ABSTRACT
A study like ours, which takes an ecopsychological approach to the study of family development, and thus is oriented toward a model extending from the level of the individual across increasingly more all-encompassing systems up to the societal context, is faced with an extended number of possible units of analysis. This becomes particularly clear in the progression from the individual to the dyadic relationship. Our study separates the conceivable dyadic relations within the family into three, qualitatively differentiable groups:
Parent–Child Relations Against the Background of the Childrearing Context. Particularly at the first wave, when the children were ages 9–14, parent–Child relations were defined primarily through the specific pattern of parental childrearing behavior toward the child. The child’s role in this process, which was often underestimated or even ignored in earlier research, is not just the passive acceptance of parental childrearing measures, but can also be described as active. Mediated by the subjective perception of parental childrearing behavior, children certainly have the possibility of taking an active role in codetermining the relationship with their parents, just like their parents do. Regardless of what this interactive process between parents and children may look like, during this life phase, its content is negotiated predominantly through topics that can be summarized under the heading “childrearing” in the broadest sense.
Parent–Child Relations Against the Background of an Egalitarian Model of Relations. This type of dyadic relationship, which is no different from the first in terms of the persons involved, attains its autonomy through the state of development achieved by the family at the second wave. The children are now between the ages of 25 and 30, and thus find themselves in the phase of young adulthood. The individuality and autonomy that the children have developed over this time shifts the pattern of relations to their parents from a constellation marked by gaps in power between parents and children toward a more egalitarian relationship between two autonomous individuals. However, this is in no way a claim that parent–Child relations always develop toward egalitarianism. As reported in detail in chapter 5, relations between adult children and their parents can also be dominated by conflicts and striving for control, which have their roots in the childrearing phase. Nonetheless, when attempting to assess such parent–Child relations empirically, it is important to note that this stage no longer focuses on topics whose content is taken from the domain of “childrearing.” Although it may be that the parents’ or one parent’s relation to a 30-year-old child is still shaped by the effort to “rear” the child, it should not be forgotten that this is a relationship between two adults.
The Parents’ Marital Relations. When previously considering fathers and mothers, we reported on how they relate to the child as “parents.” We were dealing with the parent system. However, there is also another level of relations on which fathers and mothers function as spouses or, in more general terms, as partners. Although the marriage system is closely related to the parent system because it involves the same persons, it has to be looked at separately. The quality and development of marital relations is subject to influences from all other dyadic relations within the family, while requiring a degree of demarcation from them so that it does not completely dissolve within the parent system. This need to discriminate also justifies the separate appraisal of marital relations in this chapter.
The Children’s Marital or Partner Relations. Another possible dyadic constellation of interest here concerns partner relations in the filial generation. Although this necessarily goes beyond the borders of the actual family, it is conceivable that the characteristics of these relations will relate, at least in part, to the child’s experiences of relationships gained while growing up within the family of origin. For example, one question is whether the parents’ marital relations serve as a model for the child’s own relations. These and other questions are considered in this chapter. 1
