Title
Constructing Family: A Typology Of Voluntary Kin
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
5-1-2010
Publication Title
Journal Of Social And Personal Relationships
Department
Communication Studies
Abstract
This study explored how participants discursively rendered voluntary kin relationships sensical and legitimate. Interpretive analyses of 110 interviews revealed four main types of voluntary kin: (i) substitute family, (ii) supplemental family, (iii) convenience family, and (iv) extended family. These types were rendered sensical and legitimated by drawing on the discourse of the traditional family. Except for the extended family, three of four voluntary kin family types were justified by an attributed deficit in the blood and legal family. Because voluntary kin relationships are not based on the traditional criteria of association by blood or law, members experience them as potentially challenging, requiring discursive work to render them sensical and legitimate to others.
Volume
27
Issue
3
pp.
388-407
ISSN
0265-4075
Provider Link
Citation
Braithwaite, Dawn O., Betsy Wackernagel Bach, Leslie A. Baxter, Rebecca Diverniero, et al. 2010. "Constructing family: A typology of voluntary kin." Journal Of Social And Personal Relationships 27(3): 388-407.