Tea time : Family rituals and their links to family functioning and youth wellbeing in New Zealand

1. �Tea time!�: Family rituals and their links to family functioning and youth wellbeing in New Zealand Carla Crespo, Jan Pryor and Paul Jose Roy McKenzie Centre for the Study of Families SASP-Wellington 2008

2. Family rituals: �windows� to the family - Rituals tell researcher what families �do� - Powerful organizer of behaviour within the family - Interaction between individual and family - level factors

3. -Family rituals are associated with positive outcomes for young people such as stronger adolescent identity, and less alcohol consumption for adolescents in at-risk households; they have also been negatively linked with mental health problems.

4. Current study Examined the links between family�s investment in rituals and: a) Family perceptions (young people and parents�/caregivers� reports) b) Young people�s outcomes such as bullying behaviour and externalization as a coping strategy (young people�s reports)

5. Measures -Family Ritual Questionnaire (Fiese and Kline, 1993) -Family Cohesion (Adapted from FACES II, Olson, Portner & Bell, 1992) -Family Monitoring and Supervision; Family Conflict (Adapted from Family Climate Inventory, Kurdek, Fine & Sinclair, 1995) -Family Identity (Generated for the study)

6. Measures -Work-life balance (One item generated for the study) -Coping strategy: Externalization (Adapted from Jose, D�Anna, Cafasso et al.) -Bullying in and outside school (One item each measuring the frequency of bullying in the past month)

7. Dinner time�Think about a typical dinner in your family� For our family really true sort of true A B Some families regularly eat dinner together For our family really true sort of true C D Other families rarely eat dinner together.

8. Annual Celebrations�Think of celebrations that your family has every year. Some examples would be birthdays, Christmas and anniversaries.� For our family really true sort of true A B For some families , celebrations are important and special For our family really true sort of true C D For some families, celebrations aren�t particularly important or special

9. Sample

10. 

11. 

12. CorrelationsFamily rituals and other family dimensions * p< .05 ----- Parents/caregivers ** p <. 01 ----- Young people

13. CorrelationsFamily rituals and young people�s outcomes * p< .05 ** p <. 01 ----- Young people

14. Model fit Chi-square: 1.52; p= .22; CFI= .99; RMSEA= .015

15. Regression analyses: Predicting Bullying in school * p < .05 ----- Parents/caregivers ** p < . 01 ----- Young people

16. Regression analyses: Predicting Bullying outside school * p< .05 ----- Parents/caregivers ** p <. 01 ----- Young people

18. Regression analyses: Predicting Externalization * p < .05 ----- Parents/caregivers ** p < . 01 ----- Young people

19. Discussion Stronger families� investment in rituals is linked to more positive family perceptions reported by both parents/caregivers and young people Stronger families� investment in rituals is negatively linked to young people�s bullying behaviour and externalization

20. Conclusions The study of family rituals vs the study of more classic family dimensions Family rituals: Relevant for young people�s regulation of interpersonal behaviour? The assessment issue: The importance of young people�s independent perceptions of family rituals