Urban Families in Southern Angola: What Makes Them Work? The Empirical Validation of a Family Life Cycle Model

Abstract

In this study, we sought to empirically validate the model of development of urban families in Southern Angola. The study was carried out with a sample of 256 participants (n = 130, 50.78% women; n = 126, 49.22% men) from urban centers of Southern Angola, aged between 18–79 years. We aimed, particularly, to identify women’s and men’s perceptions of their family functioning (SCORE-15), family vulnerability to stress (FILE), family strengths (FSQ), and family investment in rituals and routines (FRQ-R). The results from the structured additive regression models (STAR) demonstrated the adequacy of this model to explain and organize the data from the sample studied. Moreover, the results identified the perception of an adjusted family functioning, despite the high levels of family vulnerability to stress and low levels of family strength, compared with international studies. This study also showed a great investment in family rituals and routines. Results from STAR highlight the consistency of women throughout family evolution, and greater fluctuations in the results presented by men, particularly those who are in the stages of families with an adolescent or a young adult child and families in the “sandwich” generation. These results contribute to the enrichment of Simões and Alberto’s model and a better understanding of the family reality in urban Southern Angola.

Keywords

Black families family life cycle family functioning family rituals family strengths vulnerability to stress

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Alarcão

(2000). (Des) Equilíbrios familiares: Uma visão sistémica [Family (im) balances]. Quarteto Editora.

Allison

B. N.

(2000). Parent-adolescent conflict in early adolescence: Research and implications for middle school programs. Journal of Family and Consumer Sciences Education, 18(2), 1–6. https://www.natefacs.org/Pages/v18no2/v18no2Allison.pdf

Altuna

(2006). Cultura tradicional Bantu [Bantu’s traditional culture]. Paulinas Editora.

American Psychological Association. (2017). Ethical principles of psychologists and code of conduct (2002, amended effective June 1, 2010, and January 1). https://www.apa.org/ethics/code/

André

E. F.

(2014). Validação do questionário de forças familiares para a população Angolana perante a presença de doenças como a epilepsia, malária, VIH/SIDA e tuberculose [Validation of the family strength questionnaire for the Angolan population in the presence of diseases such as epilepsy, malaria, HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis] (Unpublished master’s thesis). University of Coimbra.

Baião

(2014). Estudo comparativo transcultural entre Portugal e Angola sobre instrumentos de medida do funcionamento e qualidade de vida da família [Cross-cultural comparative study between Portugal and Angola on instruments to measure the family functioning and the quality of life] (Unpublished master’s thesis). University of Coimbra.

Belitz

Brezger

Kneib

Lang

(2012). BayesX – software for bayesian inference in structured additive regression models: Version 2.1. http://www.BayesX.org

Berg-Cross

Daniels

Carr

(1992). Marital rituals among divorced and married couples. Journal of Divorce & Remarriage, 18(1–2), 1–30. https://doi.org/10.1300/J087v18n01_01

Bettencourt

. (2011). Experiências comunitárias e familiares no contexto urbano: Relação entre a satisfação residencial e rituais familiares e culturais [Community and family experiences in the urban context: Relationship between residential satisfaction and family and cultural rituals] (Unpublished master’s thesis). University of Coimbra.

10.

Biale

M. H. S.

(2014). O papel dos rituais familiares e da coesão no ajustamento psicológico e qualidade de vida de doentes com HIV/SIDA [The role of family rituals in cohesion, psychological adjustment and quality of life of patients with HIV/AIDS] (Unpublished master’s thesis). University of Coimbra.

11.

Bortha

Booysen

Wouters

(2018). Family functioning and socioeconomic status in South African families: A test of the social causation hypothesis. Social Indicators Research, 137, 789–811. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-017-1600-x

12.

Boss

(2002). Family stress management: A contextual approach. SAGE.

13.

Brezger

Lang

(2006). Generalized structured additive regression based on Bayesian P-Splines. Computational Statistics & Data Analysis, 50, 967–991. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.csda.2004.10.011

14.

Brezger

Kneib

Lang

(2005). BayesX: Analyzing bayesian structured additive regression models. Journal of Statistical Software, 14(11), 1–22. https://doi.org/10.18637/jss.v014.i11

15.

Cardoso

(2012). Impacto das variáveis sociodemográficas e familiares no funcionamento familiar, avaliado pelo SCORE-15: Estudo exploratório numa amostra Angolana não-clínica [Impact of sociodemographic and family variables on family functioning, assessed by SCORE-15: Exploratory study in a non-clinical Angolan sample] (Unpublished master’s thesis). University of Coimbra.

16.

Carter

McGoldrick

(1995). The changing family life cycle: A framework for family therapy. In Carter

McGoldrick

(Eds.), The changing family lifecycle: A framework for family therapy (pp. 7–27). Artmed.

17.

Choi

K. W.

Watt

M. H.

MacFarlane

J. C.

Sikkema

K. J.

Skinner

Pieterse

Kalichman

S. C.

(2014). Drinking in the context of life stressors: A multidimensional coping strategy among South African women. Substance Use & Misuse, 49(1–2), 66–76. https://doi.org/10.3109/10826084.2013.819365

18.

Clark

Cotton

Marteleto

L. J.

(2015). Family ties and young fathers’ engagement in Cape Town, South Africa. Journal of Marriage and Family, 77(2), 575–589. https://doi.org/10.1111/jomf.12179

19.

Cracco

Laurrieux

M. B. L.

(2015). Stressors and coping strategies of families in the early stages of the life cycle and socioeconomic context. Ciências Psicológicas, 9, 129–140. http://www.scielo.edu.uy/pdf/cp/v9nspe/v9nspea03.pdf

20.

Crespo

Davide

I. N.

Costa

M. E.

Fletcher

G. J. O.

(2008). Family rituals in married couples: Links with attachment, relationship quality, and closeness. Personal Relationships, 15(2), 191–203. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1475-6811.2008.00193.x

21.

DeHaan

L. G.

Hawley

D. R.

Deal

J. E.

(2013). Operationalizing family resilience as process: Proposed methodological strategies. In Becvar

(Ed.), Handbook of family resilience (pp. 17–29). Springer.

22.

Dias

(2012). Avaliação das forças familiares numa amostra de famílias do Sul de Angola [Evaluation of family strength in a sample of families in Southern Angola] (Unpublished master’s thesis). University of Coimbra.

23.

East

P. L.

(1999). The first teenage pregnancy in the family: Does it affect mothers’ parenting, attitudes, or mother-adolescent communication? Journal of Marriage and Family, 61(2), 306–319. https://doi.org/10.2307/353750

24.

Evans

(2010). Children’s caring roles and responsibilities within the family in Africa. Geography Compass, 4(10), 1477–1496. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1749-8198.2010.00386

25.

Fahrmeir

Kneib

Lang

Marx

(2013). Regression: Models, methods, and applications. Springer.

26.

Fahrmeir

Kneib

Lang

(2004). Penalized structured additive regression for space-time data: A Bayesian perspective. Statistica Sinica, 14, 731–761. http://www3.stat.sinica.edu.tw/statistica/oldpdf/A14n36.pdf

27.

Fahrmeir

Lang

(2001). Bayesian inference for generalized additive mixed models based on Markov random fields priors. Journal of the Royal Statistical Society: Series C-Applied, 50(2), 201–220. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9876.00229

28.

Fay

Carr

O’Reilly

Cahill

Dooley

Guerin

Stratton

(2013). Irish norms for the SCORE-15 and 28 from a national telephone survey. Journal of Family Therapy, 35(1), 24–42. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-6427.2011.00575.x

29.

Fiese

B. H.

Hooker

K. A.

Kotary

Schwagler

(1993). Family rituals in the early stages of parenthood. Journal of Marriage and Family, 55(3), 633–642. https://doi.org/10.2307/353344

30.

Fiese

B. H

Kline

(1993). Development of the family ritual questionnaire: Initial reliability and validation studies. Journal of Family Psychology, 6(3), 290–299. https://doi.org/10.1037/0893-3200.6.3.290

31.

Fiese

B. H

Tomcho

Douglas

Josephs

Poltrock

Baker

(2002). A review of 50 years of research on naturally occurring family routines and rituals: Cause for celebration? Journal of Family Psychology, 16(4), 381–390. https://doi.org/10.1037//0893-3200.16.4.381

32.

Fingerman

K. L.

VanderDrift

L. E.

Dotterer

A. M.

Birditt

K. S.

Zarit

S. H.

(2011). Support to aging parents and grown children in Black and White families. The Gerontologist, 51(4), 441–452. https://doi.org/10.1093/geront/gnq114

33.

Francisco

(2012). Acontecimentos de vida e vulnerabilidade ao stress em famílias do Sul de Angola [Life events and vulnerability to stress in families in Southern Angola] (Unpublished master’s thesis). University of Coimbra.

34.

Gime

G. F. T.

(2014). Os rituais familiares em Angola: Estudo comparativo entre amostras de Cabinda e de Benguela [The family rituals in Angola: A comparative study between samples of Cabinda and Benguela] (Unpublished master’s thesis). University of Coimbra.

35.

Glick

Sahn

D. E.

(2000). Schooling of girls and boys in a West African country: The effects of parental education, income, and household structure. Economics of Education Review, 19(1), 63–87. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0272-7757(99)00029-1

36.

Golijani-Moghaddam

(2014). Applying family life cycle concepts in psychological practice with children and young people. Applied Psychological Research Journal, 1(2), 26–33. https://doi.org/10.18552/aprj.v1i2.130

37.

Grotevant

H. D.

Carlson

C. I.

(1989). Family assessment: A guide to methods and measures. Guilford Press.

38.

Hernández

(1991). Estrés en la familia colombiana: Tensiones típicas y estrategias de afrontamiento. Universidad de Santo Tomás.

39.

Júlio

(2012). Caraterização dos rituais familiares numa amostra de casais do Sul de Angola [Characterization of family rituals in a sample of couples from Southern Angola] (Unpublished master’s thesis). University of Coimbra.

40.

Kawindima

E. S.

(2015). Avaliação do grau de concordância entre membros do par conjugal relativamente às forças familiares [Assessment of the degree of agreement between members of the conjugal pair regarding family strengths] (Unpublished master’s thesis). University of Coimbra.

41.

Kevane

(2004). Women and development in Africa: How gender works. Lynne Rienner.

42.

Kneib

(2006). Mixed model based inference in structured additive regression (Unpublished doctoral thesis). University of Munich, Faculty of Mathematics, Informatics and Statistic of Ludwig-Maximillian.

43.

Kumagai

(1984). The life cycle of the Japanese family. Journal of Marriage and Family, 46(1), 191–204. https://doi.org/10.2307/351877

44.

Lang

Brezger

(2004). Bayesian P-Splines. Journal of Computational and Graphical Statistics, 13(1), 183–212. https://doi.org/10.1198/1061860043010

45.

Lavee

(2013). Stress processes in families and couples. In Lavee

Peterson

G. W.

Bush

K. R.

(Eds.), Handbook of marriage and the family (pp. 159–176). Springer Science + Business Media.

46.

Lesejane

(2006). Fatherhood from an African cultural perspective. In Richter

Morrell

(Eds.), Baba: Men and fatherhood in South Africa (pp. 173–182). HSRC Press.

47.

Lind

(2008). Casais biculturais e monoculturais: Diferenças e recursos [Monocultural and bicultural couples: Differences and resources] (Unpublished doctoral thesis). University of Lisbon.

48.

J. L. C.

Wong

T. K. Y.

Lau

L. K.

Pun

S. H.

(2009). Perceived family functioning and family resources of Hong Kong families: Implications for social work practice. Journal of Family Social Work, 12(3), 244–263. https://doi.org/10.1080/10522150903030147

49.

McCubbin

H. I.

Patterson

J. M.

(1983). The family stress process: The double ABCX model of adjustment and adaptation. Marriage & Family Review, 6(1–2), 7–37. https://doi.org/10.1300/J002v06n01_02

50.

McCubbin

H. I.

Patterson

J. M.

Wilson

(1981). Family inventory of life events and changes (FILE): Research instrument. Family Social Science.

51.

McCubbin

H. I

Thompson

A. I.

McCubbin

M. A.

(1996). Family assessment: Resiliency, coping and adaptation: Inventories for research and practice. University of Wisconsin.

52.

Melo

A. T.

Alarcão

(2011). Avaliação de processos de resiliência familiar: Validade e fidelidade do questionário de forças familiares [Evaluation of family resilience processes: Validity and fidelity of the family strengths questionnaire]. Mosaico, 48, 34–41. http://hdl.handle.net/10316/36414

53.

Melo

(2005). “Nyaneka-Nkhumbi”: Uma carapuça que não serve aos Handa, nem aos Nyaneka, nem aos Nkhumbi [“Nyaneka—Nkhumbi”: A name that doesn’t fit neither to Handa, nor to Nyaneka and nor to Nkhumbi]. Cadernos de Estudos Africanos, 7/8, 157–178. https://doi.org/10.4000/cea.1074

54.

Mendes

(2008). Resiliência familiar: Estudo exploratório em famílias de risco [Family resilience: Exploratory study of families at risk] (Unpublished master’s thesis). University of Coimbra.

55.

Morrel

(2006). Fathers, fatherhood, and masculinity in South Africa. In Richter

Morrell

(Eds.), Baba: Men and fatherhood in South Africa (pp. 13–25). HSRC Press.

56.

Olson

D. H.

McCubbin

H. I.

Barnes

Larsen

Muxen

Wilson

(1985). Family inventories: Inventories used in a National Survey of families across the family life cycle. University of Minnesota.

57.

Olson

D. H

McCubbin

H. I

Barnes

Muxen

Larsen

Wilson

(1989). Families, what makes them work. SAGE.

58.

Patatas

T. A.

(2016). A “realidade” e as esperanças dos estudantes da Escola Superior Politécnica do Namibe [The “reality” and hopes of students at Namibe’s Polytechnic Higher Studies School] (Unpublished doctoral thesis). Lusíadas University.

59.

Peil

(1995). Family help for the elderly in Africa: A comparative assessment. Southern African Journal of Gerontology, 4, 26–32. https://doi.org/10.21504/sajg.v4i2.83

60.

Pimenta

M. E.

(2010). Eventuais causas e consequências da delinquência em Angola [Possible causes and consequences of delinquency in Angola]. Calçada das Letras.

61.

R Core Team. (2014). R: A language and environment for statistical computing. R Foundation for Statistical Computing. http://www.R-project.org/.

62.

Relvas

A. P.

(1996). O ciclo vital da família [The family life cycle]. Edições Afrontamento.

63.

Rheault

(2014). In Africa, parents key to education: More than four in 10 Africans say education is most valuable for success in life. https://news.gallup.com/poll/168401/africa-parents-key-education.aspx

64.

Rowntree

B. S.

(1906). Poverty: A study of town life. Macmillan.

65.

Simões

T. A.

Alberto

I. M.

(2015). “But. . . we are Africans”! Family life cycle structuring and functioning in Southern Angola. Journal of Psychology in Africa, 25(6), 504–511. https://doi.org/10.1080/14330237.2015.1124602

66.

Simões

T. A.

Alberto

I. M.

(2017). Family life cycle: Reflections on ethnic and cultural specificities of African’s family development. Psychologica, 60(1), 71–93. https://doi.org/10.14195/1647-8606_60-1_5

67.

Simões

T. A.

Alberto

I. M.

(2019). Family rituals and routine in the developmental trajectory of urban Southern Angolan families. Journal of Black Psychology, 45(6–7), 454–493. https://doi.org/10.1177/0095798419887624

68.

Stratton

Bland

Janes

Lask

(2010). Developing indicator to the family function and a practicable outcome measure for systemic family and couple therapy: The SCORE. Journal of the Family Therapy, 32(3), 232–258. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-6427.2010.00507.x

69.

United Nations Development Program. (2018). Human development indices and indicators 2018: Statistical update.

70.

Valizadeh

Zamanzadeh

Rassouli

Farshi

M. R.

(2018). Concerns of parents with or raising adolescent children: A qualitative study of Iranian families. Journal of Caring Sciences, 7(1), 27–33. https://doi.org/10.15171/jcs.2018.005

71.

VanBreda

A. D.

(2001). Resilience theory: A literature review (Report No. MPI/R/104/12/1/4). South African Military Health Service, Military Psychological Institute, Social Work Research & Development. https://www.yumpu.com/en/document/read/31395461/resilience-theory-a-literature-review-the-van-breda-family-web-

72.

Van Eerdewijk

Kamunyu

Nyirinkindi

Sow

Visser

Lodenstein

. (2018). The state of African women. https://rightbyher.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/SOAW-Report-FULL.pdf

73.

Vaz-Serra

(2007). O Stress na vida de todos os dias [Stress in daily life]. Minerva.

74.

Vilaça

Silva

J. T.

Relvas

A. P.

(2014). Systemic clinical outcome routine evaluation (SCORE-15). In Relvas

A. P.

Major

(Eds.), Avaliação familiar: Funcionamento e intervenção [Family assessment: Functioning and intervention] (pp. 23–41). Imprensa da Universidade de Coimbra.

75.

Vilaça

Sousa

Stratton

Relvas

A. P.

(2015). The 15-item systemic clinical outcome and routine evaluation (SCORE-15) scale: Portuguese validation studies. The Spanish Journal of Psychology, 18(e87), 1–10. https://doi.org/10.1017/sjp.2015.95

76.

Walsh

(2012). The spiritual dimension of family life. In Walsh

(Ed.), Normal family processes: Growing diversity and complexity (pp. 347–372). Guilford Press.

77.

Walsh

(2016). Strengthening family resilience. Guilford Press

78.

World Medical Association. (2013). Declaration of Helsinki ethical principles for medical research involving human subjects. The Journal of the American Medical Association, 310, 2191–2194.

79.

Yakubu

Salisu

W. J.

(2018). Determinants of adolescent pregnancy in sub-Saharan Africa: A systematic review. Reproductive Health, 15(1), 1–11. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12978-018-0460-4