Family Scholarship

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
This article outlines and presents support for the thesis that family scholarship is largely shaped by sociodemographic changes in the family. It presents several additional alternative explanations for trends in the substantive foci of family scholarship. These include: serendipity; personal interest; proliferation and the changing composition of the body of researchers; social movements; key scholars; interaction between researchers and practitioners; shifts in public tolerance as subjects; increases in public sophistication as consumers of knowledge; and value changes. The article concludes that family scholarship is shaped by multiple factors for which salience varies across time and researchers.