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A Promising Approach to Future Biosocial Research on the Family: Considering the Role of Temporal Context

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Biosocial Foundations of Family Processes

Part of the book series: National Symposium on Family Issues ((NSFI))

Abstract

A central theme of this volume is the importance of context (and in particular, the family environment) for understanding the role of physiological influences in human behavior, health, and development. In this concluding chapter, we argue for the importance of greater attention to one contextual dimension, temporal context, whose significance is often overlooked. We discuss several examples of temporal context drawn from theoretical frameworks such as ecological perspective and life course theory, including duration of time within a proximal social environment or state, “critical” or sensitive periods of development, developmental period or stage, and historical time. We also discuss another type of temporal context, evolutionary time, which is implicated in studies within evolutionary psychology that focus on historical adaptations of family-related behaviors. Many chapters in this volume implicitly acknowledge the role of temporal context, but few explicitly discuss its importance or estimate its effects. Moreover, none discuss the potential benefit of incorporating temporal context into future biosocial research on the family. In this chapter, we expound upon this point, building the argument that future research on biosocial influences on the family can benefit from explicitly acknowledging and incorporating temporal context in both measurement and theoretical models.

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Acknowledgment

The authors received support from the Population Research Institute’s Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Interdisciplinary Training in Demography (Grant No. T-32HD007514, PI: Gordon DeJong).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Sociology, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, USA

    Jennifer B. Kane

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  1. Jennifer B. Kane
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  2. Chun Bun Lam
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Correspondence to Jennifer B. Kane .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Dept. Sociology & Crime, Law, &, Justice, Pennsylvania State University, Oswald Tower 513, University Park, 16802, Pennsylvania, USA

    Alan Booth

  2. Dept. Human Development & Family Studies, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, 16802, Pennsylvania, USA

    Susan M. McHale

  3. , Department of Sociology, Human Demograph, Pennsylvania State University, 16802, USA

    Nancy S. Landale

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Kane, J.B., Lam, C.B. (2011). A Promising Approach to Future Biosocial Research on the Family: Considering the Role of Temporal Context. In: Booth, A., McHale, S., Landale, N. (eds) Biosocial Foundations of Family Processes. National Symposium on Family Issues. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-7361-0_17

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