ABSTRACT

The pluralization of life courses in various social fields since the 1960s has increased the likelihood of individuals experiencing a variety of turning points. The number of job shifts, the increasing spatial and social mobility as well as the cultural pressure of living a worthy life creates the ground on which family diversity builds up. These events are to a large extent imposed by social, cultural and economic forces associated with world globalization. Individuals react differently to them but they still have to cope with them, one way or another. Events impose new focus points on which individuals develop their family configurations. Indeed, human beings evolve in investing their resources in matters that they share with others. When an individual becomes a parent, a child suddenly steps into the foreground of her life as an organizing principle of relationships in her family configuration.