René Levy

Embedded parenting? The influence of conjugal networks on parent–child relationships:

Data from a large survey of family functioning in Switzerland explore the extent to which various types of conjugal networks affect parenting and parent–child relationships (e.g., problems in assuming parental roles, parent–child disagreements, quality of parent–child relationships, and parental worries about the child). Results show that conjugal networks have significant indirect and direct effects on parent–child relationships but no buffering effect. Bicentric conjugal networks are singled out as indirectly associated with improved parenting practices and parent–child relationships. They strengthen the conjugal subsystem and improve the psychological well-being of parents. Interfering and unicentric networks have negative direct effects on some but not all dimensions considered. These results are important for understanding parenting and parent–child relationships within relational contexts larger than the nuclear family.

Why Look at Life Courses in an Interdisciplinary Perspective

After decades of a rather marginal existence and little coherence in its development, lifecourse research is definitely coming of age. There are, however, recent signs of consolidation and first attempts at reaping the scattered harvest of research in various disciplines, especially in the form of a first handbook of life-course research (Mortimer & Shanahan, 2003), of first attempts at interdisciplinary dialogue around specific approaches such as Baltes’ life-span psychology (Staudinger & Lindenberger, 2003) and of a specialized annual review (in which this volume is published). Nevertheless, life-course scholars still seem to be a small handful « digging » on the fringe of their disciplinary mainstreams, as yet with little influence on more established fields of research. Why are we, i.e., life course researchers, so keen on life courses? What is there so special about life-course research? We feel in fact that are a number of specific challenges life-course researchers have to confront and to answer.

What Pluralization of the Life Course? An Analysis of Personal Trajectories and Conjugal Interactions in Contemporary Switzerland

Sociological research has underscored trends towards a pluralization of social life in general and, more specifically, in the areas of family and work. These two central subsystems of modern societies are hypothesized by some to have become much more heterogeneous in recentyears than had been the case hitherto; they are said to follow less recognizable patterns or models, either because of the weakening of social norms or because of the increasing structural complexity of contemporary societies. This chapter addresses the issue of the pluralization of the life course by focusing on personal trajectories (between professional and family activities) and family functioning of contemporary couples,1 based on a sample of the project entitled ‘Social Stratification, Cohesion and Conflict in Contemporary Tamilies’. Does the highly post-industrialized context of Switzerland confirm the hypothesis that late modernity is associated with a strong diversification of work and the family and a weakening of their being socially structured? We shall see that, although variability does indeed characterize personal trajectories and family functioning in Switzerland, it is rather bounded and is quite strongly embedded in social structures

Incitations for Interdisciplinarity in Life Course Research

Having gone through this volume, a critical reader might come to the conclusion that interdisciplinarity can be found more easily between the contributions than within them (even though several of them address it directly, e.g., Settersten; Mortimer et al.). However, the contributors share the common belief that studying humans’ unfolding lives in a web of complicated interactions within their changing contexts requires the adoption of an interdisciplinary research paradigm. To be sure, the life-span / life-course research traditions stemming from disciplines such as sociology, psychology, social psychology and demography certainly have allowed scholars to answer some key questions germane to this field (Baltes, Lindenberger, & Staudinger, in press; Elder, 1998). The empirical evidence accumulated over the years contributed heavily to the validity of the enterprise represented by life-course research (Baltes, Reese, & Nesselroade, 1977). The development towards interdisciplinarity needs, however, not only solid disciplinary foundations and the shared wish to cooperate, but also hard and timeconsuming work in interdisciplinary groups to progress concretely in this direction, possibly along the three lines sketched out in our introduction: constructing theoretical bridges between disciplinary approaches, building on common concepts that help describe and analyze life courses, and working on transversal substantive themes.

If i had known our couple turned that way, i would not have stopped working a biographical account of labour force participation and conjugal love

This study examines how the work trajectories of women and men after childbirth and their subjective evaluation influence conjugal love. Data are drawn from the study, «Social Stratification, Cohesion and Conflict in Contemporary Families» (Widmer et al., 2003). The results show that an interruption of labour force participation increases the risk of feeling less in love for women, especially if the interruption is perceived as a sacrifice. Women’s feelings of love also depend on the way in which their male partners consider their own work trajectories. Men’s feelings of love are much less sensitive to their own and their partners’ work trajectories. The results are discussed within the life course perspective.