Strategies for socialization into a non-conventional family project

Abstract

In this paper we put together data from various projects focused on the construction of nontraditional family projects in Spain: (1) a multi-sited ethnographic study on the construction of singleparent families by choice in Spain; (2) a qualitative comparative study of adoptive families in Madrid and Chicago; (3) an on-going multi-sited ethnographic project on disclosure processes in families formed via gamete donation. Across the data of these studies, involving a wide variety of family configurations (single and two-parent families, heterosexual and homo-parental families, international and interracial adopted children, partially-related biological offspring, etc.), we have identified a series of socialization strategies that are explicitly pointed out by parents as playing a role in socializing children into understanding their non-conventional family experience. Some of these strategies include creating socialization, support and leisure spaces with families of similar characteristics, multiple forms or narrative and storytelling activity on children's origin and the construction of their family project, managing conversations and interactions about their family when their children are present as over hearers or using daily interactions to construct and explore their family project. Across our data and studies socialization emerges as an active, bi-directional and reflexive process central to family and parental identities. With our findings we present a portrait of emergent processes in Spain and open the door to cross-cultural comparisons.