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Family Matters: Research on Family Ties and Health, 2010 to 2020
Author(s) -
Umberson Debra,
Thomeer Mieke Beth
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
journal of marriage and family
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.578
H-Index - 159
eISSN - 1741-3737
pISSN - 0022-2445
DOI - 10.1111/jomf.12640
Subject(s) - biosocial theory , life course approach , diversity (politics) , family life , psychology , health equity , socioeconomic status , developmental psychology , identification (biology) , affect (linguistics) , social psychology , sociology , medicine , public health , gender studies , environmental health , population , nursing , botany , communication , personality , anthropology , biology
Family ties have wide‐ranging consequences for health, for better and for worse. This decade review uses a life course perspective to frame significant advances in research on the effects of family structure and transitions (e.g., marital status) and family dynamics and quality (e.g., emotional support from family members) on health across the life course. Significant advances include the linking of childhood family experiences to health at older ages, identification of biosocial processes that explain how family ties influence health throughout life, research on social contagion showing how family members influence one another's health, and attention to diversity in family and health dynamics, including gender, sexuality, socioeconomic, and racial diversity. Significant innovations in methods include dyadic and family‐level analysis and causal inference strategies. The review concludes by identifying directions for future research on families and health, advocating for a “family biography” framework to guide future research, and calling for more research specifically designed to assess policies that affect families and their health from childhood into later life.