predicting Family Rituals
Cohesion
Monitoring/
Supervision
.28*
.14*
Identity
Conflict
-.09*
.07*
Work/life
balance
Model fit
Chi-square: 1.52; p= .22; CFI= .99; RMSEA= .015
Family Rituals
Regression analyses:
Predicting Bullying in school
Family rituals
Family
Cohesion
Age
-.10**
-.16**
.08*
Bullying
(School)
.15**
Gender
* p < .05
** p < . 01
----- Parents/caregivers
----- Young people
Regression analyses:
Predicting Bullying outside school
Family rituals
Family
Cohesion
Age
-.08*
-.03
-.02
Bullying
(Outside
School)
.11**
Gender
* p< .05
** p <. 01
----- Parents/caregivers
----- Young people
Gender as a moderator in the link between Family rituals and Bullying
outside school
1.35
Bullying outside school
1.3
1.25
1.2
1.15
1.1
1.05
1
0.95
low
med
high
Family rituals
Gender
Boys
Girls
Regression analyses:
Predicting Externalization
Family rituals
Family
Cohesion
Age
-.08*
-.20**
Externalization
-.02
-.05
Gender
* p < .05
** p < . 01
----- Parents/caregivers
----- Young people
Discussion
- Stronger families’ investment in rituals is
linked to more positive family perceptions
reported by both parents/caregivers and young
people
-Stronger families’ investment in rituals is
negatively linked to young people’s bullying
behaviour and externalization
Conclusions
The study of family rituals vs the study of more classic
family dimensions
Family rituals: Relevant for young people’s regulation of
interpersonal behaviour?
The assessment issue: The importance of young people’s
independent perceptions of family rituals