掌握變遷中的家庭：家庭生命歷程發展理論與研究反思

Understand the Changing Family: Reflections on the Family Life Course Development Theory

家庭作為一個社會制度，其變遷一直是家庭研究重要領域，更是家庭政策關注所在，尤其當代家庭的組成已打破異性戀和婚配的基礎，並隨社會變遷產生多元家庭，造成家庭理論與服務介入的挑戰。各家庭理論中，家庭生命歷程發展理論是既能從鉅視角度掌握家庭變遷與社會變遷的鑲嵌性，也能從微視角度分析家庭變化之歷程，成為掌握家庭變遷的主要理論之一。為能呈現該理論的主要內涵與研究應用的實況，本文主要有兩大部分，一是家庭生命歷程發展理論的整體性描述；二是依據研究主題、研究方法檢視國內外相關文獻。共歸納三個主要研究意涵：一、以家庭生命歷程發展理論為基礎的研究主題多關注於家庭壓力與階段變遷的議題；二、國外文獻針對跨國家庭生命歷程之比較和家庭各階段變遷已進行比較性研究；三、對理論概念之正確運用、關注於遷移和累積性效果和比較性的研究是國內發展相關研究可精進之處。 The family, as a social institution, and its change is not only an area of family research but also still the main concern of family policy. The foundation of family formation basing on marriage and heterosexuality has been broken and the diversities of family are huge challenges for family theories and family research. Among many family theories, the family life course development theory can capture the embeddedness of family change and social change on macro level as well as insight the patterns and processes of family changes on micro level. This study consists of two main parts. The first one is to describe the propositions, major contents, and concepts of family life course development theory. The second part is to capture current research issues by reviewing research topics and methods of some studies in Taiwan and abroad. There are three main implications: first of all, the papers reviewed by this study basing on family life course focus on family pressures and family transitions; secondly, the papers aboard reviewed by this study applied comparative methods to describe the different patterns between counties and family stages; last, particular attention should be paid to the correct use of concepts about family life course, stress on the cumulative effect of family events and comparative study for advanced research in Taiwan.