(Family) Ties That Bind: The Pressures of Extended Family Expectations on Adult Relocation Decision-Making

• In Event: Family Formation and Dynamics

Abstract

Research on adult mobility often assumes that the influence of families-of-origin recedes once couples form independent households, leaving little attention to how extended kin remain involved in major decision-making. This study examines how family influence persists under conditions of institutional constraint and uncertainty. Doctoral training in the sciences—practically a requirement for entry into high-skill research and academic professions—provides an analytically revealing context for observing these dynamics: the move is institutionally required, uncertain in duration, and culturally ambiguous for many families. Drawing on 40 in-depth interviews with spouses and long-term partners of STEM PhD students, this study examines how extended-family expectations persist in these contexts. Analysis revealed three dynamics: structural openness, where permeable boundaries allow advice and norms to cross between families; process regulation, where feedback loops interpret relocation as continuity or change; and emergent relational capacity, where elasticity and attachment patterns condition adaptation. Together, these findings show how extended families continue to structure adult relocation and career decision-making in contexts of institutional ambiguity, extending family systems theory by demonstrating how permeability, regulation, and capacity operate when institutional and familial logics intersect.

Author

• Richard N. Pitt, University of California-San Diego