Reimagining Families: Singlehood, Childfree, and Chosen Families

Session Submission Type: Paper Session (90 minute)

Description

This session invites new research examining evolving family forms beyond nuclear family structures, with particular attention to singlehood, childfree living, and chosen families. As increasing numbers of adults live solo, decide not to have children, and form families based on voluntary bonds, understanding these shifts is crucial for contemporary family sociology. Papers investigating lived experiences, cultural disruptions, well-being outcomes, and institutional recognition of these diverse family arrangements are especially welcome. Submissions that address how race, class, sexuality, gender, and other social locations shape access to and experiences of emerging new family forms and examine how these structures challenge conventional definitions of families are particularly encouraged.

Sub Unit

• Family Section / Reimagining Families: Singlehood, Childfree, and Chosen Families

Presider

• Eunsil Oh, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Individual Presentations

• Beyond Blood Ties: How Adult Children Reimagine Family After Estrangement - Aryssa Hasham, University of Toronto

• Chosen Family: An exploratory study of contemporary expanded usage - Violet Fox, University of California Santa Barbara

• Living Alone in Family-Centered Societies: Structural Topic Modeling of Loneliness, Identity, and Coping on Reddit - Christine A. Mair, University of Maryland-Baltimore County; Steve McDonald, North Carolina State University

• Reproductive Governance or Reproductive Justice: Single Chinese Women’s Access to Social Egg Freezing - Iris Pi, Georgia State University

• THE SINGLEHOOD DILEMMA How Korean Millennial Women Experience Singlehood in a Familist Welfare System - Mandy Chan, the academy of korean studies

Discussant

• Christine A. Mair, University of Maryland-Baltimore County

Session Organizer

• Eunsil Oh, University of Wisconsin-Madison