Collaborative Research: Navigating change in intergenerational family relationships: Cohort, age, and family role, and social marginalization

Understanding how families navigate differences in attitudes about controversial social and political issues is increasingly important in contemporary society. This project examines how contentious social issues emerge and create conflict in family life, as well as identifies family members’ strategies for addressing these issues. This project uses a case study approach to understand these issues, by focusing on how families with a socially marginalized family member navigate family relationships with family members from different generations. Findings from this research promote understanding about how broader cultural issues shape intergenerational family relationships. Findings also suggest potential interventions to facilitate intergenerational dialogue and promote social support within families. This research project examines how age, generational context, and family role (e.g., grandparent, parent, grandchild) shape how family members interact with one another and address conflict. This project involves collecting qualitative interviews with 90 people in 30 family systems, where each of the three family members are from different family roles and generational contexts. Data collected provide insight about how multiple family members from the same family system understand and address conflict. Supplementary activities are aimed to enhance research capacity at the MSI institution. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.